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Ohio Democratic Party Endorses Democratic Congressional Incumbents for Reelection

Columbus, Ohio- Following a vote by the Ohio Democratic Party Executive Committee, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde released the following statement endorsing all five of Ohio’s Democratic members of Congress for reelection:

“With Republicans in Washington continuing to raise the cost of our healthcare, energy bills, and passing the largest tax giveaway for billionaires in our nation’s history, it’s critical that we have representatives like Congresswomen Marcy Kaptur, Emilia Sykes, Shontel Brown, Joyce Beatty and Congressman Landsman fighting for their districts.

The Ohio Democratic Party is proud to endorse all five of our Democratic incumbent members of Congress and stand with their reelection campaigns so they can continue pushing back against Washington corruption and working to lower costs for Ohio families.”

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WHAT OHIOANS ARE READING: ‘Husted backed the corrupt HB 6 bailout. Ohio households now pay $663 more a year.’

Husted at center of ongoing FirstEnergy corruption trial, mentioned more than 100 times

Columbus, Ohio — New reporting reveals that Senator Jon Husted “led the charge” to pass HB 6, the scandal-ridden bribery legislation that has contributed to Ohioans’ electric bills, rising by an average of more than $660 since the bailout passed in 2019.

As the FirstEnergy criminal corruption trial continues, Husted’s ties to the largest corruption scandal in Ohio history continue to deepen — with new phone calls, text messages, and previously unreported secret meetings placing him at the center of the scheme that delivered a billion dollar bailout to utilities while sticking Ohio families with higher energy bills.

Read more about the latest revelation on Husted’s role in the center of Ohio’s largest corruption scandal: 

TiffinOhio.net: Husted backed the corrupt HB 6 bailout. Ohio households now pay $663 more a year.

  • U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, who is running to keep his Senate seat in Ohio’s 2026 special election, allegedly played a central role in passing a utility bailout law that sits at the heart of the state’s largest-ever corruption scandal — and that has contributed to Ohio households paying $663 more per year for electricity in the years since.
  • The financial toll is direct and documented. When House Bill 6 took effect in October 2019, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio recorded the average monthly residential electric bill at $89.19 — $1,070.28 annually. By January 2026, that figure had climbed to $144.47 per month, or $1,733.64 per year. The difference: $55.28 per month, $663.36 per year.
  • Text messages and internal emails released in 2024 show that Husted allegedly led the charge with now-indicted FirstEnergy executives to pass the bill, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.
  • A FirstEnergy email stated that Gov. Mike DeWine “left the details of H.B. 6 to others — John [sic] Husted and Danny,” referring to Husted and Dan McCarthy, DeWine’s legislative director and a former FirstEnergy lobbyist.
  • House Bill 6 passed in 2019 and authorized a $1 billion ratepayer-funded bailout of the state’s nuclear power industry, with monthly surcharges paid by every Ohio residential electricity customer. 
  • Federal authorities later revealed it was secured through a nearly $61 million bribery scheme — described by U.S. Attorney David DeVillers as “the largest bribery money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio.”
  • HB 6 required Ohio residential utility customers to pay a monthly surcharge of between $1.30 and $1.50 […]. From 2020 through August 14, 2025, Ohioans paid $527,808,043 in OVEC subsidies specifically under HB 6’s Legacy Generation Rider.
  • According to PUCO’s January 2026 Unit Costs data, the average Ohio household now pays $144.47 per month for electricity — $1,733.64 annually, based on the commission’s standard estimate of 750 kilowatt hours of monthly residential usage. 
  • When HB 6 took effect in October 2019, that same household paid $89.19 per month, or $1,070.28 per year.

Read more about Jon Husted’s role in Ohio’s largest corruption scandal:

  • New evidence at trial revealed nine calls between Jon Husted and Mike Dowling in the months preceding a $4.3 million bribe to former Utilities Commission Chair Sam Randazzo. 
  • New reporting reveals Jon Husted held secret meetings with indicted FirstEnergy executives, including with the “mastermind of Ohio’s largest public corruption scheme two days before scandal-ridden bribery legislation was introduced.”
  • Neil Clark, a FirstEnergy lobbyist and co-defendant with former House Speaker Larry Householder, referred to Husted as FirstEnergy’s “golden boy.”
  • Text messages between Husted and FirstEnergy Executives reveal that the trio were in constant communication “before, during and after his campaign.”
  • Just weeks after Husted and DeWine were elected in 2018, they had a dinner with FirstEnergy executives Jones and Dowling at the Athletic Club of Columbus that has become a focal point of the current criminal trial.
  • Public records show that FirstEnergy funneled $1 million in dark money to a nonprofit backing Husted in 2017 — part of the same corrupt scheme that led to federal indictments.

