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Cleveland, OH — In case you missed it, Laura Bischoff broke news today that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice have opened another federal investigation into a major corruption scandal with close ties to Mike DeWine and high-level GOP politicians. The investigation is reportedly looking into donations made by high-ranking officials with the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT). Ohio Republicans, including DeWine, took massive donations from officials associated with the failed charter school as they filtered taxpayer dollars to ECOT, which lied about enrollment numbers and failed to pay back the taxpayer money it owed the state. 

Now DOJ and the FBI are reportedly subpoenaing campaign contributions made by since 2000 by high-ranking ECOT officials, which is bad news for Mike DeWine, Jon Husted, Frank LaRose, Dave Yost, Keith Faber and Josh Mandel, all of whom took large donations from ECOT founder William Lager. 

“ECOT-related campaign contributions became politically toxic. Lager had been a top contributor for Republican candidates and GOP organizations, giving about $2.1 million since 2000,” writes Bischoff. 

“Under Mike DeWine and Republican leadership, Ohio already has the top public corruption scandal in the nation. Now, it seems the Ohio GOP is inching closer to the number two spot, as well. The connections between Mike DeWine and multiple federal scandals runs deep. He can’t continue to hide, dodge, dip and dive. He must be held accountable and answer to Ohio voters for his role in each of these corruption schemes,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Read more HERE and below from Bischoff and the Columbus Dispatch: 

• The FBI and U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed nearly 20 years of campaign contribution records for the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow — an indication that the now-closed online charter school and its key players have come under federal criminal investigation.
• The USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau obtained the grand jury subpoena in response to a public records request submitted to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

• ECOT-related campaign contributions became politically toxic. Lager had been a top contributor for Republican candidates and GOP organizations, giving about $2.1 million since 2000.
• In August 2017, the Ohio Republican Party returned $76,000 in campaign donations to Lager and Vasil. That refund came after former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder returned $70,000 to the Summit County Republican Party — the same amount the county party got two weeks earlier from the state GOP. Lager and Vasil each wrote $38,000 checks to the Ohio Republican Party’s state candidate fund June 26, 2017.
• In 2016, the Ohio Department of Education determined that ECOT had been overstating the number of students it served and the state demanded repayment of $80 million. That triggered a financial death spiral for the school, which abruptly shut its virtual doors in January 2018.

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As Republicans Continue Looking Backward This Weekend, Democrats Laser Focused on Building a Better Future for Ohioans

Cleveland, OH — Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined fellow Democrats and community leaders in Cleveland to celebrate the progress being made in Ohio under President Biden and Ohio Democrats’ leadership. Happy Dog, a Cleveland institution, will be reopening its doors Friday evening after a year-long hiatus as Ohio continues on the road to recovery because of Democratic-led efforts like the American Rescue Plan. 

Today, thanks to Democratic leadership, more than 5,000,000 Ohioans have been vaccinated, Ohio businesses like Happy Dog are reopening and Ohioans are looking forward to being able to safely gather with friends and loved ones over the Fourth of July holiday. 

“The Ohioans I talk to aren’t interested in the division and distraction of the past – they want to know what we’re accomplishing to build a better future. We’ve made progress, but our work is far from over. To continue to make progress, we need all Ohioans to get involved– and we need everyone to have a voice,” said Brown. 

Brown and Ohio Democrats announced the #FindFiveFriends Day of Action on Saturday, June 26th in which Ohioans are encouraged to find five friends and help register them to vote in an effort to continue the progress that’s been made since President Biden took office. In addition, the Ohio Young Black Democrats will be hosting their statewide convention virtually on Saturday.

“It’s not enough to just return to ‘normal,’ we have to build back better, as President Biden says. And we know that work requires all of us standing together and taking action. That’s why we’re proud to stand with the leaders here today as we work together to create a fairer, more equal state for every Ohioan who wants to live, work and raise a family here,” said Northeast Ohio Young Black Democrats President Brian Siggers. 

