Rotunda Rumblings
Musical chairs: Gov. Mike DeWine says lobbying has begun to fill Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s Senate seat - including hearing directly from prospective candidates. Per Andrew Tobias, the governor, speaking from Wisconsin where he’s staying with dozens of other Ohio Republicans for the Republican National Convention, wouldn’t name names. But he did lay out his thought process for what kind of person he’d appoint -- if former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee, wins in November. Whomever DeWine hypothetically would pick would have to run for election in 2026.
Social conservative outreach: Vance, a Cincinnati Republican, on Thursday reassured social conservatives that Trump is on their side, telling a Faith and Freedom Coalition breakfast that they’ll always have a seat at his political table, Sabrina Eaton reports. “There has been a lot of rumbling in the past few weeks that the Republican Party of now and the Republican Party of the future is not going to be a place that’s welcoming to social conservatives,” Trump’s vice-presidential nominee told the group. “From the bottom of my heart, I want to say that is not true.”
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Stock answer: On the 2022 campaign trail, Vance asserted that “it should be illegal for members of Congress to trade stocks in this country.” But last fall, about 10 months after joining the U.S. Senate, Vance sold up to $100,000 worth of Walmart stock. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, a Vance spokesman said the stock sale is consistent with his belief that federal lawmakers shouldn’t “actively” buy or sell investments while in office, and that the senator still supports passing a ban on such activity.
Still stopping the steal: Most of the nation is thinking about the 2024 election. Stark County is still working on 2020. As Jake Zuckerman reports, the Ohio Supreme Court remanded an open meetings lawsuit for a new trial. While it’s ostensibly about open meetings, the case revolves around the local board of elections’ decision to purchase new voting machines from Dominion – the target of a baseless voter fraud conspiracy theory pushed by former President Donald Trump and his associates.
ABCs and THCs: School principals are concerned that with recreational marijuana sales, more of their students will use marijuana. In a recent survey from Ohio State University, they said marijuana could affect academic performance and behavior in school. The principals also said marijuana prevention education is likely to increase in their buildings, Laura Hancock reports.
Board of education: The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is trying to reduce fears about voter fraud this fall by launching a nine-part “Election Integrity Series” on YouTube that aims to teach the public how it operates. As Kaitlin Durbin reports, the board will release new videos weekly on its website and social-media channels about how it handles things like counting ballots, voting by mail, and voting equipment.
Roll call uproar: The Democratic National Committee’s Rules Committee is slated to convene Friday to schedule a virtual roll-call vote during the first week of August to formally nominate President Joe Biden for reelection. As Avery Kreemer of the Dayton Daily News reports, the roll-call vote was initially set up to ensure Biden would meet an Ohio administrative deadline to make the November ballot. However, amid increasing Democratic calls for Biden to drop out of the race, some Democrats are calling for the roll-call to be delayed, noting that Ohio lawmakers voted to move the deadline to September. DNC Chair Jamie Harrison and Ohio state Sen. Bill Demora of Columbus pushed back on those calls, arguing that if the roll-call vote doesn’t happen before the Aug. 7 deadline, Republicans could sue to keep Biden off the state’s ballot. However, a spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Columbus Republican, told Kreemer that “there is no doubt” that Biden will make the ballot thanks to the delay passed by lawmakers.
Buckeye Brain Tease
Question: Ohio’s smallest carnivore is also the smallest carnivore in the world. What is it?
Email your response to [email protected]. The first correct respondent will be mentioned in next week’s newsletter. Also, you’ll feel much prouder for winning if you don’t have to Google the answer!
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s trivia question:
The Republican National Convention began on Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. How many Republican conventions have been held in Ohio, and where and when were they?
Answer: Four. The 1876 RNC was held in Cincinnati, and the 1924, 1936 and 2016 GOP conventions were in Cleveland.
Capitol Letter reader Pam Manges of Wooster, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s Ohio state lead ambassador, was the first to respond with the correct answer.
On The Move
Laura Battocletti on Thursday resigned as executive director of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, effective at the end of the year, according to Hannah News’ Judith Bird.
The Club for Growth PAC has endorsed Republican state Rep. Derek Merrin of suburban Toledo, who is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District.
Birthdays
Friday 7/19: Chloe Donovan, legislative aide to state Rep. Joe Miller
Saturday 7/20: State Sen. Al Cutrona; Rea Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy, The Buckeye Institute; Ursel McElroy, Ohio Department of Aging director; Naomi Opritza, legislative aide to state Rep. Sara Carruthers
Sunday 7/21: State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney
Straight From The Source
“Let’s not lose the game because we don’t like the rules.”
- Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, encouraging Republicans to embrace early voting during a speech at Thursday’s Ohio RNC delegation breakfast in Wisconsin, according to the Toledo Blade. This year’s national RNC platform calls for a return to same-day voting, but Republicans are looking to mirror Democrats’ years-long embrace of early voting to drive up turnout.
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