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Ohioans Call Out Jon Husted For Taking More Than $116k From Epstein Co-Conspirator

REPORTING: Husted Took $116,892 From Les Wexner, Including A Max Donation Just A Few Weeks Before Blocking Epstein Files Release

Husted Continues to Dodge Questions From Ohioans Who Deserve Accountability

Toledo, Ohio — Today, Ohioans called out Senator Jon Husted outside his Toledo office for taking more than $116,000 directly from Epstein co-conspirator Les Wexner, including a maximum donation just a few weeks before he voted to block the release of the Epstein files. 

Ohioans demanded answers to questions that Jon Husted refuses to answer:

  • Jon Husted said he was giving Les Wexner’s money back, but now he’s keeping 83% of the money. Why did Husted lie?
  • If the $18,900 Husted took from Les Wexner was a problem, why wasn’t the other $98,000? 
  • Why won’t Jon Husted return all the money? Does returning 17% of the campaign contributions Husted received from an Epstein co-conspirator make keeping the rest okay?
  • What else is Jon Husted hiding? This shows Jon Husted can be bought and cannot be trusted. 

The rally in Toledo follows mounting criticism from across the state. Last week, Ohioans protested outside Husted’s Columbus office, calling on him to return all the contributions from the Epstein co-conspirator. Ohioans in Norwalk also called out Husted for being a “pedophile protector,” and Husted declined to answer questions — instead turning his head and refusing to respond.

Husted is the only Senator up for re-election to take Wexner’s money, and has taken 10 times as much money from the Epstein co-conspirator than any other sitting Senator.

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WHAT OHIOANS ARE READING: Vivek Ramaswamy Silent After Donation from Nazi Reenactor 

Columbus, Ohio – More than a week has passed since reporting revealed billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy accepted a $500 contribution from a Nazi reenactor, and Ramaswamy is still silent. Despite repeated requests for comment, Ramaswamy has not indicated plans to return the funds.

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy silent after taking $500 from Nazi reenactor

  • Vivek Ramaswamy’s Ohio gubernatorial campaign accepted a $500 donation from Richard Iott, a former Republican congressional candidate whose 2010 House bid collapsed after photographs emerged showing him wearing a Nazi SS Waffen uniform — and the campaign has still said nothing about it.
  • Campaign finance disclosure records first reported by the Daily Mail show the donation was made on Aug. 15. Ramaswamy’s campaign has not responded to requests for comment, has issued no public statement, and has not indicated any plans to return the money.
  • When contacted by The Atlantic at the time, Iott confirmed his participation in the Wiking reenactment group over several years. He said his interest was historical, not ideological, but added: “I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things. I mean, they took over most of Europe and Russia, and it really took the combined effort of the free world to defeat them. From a purely historical military point of view, that’s incredible.”
  • Historians pushed back sharply on that framing. Charles W. Sydnor, Jr., a retired history professor and author of “Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death’s Head Division, 1933-45,” told The Atlantic the group held “a sanitized, romanticized view of what occurred.” Sydnor noted that SS reenactments are illegal in Germany and Austria. Prof. Rob Citino of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas said: “It sends a shiver up my spine to think that people want to dress up and play SS on the weekend.”

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JON HUSTED TRIAL TRACKER: Jon Husted Surpasses 100 Mentions in FirstEnergy Criminal Corruption Trial

Columbus, Ohio — Jon Husted reached a new milestone yesterday — his 100th mention in the ongoing FirstEnergy criminal corruption trial. As the trial continues, Husted’s ties to the largest corruption scandal in Ohio history continue to deepen. 

Throughout the trial, new phone calls, text messages, and previously unreported secret meetings have surfaced between Husted and indicted FirstEnergy executives, underscoring Husted’s pivotal role in the scheme that delivered a billion dollar bailout to utilities while sticking Ohio families with higher energy bills.