“Working families in Ohio have had a tough year, forced to overcome a lot of obstacles. But now thanks to President Biden, Senator Brown and others, Ohio is back on the road to recovery. And while we’ve made good progress, we know there’s more work left to be done. The way we achieve our goals like passing the PRO Act or passing a meaningful infrastructure package is by organizing and standing together in the face of those who want to come here and try to divide us,” said AFL-CIO President Tim Burga. 

“It’s been a long year, but with the support of leaders like Sherrod Brown, we were able to get the resources we needed to open back up, keep our patrons safe and make sure our employees are well taken care of. Now that Ohio, Cleveland and Happy Dog are back on the road to recovery, we’re only looking forward, not back,” said Happy Dog owner Sean Watterson. 

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#OHSen GOP Candidates Continue to Make the Race All about Trump While Leaving Ohio Voters Behind 

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Sandusky Register yesterday reported on the ongoing infighting among GOP Senate candidates this week ahead of Trump’s visit, with the candidates focused only on Trump and what he might do, rather than the interests of the Ohio voters they claim to want to represent. Jane Timken’s fake-endorsement debacle isn’t going away anytime soon as she continues to face heat in the press and from other candidates in the race scrambling to do anything they can to get Trump’s attention.  The headline says it all: ‘candidates fight over Trump.’

Last Friday, Jane Timken was caught in a fake-endorsement scheme and forced to take down a picture implicating that she had secured Trump’s endorsement on her website. The picture was immediately removed following reports that “people close to Trump” were unhappy with the image and other Republican candidates in the race went on the attack. In response, Timken’s campaign then used the fake-endorsement debacle to launch attacks of her own against fellow Republicans, calling her opponents “fake MAGA candidates and past quitters” to the Toledo Blade.

As the Register notes: “It could get even more mean by Saturday when Donald Trump returns to the stage.”

Read more from the Register HERE and below:

• It could get even more mean by Saturday when Donald Trump returns to the stage in America’s heartland to rally his base at the Lorain County Fairgrounds.
• Candidates already are fawning for his attention and fighting for his endorsement.
• And it seems assured that both elections are likely to be as mean and nasty as 2016 and 2020 when Trump was on the ballot. 

• “People close to the president are not happy,” a Trump aide told Breitbart News, the alt-right news outlet that is unreliable, citing Timken’s claim Trump endorsed her.
• There are no Republicans in the senate primary race willing to refute Trump on any of his false claims or call him out for the violence. There are few statewide. Ohio’s primary election is in May 2022.

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Columbus, OH — Ohio voters can expect the already messy GOP Senate primary to get even messier this week as Republican candidates continue to ignore the needs of Ohioans to participate in failed blogger Donald Trump’s Hunger Games. As they stumble all over themselves to secure the support of the only voter they seem to care about, Republican candidates are too busy attacking one another and being exposed for the ways they’ll do anything to appease Trump to worry about the needs of the Ohio voters they claim to want to represent.

Last Friday, Jane Timken was caught in a fake-endorsement scheme and forced to take down a picture implicating that she had secured Trump’s endorsement on her website. The picture was immediately removed following reports that “people close to Trump” were unhappy with the image and other Republican candidates in the race went on the attack. In response, Timken’s campaign then used the fake-endorsement debacle to launch attacks of her own against fellow Republicans, calling her opponents “fake MAGA candidates and past quitters” to the Toledo Blade.

The mudslinging followed reports earlier in the week that exposed Timken and other GOP candidates for their past criticism and lack of support for Trump even as they now shift to prioritizing Trump’s support over the support of Ohio voters. National reports outline the ways in which GOP candidates in the race, including J.D. Vance, Josh Mandel and Timken, have tried to cover up their past words and actions in order to cater to the whims of one Florida resident above the interests of 11 million Ohioans.

“As Ohio Democrats are putting Ohio back on the road to recovery with shots in arms and money in pockets, GOP candidates running for Senate are only focused on the needs of one man: Donald Trump. Ohio voters are already sick of the Republican attacks and infighting, which is sure to only get worse over the coming days. While Ohioans are looking toward a better future thanks to Democratic leadership, GOP candidates are stuck in the past,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

Meanwhile, Ohio Democrats are laser focused on the needs of Ohio voters and efforts to Build Back Better in Ohio, as Ohio reported less than 200 COVID-19 cases yesterday and Ohio families with children are set to receive automatic payments next month, thanks to the American Rescue Plan and the work of Ohio Democrats.

