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OVER ONE WEEK LATER: Ramaswamy Running Mate Still Refusing to Explain What Exactly He Needs to “Explore” About Child Marriage

McColley: Legislation Banning Child Marriage Needs “Further Exploration”

Columbus, Ohio – Over one week ago, Vivek Ramaswamy’s running mate Rob McColley inexplicably told the Columbus Dispatch that legislation banning child marriage needed “further exploration.” 

“Vivek Ramaswamy’s silence after his running mate said banning child marriage needs ‘further exploration’ is disturbingly on brand for a candidate who mocks sexual abuse survivors, refused to return donations from Epstein associates, and touted endorsements from state lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Protecting children should be something both sides of the aisle can agree on, and Vivek Ramaswamy owes Ohio parents an explanation.”

READ MORE: Ramaswamy’s running mate stalls Ohio child marriage ban.

  • A bipartisan bill to end child marriage in Ohio has stalled in the state Senate after Republicans pulled it from a planned committee vote, leaving in place a state law that still allows 17-year-olds to wed under court approval, according to reporting by the Columbus Dispatch. Senate Bill 341 was set for a Judiciary Committee vote last week. After a closed Republican caucus meeting, the bill came off the agenda. It is not back on this week’s schedule either.
  • Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, who is running for lieutenant governor on Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s ticket, told the Dispatch that even straightforward issues sometimes warrant more time. “We’ve still got time left in this legislative session,” McColley said.
  • McColley’s reluctance to move SB 341 forward comes as the Ramaswamy gubernatorial ticket continues to face scrutiny over its handling of issues involving child safety and sexual abuse.
  • During his 2024 presidential run, Ramaswamy’s allied super PAC, the American Exceptionalism PAC, accepted a $100,000 donation from New York hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, who was named in court documents as an associate of Jeffrey Epstein. The PAC pledged to refund the contribution but dissolved without doing so, according to federal filings.
  • Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign has also drawn criticism for promoting endorsements from Ohio Republican state lawmakers accused of misconduct involving young people, as TiffinOhio.net previously reported. Those endorsements were briefly removed from Ramaswamy’s website before being restored.
  • In April, Ramaswamy faced sharp pushback after telling supporters that his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, offered no real vision for Ohio “other than to complain about what someone else did to her” — a reference to Acton’s public account of surviving childhood sexual abuse.

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ICYMI: ‘Husted Said People He Kicked Off Medicaid Didn’t Deserve To Be Enrolled’

COLUMBUS, OHIO — In case you missed it, Jon Husted said in an interview last week that the half a million Ohioans he voted to kick off their health care didn’t deserve to be enrolled. 

Husted’s comments continue his long trend of insulting hardworking Ohioans who are getting crushed by soaring costs caused by policies he supports:

  • When asked what he was doing to address soaring gas prices for his constituents, Husted responded: “What do you want me to do?” 
  • Husted previously called cuts to health care “purposeful” and said he “loves doing that kind of stuff,” even as families, seniors, and rural communities across Ohio face losing life saving coverage.

Read more:

Meidas News: Husted Said People He Kicked Off Medicaid Didn’t Deserve To Be Enrolled

  • Republican Senator Jon Husted voted for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Budget bill which threw half-a-million people off of Medicaid in his state of Ohio, then he said those who lost their healthcare access didn’t deserve to be on the program in the first place. He later reiterated his support for kicking people off their healthcare by saying on a radio interview, “I love doing that kind of stuff.”
  • In a May 2026 interview with Daily Wire, Husted said, “it’s not people who deserve Medicaid” that were kicked off the program.
  • “In the Working Family Tax Cut Plan, we said, ‘okay, we’re going to require states to more frequently check the eligibility of people on Medicaid.’” Husted said. “Why? Because we know when they do, that you see a drop in the number of people on Medicaid.”
  • “They said we’re cutting Medicaid because we’re eliminating fraud. That’s the difference between how they view this and how we view this. We put a provision in there. We’re requiring the states to do this. You’re going to see, you’re already seeing, a drop in the number of quote, ‘people on Medicaid.’ Well, it’s not people that deserve Medicaid, it’s people who are illegally on Medicaid that are not eligible for Medicaid.”
  • In a radio interview in November 2025, Husted reiterated his support for using Trump’s budget bill to cut Medicaid, saying he loves “doing that kind of stuff.”
  • “‘[We put] work requirements under the Medicaid program for able-bodied, healthy adults to try to restore the sanctity of that program and the work ethic for America,” Husted said. “These things are purposeful. So I love fighting for those things. I love doing that kind of stuff.”

