WHAT OHIOANS ARE READING: ‘Claims Jon Husted protected sexual abusers date back more than 20 years’
July 30, 2026
COLUMBUS, OHIO — New bombshell reporting reveals that Jon Husted’s record of protecting pedophiles and predators dates back more than twenty years, when, as Ohio Speaker of the House, he gutted legislation to help survivors of sexual abuse hold their abusers accountable.
The new revelation is the latest in a disturbing pattern of Jon Husted surrounding himself with predators and protecting abusers:
- Jon Husted’s campaign chair in Ohio’s largest county was forced to resign after it was revealed he served jail time for committing sexual misconduct with a minor.
- Jon Husted is still proudly touting the endorsement of State Representative Rodney Creech, who has been accused of sexual misconduct involving a minor relative, while his current Sandusky County campaign chair also came under fire for talking to young girls about their sex lives.
- Jon Husted has been under fire 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.
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American Journal News: Claims Jon Husted protected sexual abusers date back more than 20 years
- In 2006, when he was leading the Ohio House of Representatives, Husted, who is now running for reelection to the U.S. Senate, has come under fire recently for accepting donations from a Jeffrey Epstein associate and having a county campaign chair who served jail time for alleged misconduct with a minor. Each of these stories has fueled a narrative that Husted is tolerant and even protective of sexual abusers.
- The Ohio Senate passed SB 17, known as the clergy abuse bill, in March 2006. The legislation was led by Democratic state Sen. Teresa Fedor as a response to the Catholic clergy abuse scandal. It sought to enact several reforms, including requiring clergy (of all religions) to report child abuse committed by their colleagues, expanding the legal definition of sexual battery to cover clergy who sexually exploit minors in their congregations, and creating a one-year civil window for victims to seek damages for offenses that happened outside the 35-year statute of limitations.
- The Catholic Conference of Ohio, which represents the state’s bishops, lobbied the state House to water down the bill. The group specifically took issue with the one-year civil window provision, arguing that the church could not reasonably defend itself against older allegations.
- Husted, who is a Roman Catholic, was serving as House speaker at the time. He oversaw a process by which the civil window provision was stripped from the bill and replaced with a plan to create an online registry of clergy members found liable of sexual abuse in civil court.
- Barbara Blaine, who started an advocacy group for survivors of priest abuse, told the Columbus Dispatch that she felt betrayed by Husted and accused him of caving to pressure from the Catholic Conference of Ohio.
- On the day the House voted on the weakened SB 17, survivors lined the halls of the state Capitol, each one holding an image of themselves at the age when they were abused. Several Republican lawmakers reportedly entered the chamber through side doors to avoid confronting the angry victims.
- This was not the first time Husted used his position to limit the ability of abuse survivors to seek justice. In 2004, he voted for a tort reform law that capped noneconomic damages for sexual abuse plaintiffs at $250,000.
- The Ohio Capital Journal wrote 2021 that the law had the effect of “stripping child rape victims of millions of dollars in legal damages.”
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