Read more below about Republican candidates rough week last week, a preview of what’s to come:

Toledo Blade: Just friends or official endorsement? Lines can be blurry in Ohio Senate race

• On Friday morning, a Politico reporter tweeted that Mr. Trump’s aides weren’t happy that Ms. Timken featured a photo of her and Mr. Trump on her endorsements page, appearing to imply — though it wasn’t stated — that she was Mr. Trump’s pick.
• Ms. Timken’s campaign also flagged a mailer from Mr. Mandel’s team that read “President Trump is counting on us,” which they argue improperly implies an endorsement from Mr. Trump. Mr. Mandel’s campaign declined to comment.
• Other candidates in the race seized on the episode to advance their own agendas.
• It’s not clear yet how, or if, the Senate candidates are going to be involved with the June 26 rally. But they may try to stake their claim to Mr. Trump regardless of whether they’re playing an officially sanctioned role in the event.
• In March a backroom meeting between the four declared Senate candidates at Mr. Trump’s Florida golf club turned into a scene out of The Hunger Games, Politico reported at the time.

Huffington Post: After Criticizing Trump, GOP Senate Candidates Now Desperate For His Endorsement

• The battle for Trump’s endorsement in the Ohio race to replace GOP Sen. Rob Portman, meanwhile, asks whether personal loyalty to Trump or a record of support for his nationalist policies matters more to both the president himself and to voters.
• J.D. Vance, the venture capitalist-turned-author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” is considered all-but-certain to announce a run for the GOP nomination. But he is already on the receiving end of an anonymous text-message campaign informing Republican voters in Ohio about Vance’s numerous disparaging comments about Trump during the 2016 race, including a time he called Trump an “idiot.”
• When Timken sought Trump’s endorsement for her Senate bid, however, Trump reportedly backed off plans to endorse her after close advisers urged him to wait longer before settling on a favored candidate.
• In early February, while still serving as state party chair, Timken said Gonzalez was an “effective legislator,” while acknowledging, “I don’t know if I would have voted the way he did.”
• A few days later, Timken resigned as party chair ahead of her Senate run. And a few weeks later, as a Senate candidate, she called for Gonzalez to resign.
• Of course, Mandel has not always been a Trump loyalist. He boasts of being the first statewide elected Republican in Ohio to endorse Trump. But during the 2016 campaign, he appeared to be hedging his bets, declining to mention Trump’s name at a July 2016 speech to Republican state leaders and instead saying he was “focused on” reelecting Portman.

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Thanks to Ohio Democrats, Families will Receive Monthly Payments Beginning in July as Part of the Child Tax Credit Enhanced in Democrats’ American Rescue Plan

Columbus, OH — Today, the Ohio Democratic Party is celebrating Child Tax Credit Awareness Day, a day to spread awareness about the American Rescue Plan’s historic expansion of the Child Tax Credit and how it will benefit their families. In Ohio specifically, the tax credit will provide relief of up to $1,600 per child to the families of 2,372,000 children, lifting 132,000 children out of poverty.

“Thanks to President Biden, Senator Sherrod Brown and Ohio Democrats, the American Rescue Plan will soon deliver major tax relief for working families with children through a historic expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Despite opposition from Ohio Republicans, the expanded child tax credit will lift 132,000 children out of poverty here in Ohio, help bolster financial security and spur economic growth in our state,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was instrumental in securing the increase in the Child Tax Credit for Ohio families in the American Rescue Plan. Thanks to Brown’s work and the support of Ohio’s Democratic Congressional delegation, the Child Tax Credit is now fully refundable and the credit amount has been increased to $3,000 per child, and $3,600 for a child under age six.

Every single Ohio Congressional Republican voted against the American Rescue Plan, which included these critical provisions for working families and also helped put Ohio back on the road to recovery by providing funding to spur the huge increase in vaccinations, $1,400 stimulus checks to help Ohioans make ends meet and important investments in Ohio small businesses to help them open back up and hire more Ohioans. 

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