BY SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Foes of Republican Ohio House Speaker
Jason Stephens picked off four of his allies, including one of his leadership
team, in primary elections, though were still one shy of the number needed to
obliterate his majority in the next legislative session. But a bitter battle
for control of the chamber still looms.
Stephens’ term-limited counterpart in the Legislature’s
upper chamber, Senate President Matt Huffman, who was unopposed in Tuesday’s
primary for a House district in western
The intraparty skirmishing has played out in ads,
endorsements and campaign donations throughout the primary campaign season,
though it started with Stephens’ win of a contentious speaker race in January
2023.
Huffman, a Republican from Lima, has donated to incumbents
who voted for Stephens’ opponent in the race for speaker, state Rep. Derek
Merrin, according to campaign finance records. Those incumbents continue to
decry Stephens’ speakership. Some of Huffman’s fellow conservative senators
also publicly endorsed several challengers to Stephens’ supporters.
Speaker Johnson says he plans to invite Netanyahu to address
the US Congress
Utilizing the millions he controls in the Ohio House
Republican Alliance’s campaign funds, Stephens waged ad campaigns attacking
Republicans who ran against his supporters as well those who have been dubbed
“the Merrin camp.” Merrin and supporters Reps. Phil Plummer and Ron Ferguson
are trying to wrest that control away via an ongoing lawsuit.
The Republican infighting has persisted since the speaker
race last year, and despite GOP lawmakers holding supermajorities in both
chambers, the Legislature succeeded in setting a record last year for the
lowest number of bills passed since the 1950s.
Stephens won the speakership with the vote of 32 Democrats
and 21 state House Republicans.
Around half of Stephens’ original supporters, labeled the
“Blue 22” when counted alongside Stephens, faced opponents in Tuesday’s primary
who were boosted by endorsements and monetary donations from members of the
Merrin camp.
To maintain his slim balance of power, which he holds on to
mostly by maintaining House Democratic support, Stephens could only afford to
lose four of the Blue 22 in the primary, which is the exact number he did lose.
He still retains a 50-49 majority in the 99-member House, where he’s picked up
a few more supporters since the speaker race to make up for those who weren’t
running for reelection.
In Tuesday’s primary, the closest loss was that of Rep. Sara
Carruthers from
Others lost by wider margins.
Eastern Ohio state Rep. Brett Hillyer was defeated by Jodi
Salvo, director of substance use prevention services at OhioGuidestone, who
captured 59% of the vote; Rep. Gail Pavliga of Portage County lost to Heidi
Workman, a self-employed business professional who grabbed 61% of the vote;
Rep. Jon Cross of Hancock County lost to National Guard member Ty Mathews, who
received 66%. Cross was assistant majority floor leader, meaning Stephens will
need to replace him in 2025.
Merrin, who is term-limited in the state House, is now the
Republican nominee for
Bitter election attacks in the quest for House control are
nothing new in
The most dramatic example came in 2018, when former Speaker
Larry Householder spent hundreds of millions of dollars in what turned out to
be bribe money from Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. to elect his allies, secure his
speakership and pass House Bill 6, a $1 billion bailout of nuclear plants owned
by a FirstEnergy subsidiary.
The legislation was at the center of what became the largest
corruption scandal in
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Samantha Hendrickson is a corps member for the Associated
Press/Report for