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COLUMBUS — Tonight during a special meeting of the Ohio Democratic Party, Elizabeth Walters was unanimously elected Chair to the Ohio Democratic Party. Walters, at 37 years old, is the first woman to be elected chair. Walters currently serves as a County Councilmember for Summit County and resides in Akron. She previously worked at the Ohio Democratic Party as Executive Director in 2014.

In addition to Walters, the Party’s Executive Committee also elected Andre Washington to the First Vice Chair position. The rules of the Democratic National Committee require the First Vice Chair to be the opposite gender from the Chair. Washington is a Field Representative/Special Projects Coordinator for the Ohio Association of Public School Employees/AFSCME Local 4 and serves as the President of the Ohio State Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI).

“I am honored by this responsibility. I have faith in our party. The conversations I have had with all of you over the last few weeks have given me immense confidence in the commitment and passion of Ohio Democrats,” Walters said to the Executive Committee. “The work ahead for our party will be hard, and no doubt we will have many tough conversations and many detailed plans about our strategy and our tactics. But ultimately our work is about people. We must keep people at the center of our organization and our plans, make space for and honor their stories.”

“I want to thank the Executive Committee for electing me as Vice Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party,” said Washington. “I have spent my career serving others, and I am honored to continue that service in this new position. We have a lot of work to do, but I have never been afraid to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I’m excited to work side-by-side with our new Chair, Elizabeth Walters, our elected officials, and brothers and sisters in Labor.”

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January 7, 2021

Happy Friday, and welcome to “Buckeye Brawl,” a weekly newsletter from the Ohio Democratic Party highlighting the nasty, chaotic, and expensive Republican primary for Senate. This out-of-control primary is making conservatives “deeply worried” about the prospects of Republicans losing this seat. 

As the Republican Senate primary continues to sink lower and lower, these GOP candidates are injecting even more nasty personal attacks, more chaos, and more money into this race. We’re here to help you keep track of all of it. 

WVXU’s Howard Wilkinson said this GOP Senate primary may be “Ohio’s ugliest ever.” And Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser said that “the showdown is fast becoming the most expensive and ugly GOP Senate contest.” 

Here’s what you may have missed:

DESPERATE AND BEGGING FOR ENDORSEMENTS. Vance booster Ryan James Girdusky said, “Timken is becoming desperate, begging for endorsements and then putting out this nonsense poll.” Another Vance surrogate said, “Probably worth mentioning that the first independent poll of the race came out in mid December (post-anti Vance tv buys) and told a completely different story than Timken’s desperate internal….” It seems every month Jane Timken “has momentum!” and “is surging!” But is actually stuck in the teens and hasn’t cracked her own peak support from May 2021 when she was at 19 percent. Shoutout to the comms staffer who has to spin Timken’s stagnating support every seemingly monthly internal poll.

NEVER IN THE BATTLE. In a race all about Trump, Jane Timken continues to try and paint herself as the Trump candidate despite her endorsement this week from a Trump critic and saying a congressman’s decision to vote to impeach Trump was “rational.” Trying to remain relevant, Timken went on the attack during an interview on Steve Bannon’s War Room, saying, “Josh Mandel says he’s a Trump warrior but was never in the battle. He was nowhere to be found in 2020. And J.D. Vance has said terrible things about President Trump and he’s suffering the consequences from it.” This is a similar line of attack Timken used last year, saying on the Ruthless podcast, “I’m not a Johnny come lately, I didn’t just show up.” It may be a new year, but the race is still about phony millionaires sucking up to Trump. 

RESIDENT SHAPESHIFTER. Following Washington Post reporting exposing Bernie Moreno changing his position on the attempted insurrection in order to remain relevant in this primary, Matt Dolan consultant Chris Pack tweeted that Moreno was a “resident shapeshifter.” This follows Pack last month going after Moreno for also changing his position on whether the 2020 presidential election was legitimate, tweeting that “2020 @berniemoreno is blowing up 2021 Bernie Moreno’s #OHSEN campaign in spectacular fashion. The reality is that few Ohio Republicans know Bernie, but those who do are rejecting his desperate schtick.” To be fair, all of the leading candidates have had to shapeshift to be relevant in this primary, so it’s a who’s who of desperate schticks. 

Thanks for reading along – that’s all for the Buckeye Brawl this week. If you have questions, my email is [email protected]. Have a great weekend! 

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Democratic Party released the following statement from Chairwoman Rhine McLin in response to today’s events at the U.S. Capitol:

“President-elect Joe Biden is absolutely right: the words of a president matter. For too long, this president’s words have fanned the flames of hatred, chaos and racism, and for four years, Ohio Republicans have cheered him on or shrugged their shoulders and pretended to be ‘late for lunch.’ We join President-elect Biden in calling on the president to go on national TV immediately, condemn the violence and demand that his supporters end their seditious attack on the U.S. Capitol. We will continue to pray for our nation and for our nation’s leaders.”

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COLUMBUS — The Ohio Democratic Party today released the following statement from Chairwoman Rhine McLin in response to Sen. Rob Portman’s comments on his party’s attempt to overturn the will of voters:

“Fueled by conspiracy theories, Ohio Republicans continue to parrot Donald Trump’s false narrative of voter fraud. Sunday Gov. Mike DeWine blamed doubt in the election on ‘changes in technology’ instead of Trump’s barrage of lies and baseless lawsuits.

“Sen. Rob Portman has also fanned the flames of these conspiracy theories by promoting claims of voter fraud. Yesterday Portman both-sidesed the issue by making a false comparison between his party’s desperate attempt to overturn the election results with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones’ 2005 speech, which highlighted significant and documented instances of voter suppression in the 2004 election. Some Ohioans waited in line up to 10 hours, and perhaps more than 170,000 would-be voters left before casting a ballot. The 2004 election in Ohio was universally acknowledged as a disaster, so much so that bipartisan legislation was passed — and signed into law by a Republican governor — to address many of the issues that arose.

“Meanwhile, Portman’s silence on Donald Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks volumes. Some legal experts are calling Trump’s call potentially criminal, but Portman can’t be bothered to speak up.”

In 2005, Tubbs Jones spoke on the House floor to raise her objections about how Ohio conducted its 2004 election, but she expressly stated her objections were not an attempt to change the results:

“It is on behalf of the millions of Americans who believe in and value our democratic process and the right to vote that I put forth this objection today. If they are willing to stand at the polls for countless hours in the rain — as many did in Ohio — then I should surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress. This objection does not have in its root the hope or even hint of overturning the victory of the president, but it is a necessary, timely and appropriate opportunity to review and remedy the most precious process in our democracy.”

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