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ICYMI: “Ohio’s food banks grappling with high demand that just keeps climbing with economy woes and aid cuts”

“I don’t think we can emphasize enough what the impact of changes coming to SNAP could mean for hunger and economic stability in Ohio”

COLUMBUS, OH – Leaders at Ohio food banks are sounding the alarm on what Washington Republicans’ budget bill could mean for Ohio families as costs continue to rise across the board and there’s an increased demand for food assistance. While Washington Republicans gutted SNAP in order to pay for more tax breaks for corporations and special interests, Ohio food banks are making clear that families could suffer because of it – and the state will be left to foot the bill as the federal government leaves states out to dry to handle the costs of critical food assistance.

Cleveland.com: Ohio’s food banks grappling with high demand that just keeps climbing with economy woes and aid cuts

  • “What we have been seeing for the last several years is an increase in people coming,” Mid-Ohio Food Collective spokesman Mike Hochron said. “It’s a tough reality that a lot of our neighbors are one crisis away from not being able to put food on the table.”
  • Food banks across Ohio say runaway inflation hurt household budgets, but even after it cooled, prices never came back down. Rent remains high. Utility bills and gas costs are climbing.
  • Most people think of SNAP as a program that helps low-income Americans buy groceries. But when benefits get cut, the effects don’t stop at the checkout line. Food banks fill the gap. Local grocery stores lose revenue. And in rural counties like Adams, where one in five residents receives benefits, that can shake the local economy.
  • “I don’t think we can emphasize enough what the impact of changes coming to SNAP could mean for hunger and economic stability in Ohio,” Hochron said.
  • The cuts don’t stop with recipients. For the first time, Ohio is also on the hook for a portion of the program’s costs.
  • Under the new law, the federal government cut its share of Ohio’s SNAP administrative costs in half — a gap of about $70 million the state had to fill. The federal share drops again in October, and Ohio will have to find more money to cover it.
  • “Republican and Democratic Governors alike are warning they cannot pick up the new cost share coming down the pike,” U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, said in an April floor speech. “That means more cuts. More hunger. More harm.”

Read more HERE from Cleveland.com on how the impacts of Washington Republicans’ budget bill “don’t stop at the checkout line,” as “food banks fill the gap. Local grocery stores lose revenue. And in rural counties like Adams, where one in five residents receives benefits, that can shake the local economy.”
 

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Vivek Ramaswamy Went to a Cavs Game and it Didn’t Go Very Well

Columbus, Ohio – Cleveland Cavaliers fans are looking for answers after their season came to a disappointing end in the Eastern Conference finals. We should start with billionaire scammer Vivek Ramaswamy.

“Ramaswamy should take his private jet anywhere but Rocket Arena next fall when the Cavs are back,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Instead of ill-timed photo ops in Cleveland, perhaps he can catch a Rockets, Mavericks or Spurs game next season while visiting his Texas business that he moved out of Ohio.” 

What They’re Saying: 

  • @Brian_Chovanec: May your gubernatorial campaign be as successful as the Cavaliers were in this series
  • @Jared_Shult: This didn’t age well and neither will your campaign
  • @TheMaineWonk: Knicks went on an 18-0 run after this photo. Vivek has cursed Ohio
  • @RossBarkan: Can’t believe Vivek couldn’t bring it home

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Brent Larkin: Vivek Ramaswamy’s bait-and-switch campaign exposes GOP weaknesses

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy’s bait-and-switch campaign exposes GOP weaknesses: Brent Larkin

  • Vivek Ramaswamy is the most unlikeable candidate for governor in the lifetime of anyone reading this column. 
  • Now there is new evidence the Ramaswamy campaign is in trouble; that the state where Republicans have won eight of the last nine elections for governor is very much in play. And if Democrat Amy Acton beats him in November, Ramaswamy might accomplish something a Republican hasn’t done in 40 years – take down the entire ticket.
  • Consider these numbers from the May 5 primary election in Ohio: Unlike some states, Ohio’s primary elections are open. A voter does not need to be a registered Republican or Democrat to request a specific party ballot at the polling place. At the start of the primary voting process, there were 678,833 registered Democrats in Ohio. But 807,716 Ohioans chose to cast Democratic ballots in the primary. 
  • It was because a huge number of independent voters were so disenchanted with the GOP leadership that controls their governments that they asked for a Democratic ballot.
  • As encouraging as those crossover voting numbers were for Democrats, the opposite was true in the Republican primary. As voting began, there were 1,292,651 registered Republicans in Ohio, but only 901,338 Ohioans voted in the GOP primary.
  • Put another way, the Democratic turnout rate was 119% of previously registered Democratic voters. The Republican rate was only 69.7% among the registered Republicans.
  • But Ramaswamy needs to create a phony issue that just might motivate MAGA voters and increase turnout in November. This has nothing to do with eliminating vote fraud. It has everything to do with propping up a horrible candidate for governor.
  • The answer is obvious. He’s losing.

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