Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, gestures toward Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, right, during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)AP
COLUMBUS, Ohio— Many of the major stories of Ohio politics and government in 2024 weren’t on political insiders’ bingo cards even a few years ago.
Thanks to President-elect Donald Trump, a couple Ohio Republicans very recently removed from the private sector are now set to become vice president of the United States and Ohio’s next U.S. senator, respectively.
Recreational marijuana is now sold legally in dozens of locations around the state.
And that’s not including the completely-out-of-left-field surprises, including bizarre (and unfounded) rumors about members of Springfield’s Haitian community eating pets becoming an issue in this year’s presidential race.
Here’s more on the top 10 Ohio political stories of 2024.
Vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance speaks at a campaign rally at Holland Equipment Services A & B Farms in Holland on Tuesday, October 29, 2024. Isaac Ritchey | iritchey@mlive.c
Vance, a Cincinnati Republican best known for his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2022, was catapulted into the second-highest job in the nation after Trump picked him as his running mate in July and the pair won election in November. While Vance was often portrayed as a liability for Trump on the campaign trail, he’s now positioned to become heir to Trump’s formidable political movement and – possibly – his job as commander-in-chief in 2029.
Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno speaks during a watch party on election night, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Westlake, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)AP
2. Bernie Moreno wins Sherrod Brown’s Senate seat
Like Vance in 2022, Moreno was elected to the U.S. Senate last month having held no previous elected office. A luxury car dealership owner and blockchain entrepreneur, the Westlake Republican unseated Brown, a Cleveland Democrat who held office for the past 18 years even as Ohio went from a swing state to a deep-red Republican stronghold. The campaign was one of the most-watched Senate races in the nation this year – and, with around half a billion dollars spent in total, the most expensive non-presidential campaign in U.S. history, according to one political ad tracker.
Customers lined up at Bloom Medicinals marijuana dispensary on the first day of recreational sales on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024.Laura Hancock/cleveland.com
In November 2023, more than 57% of Ohioans voted to pass a state law legalizing the use and sale of marijuana for recreational purposes. Last August, a major part of that law became reality, as state regulators gave the green light for existing medical-marijuana dispensaries to begin selling cannabis products for recreational use. Gov. Mike DeWine and Senate President Matt Huffman have tried to push for legislation altering the voter-approved law – from raising the special sales tax on recreational sales to restricting marijuana-related advertising – but so far the House, led by republican Speaker Jason Stephens of Lawrence County, has resisted passing any such changes. Sales have topped well over $100 million so far.
Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman at the 2024 State of the State address in Columbus. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com
After a (mostly) behind-the-scenes power struggle for just about the entire two-year legislative session, outgoing Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, is now poised to become House speaker next session after Stephens, dropped out of the running last month. Stephens proved unable to reunite a House GOP caucus fractured by his controversial election as speaker last year with the help of House Democrats. Huffman, meanwhile, will become the first Ohio lawmaker since the 19th Century to serve as House speaker and Senate president. And with his acolyte, Republican state Sen. Rob McColley of Northwest Ohio, set to succeed him as Senate president, Huffman may soon enjoy more power than any one lawmaker has had in recent memory.
A "No on Issue 1" yard sign is seen in Mt. Sterling, Ohio, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024.Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com
In the wake of Ohio’s arduous 2021 redistricting process, during which Republicans pushed through new congressional and legislative maps even though the Ohio Supreme Court found them to be unconstitutionally gerrymandered, a coalition of Democrats, good-government groups, and some Republicans (including newly retired Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor) sought to put a new redistricting system in place. But, to the surprise of many, their proposal – labeled Issue 1 – was rejected by voters in last month’s general election for several reasons, including opposition from President-elect Donald Trump and controversial GOP-authored ballot summary language that painted the proposal in an unflattering light.
A mural that reads "Greetings from Springfield Ohio" is seen painted on an alley wall Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)AP
Springfield, Ohio, became an unexpected (and, for local officials, unwanted) focal point of the 2024 presidential campaign after Vance (followed by Trump and other Republicans) spread unfounded rumors that the city’s population of Haitian immigrants were eating dogs, cats, and geese. The allegations, despite being deemed false by Attorney General Dave Yost and others, led area schools, hospitals, and government buildings to be closed due to bomb threats. After Trump’s victory (both nationwide and among Springfield voters) last month, Republican U.S. Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno said Haitian immigrants in Springfield won’t be deported until their temporary protected status expires in 2026.
Former FirstEnergy Corp., CEO Chuck Jones, former PUCO Chairman Samuel Randazzo and former top FirstEnergy lobbyist Mike Dowling are to be arraigned on public corruption charges Feb. 13 in Summit County Common Pleas Court.Summit County Jail
After years of anticipation, a Summit County grand jury in February indicted ex-FirstEnergy executives Chuck Jones and Mike Dowling, as well as former top state utilities regulator Sam Randazzo, on charges that Jones and Dowling paid Randazzo millions of dollars in bribes to do the Akron-based electric utility’s bidding on major regulatory issues. The indictments came even as federal prosecutors appear set not to charge any current or former FirstEnergy executives in connection to the House Bill 6 bribery scandal. Jones and Dowling have each pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Sam Randazzo, former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, leaves U.S. District Court in downtown Cincinnati, Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, after pleading not guilty to an 11-count federal indictment for bribery and embezzlement. The charges related to a $60 million bribery scheme connected to the FirstEnergy Corp./House Bill 6 legislative bailout for two Ohio nuclear power plants that has already resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, and a five-year sentence for former Ohio GOP Party Chair Matt Borges. (Liz Dufour/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP)AP
Randazzo was found dead in a Columbus warehouse last April, with the Franklin County coroner ruling he died by suicide. Randazzo, a Columbus attorney, was facing both federal and state charges for not only accepting $4.3 million in bribes from FirstEnergy, but also for skimming millions more off secret deals he negotiated between FirstEnergy and large companies he represented. Court documents showed Randazzo owned several properties worth millions, as well as multiple Porsches, though prosecutors successfully fought to freeze a lot of his assets after Randazzo began selling them off after Attorney General Dave Yost added him to a civil lawsuit in 2021.
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur addresses a Capitol Hill press conference. (Photo by Sabrina Eaton, cleveland.com)
Even as Trump, Moreno, and other statewide Republican candidates swept to victory on Election Night in 2024, Democratic incumbents ended up winning all three of the state’s competitive congressional races. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo had the biggest scare, beating Republican state Rep. Derek Merrin of suburban Toledo by less than 2,400 votes in a Northwest Ohio district that Trump won. U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes of Toledo held off Republican ex-state Sen. Kevin Coughlin of Bath Township by about 8,500 votes in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, while U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman of Cincinnati beat Republican Orlando Sonza in the 1st Congressional District by about 36,000 votes. Despite their victories, each of the three Democrats faces an uncertain future, as the GOP-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission must redraw Ohio’s congressional districts next year.
Protesters against House Bill 68, which would ban transgender athletes from playing women's sports and prevent minors from receiving gender-affirming care, demonstrate outside the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023.Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com
Late last year, DeWine vetoed House Bill 68, a controversial Republican-authored bill to prohibit minors from receiving gender-affirming medical treatment and ban transgender athletes from playing women’s high-school and college sports. But less than a month later, GOP lawmakers – who hold supermajorities in both the Ohio House and Senate – voted to override DeWine’s veto, an uncommon occurrence in recent decades.
Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
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