Ohio General Assembly Called Into Special Session
Governor Mike DeWine turned to the Constitution this week, calling the Ohio General Assembly into Special Session on Tuesday, May 28th.
Frustrated by a lack of action by leadership in the Ohio House to pass a bill that would put President Joe Biden on Ohio’s November ballot, while at the same time outlawing foreign contributions directed toward statewide ballot campaigns, the governor executed Article III Section 8 of the Ohio Constitution.
The Governor described the House’s failure to act as "simply unacceptable," "ridiculous," and "absurd." He talked about the Senate’s recent votes sending legislation to the House that would solve both the deadline facing the Democratic National Committee and apply current law that outlaws foreign money for candidate campaigns to statewide issue campaigns.
It is a rather simple fix but the House has thrown up its hands and walked away from both issues. I released this statement on behalf of Senate Republicans following the Governor’s news conference Thursday evening:
“We agree with the Governor. It is time to protect Ohio’s elections by outlawing foreign campaign contributions, while at the same time fixing the Democratic Party’s error that kept Joe Biden off the November ballot. We encourage the Speaker and Minority Leader to allow a vote on House Bill 114 which does both.”
House leadership initially insisted that it had the votes to just relax the deadline to put Biden on the ballot. But when it was time to vote, the bill didn’t have the support the Speaker had said it had, and there was no vote taken. Wonder why? It's an easy answer: political games over poltiical outcomes. You see, House Democrats love to blame Republicans in the General Assembly for Joe Biden’s problem, but we know better and so do the voters.
House Minority Leader Allison Russo, who many believe is actually the roadblock in the House, posted on X, “this is like being sold spoiled milk at the grocery store. Only one of the Senate led bills he mentions actually contains a Biden fix in it {Sub HB 114). In addition to HB114’s poison pill language chilling Ohioans right to direct democracy, the 'fix' would take effect (around Aug. 29) AFTER the bill’s new presidential certification date (Aug. 23) Bills aren’t retroactive. The only 'fix' here is the one being made to hold gerrymandered power.”
Desperate to hold onto power is correct — the Democrats are desperate to hold onto the power of money. The power of millions of dollars their foreign contributors provide to their progressive leftist efforts to pass Constitutional Amendments that would gerrymander political power for them. This is what they do when they don’t run quality candidates, can’t run quality campaigns, and lose elections. They try to legislate through Constitutional Amendments funded by their foreign billionaire friends who despise our form of government. It’s a terrible and tyrannical strategy using foreign dark money to buy a place in the Constitution.
The “poison pill” narrative is laughable. Everyone knows the real poison pill is foreign dark money, otherwise known as foreign election interference, compromising Ohio’s election security and election integrity.
Here is the real question facing Statehouse Democrats. It is really a simple question.
“What is more important? Protecting millions of dollars in foreign dark money and foreign election interference, or putting your party’s presidential candidate, who is the President of the United States, on the November ballot in Ohio?”
Republicans have an easy answer. Put the President on the ballot and outlaw foreign campaign contributions. But so far, the Democrats can’t decide if Joe Biden is worth it.
The House Minority Leader conveniently forgets that bills can take effect immediately with an emergency clause. Time is running out on their stall tactics.
This week on the President's Podcast, Senate President Matt Huffman and Senator Rob McColley deliver the straight talk on what is happening in the House, what the Senate has passed, and why there was no reason other than partisan politics for the House to walk away from the Senate’s proposals. We recorded the podcast the day before the Governor's annoucement, and the answers remain the same.
Watch Governor DeWine's news conference as he blasts the Ohio House for its inaction on outlawing campaign contributions from outside the United States and for walking away from putting Joe Biden on Ohio's November ballot.