Here are the latest revelations on Husted’s role in the center of Ohio’s largest corruption scandal: 

Heartland Signal: Jon Husted had deeper ties to Ohio’s largest bribery scandal than previously thought

  • New reporting from News 5 Cleveland revealed that U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) met with one of the architects of Ohio’s largest bribery scandal two days before bribery legislation was introduced in the state legislature.
  • A public records request shows that Husted had a scheduled phone call with former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) Chairman Sam Randazzo on April 6, 2019. Two days later, House Bill 6 was introduced in the Ohio legislature.
  • HB 6 provided $1 billion in consumer-funded subsidies to FirstEnergy Corp., an electric utility company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. 
  • In 2021, FirstEnergy admitted to federal prosecutors that it paid more than $60 million in bribes to Ohio officials to pass HB 6, including $4.3 million to Randazzo in January 2019.

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Husted had 9 calls with FirstEnergy exec accused of bribery, records show

  • U.S. Sen. Jon Husted talked with a FirstEnergy executive nine times around the time prosecutors say the executive and his boss paid a $4.3 million bribe to the man Husted and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine chose to lead the state’s energy regulatory body, trial testimony showed Friday.
  • Husted’s calls came in late 2018 and early 2019, months after he was elected Ohio’s lieutenant governor on DeWine’s Republican ticket. That was around the time the two landed on appointing Sam Randazzo as the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
  • Husted spoke for a total of 51 minutes with FirstEnergy’s then-top lobbyist, Michael Dowling, in the calls made from Nov. 19, 2018 through Jan. 24, 2019. Randazzo was appointed to the commission in February 2019 and began work in April of that year.
  • The phone records were displayed and read into the record in the trial of Dowling and former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones.

Columbus Dispatch: DeWine, Husted messages to execs come into focus at FirstEnergy trial

  • Jurors viewed text messages and emails on Feb. 19 showing that high-ranking elected Ohio officials worked behind the scenes to pass the $1.3 billion nuclear bailout — House Bill 6 — and appoint Sam Randazzo as Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chair.
  • In another message, Dowling said DeWine and Husted performed “battlefield triage” to get Randazzo elected as PUCO chair.
  • In the lead-up to July 23, 2019, when lawmakers approved HB 6, Dowling spoke to Husted, who wanted to extend the bailout.

MeidasTouch News: Husted Pushed Energy Bill at The Center of Largest Public Corruption Scandal in Ohio History

  • While Lt. Governor, Republican U.S. Senator Jon Husted pushed for an energy bill in Ohio that was at the forefront of the biggest public corruption scandal in the state’s history.
  • New reporting has revealed that Husted “helped lead the charge” to pass HB 6, with FirstEnergy executives writing to each other that Husted was “a good friend of FirstEnergy” who was “highly engaged” and “fighting to the end” in support of the measure. 
  • Even before coming to office, Husted had been “lobbying [Ohio Governor Mike] DeWine to support the [FirstEnergy] bailout” and was described by FirstEnergy’s CEO as “a good friend of FirstEnergy.”
  • Then, according to Husted’s own calendar, on October 10th, 2019 Husted had a previously unscheduled call with Ohio Public Utilities Commission Chair Sam Randazzo. 
  • Randazzo is accused of authoring the bailout bill after taking millions in bribes from FirstEnergy. Randazzo had been appointed to his position by DeWine with the backing of Husted.

Read more about Jon Husted’s role in Ohio’s largest corruption scandal:

  • New evidence at trial revealed nine calls between Jon Husted and Mike Dowling in the months preceding a $4.3 million bribe to former Utilities Commission Chair Sam Randazzo. 
  • New reporting reveals Jon Husted held secret meetings with indicted FirstEnergy executives, including with the “mastermind of Ohio’s largest public corruption scheme two days before scandal-ridden bribery legislation was introduced.”
  • Neil Clark, a FirstEnergy lobbyist and co-defendant with former House Speaker Larry Householder, referred to Husted as FirstEnergy’s “golden boy.”
  • Text messages between Husted and FirstEnergy Executives reveal that the trio were in constant communication “before, during and after his campaign.”
  • Just weeks after Husted and DeWine were elected in 2018, they had dinner with Jones and Dowling at the Athletic Club of Columbus.
  • Public records show that FirstEnergy funneled $1 million in dark money to a nonprofit backing Husted in 2017 — part of the same corrupt scheme that led to federal indictments.

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