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Aug 06 2022

MAGA Republicans have been planning to overturn Roe for decades

“That’s why we need to overturn that horrific Roe vs. Wade decision and many of us have been working for years and years now to do that.” – Rep. Steve Chabot

With the United States Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe vs. Wade, we must remember how we got here. It wasn’t by accident or chance but by decades of planning and scheming by MAGA Republicans who have been working towards this very moment. 

“Someday, Roe v. Wade will no longer be the law in this country.” – Rep. Jim Jordan.

Now that abortion access is severely diminished by MAGA Republican in Ohio, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Kennedy plans to keep it that way. Justice Kennedy has signaled that she believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Not only that, she spoke at a ‘Greater Toledo Right to Life’ event when the city’s surgical abolition clinic had a case before her court, a case she ultimately ruled against the abolition clinic. 

DeWine on signing Ohio’s 6-week abortion ban: “Purpose of this bill is really to have a vehicle for the United States Supreme Court that should it be ready to do so, it could revisit some its prior rulings.” – Gov. Mike DeWine

They’ve been planning it for years…

You can bet MAGA Republicans are going to do everything they can to prevent federal abortion protections from ever coming back. That is why we need you to join us and chip in $25, $50, $100, or $250 now to ensure we hold these MAGA Republicans accountable! 

This November 8th, we have a choice between Democrats who protect your rights and MAGA Republicans who repeal them. It’s that simple. 

Written by admin · Categorized: Uncategorized

Jul 07 2022

In latest Innovation Ohio poll, Tim Ryan leads Vance by 3%

Have you seen the latest poll? InnovationOhio/GrowProgress latest poll shows Tim Ryan leading JD Vance by 3% with Ryan showing significant leads among women, black voters, young people, and those with a college degree. 

Even after winning the Republican party’s nomination, MAGA extremist JD Vance still lacks the full backing of his GOP base when he only captures 79% of GOP voters while Ryan earns 91% of Democrat voters. JD’s comments on replacement theory, calling rape an “inconvenience”, and his opposition to the bipartisan infrastructure package are not doing him any favors among Ohio voters.

Written by Sha'Tisha Young · Categorized: Uncategorized

Jun 30 2022

Welcome, Nick Tuell!

We are pleased to welcome our new Managing Director, Nick Tuell! Nick Tuell is a political professional with experience in government and campaigns. He worked for President Obama’s reelection campaign in southeast Ohio and four election cycles for the Ohio House Democratic Caucus where he eventually ran the statewide field, digital, and communications programs. 

Nick’s public service began at the Ohio Statehouse, serving as Legislative Aide to State Representative Stephen Slesnick and eventually Senior Legislative Aide to Ohio House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn. Focusing on state policy, research, and community outreach. Most recently, Nick served as Chief Spokesperson for the Franklin County Clerk of Courts, Maryellen O’Shaughnessy.

Nick has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with certificates in Political Communications and Gender Studies from the Ohio University. 

Welcome!

Written by Sha'Tisha Young · Categorized: Uncategorized

Jul 22 2021

Mike DeWine, Republican Leadership Further Tied to Massive Bribery Scandal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Admin@ProgressOhio.org
July 22, 2021

COLUMBUS — Today, as FirstEnergy agreed to pay $230 million for bribing former PUCO Chair Sam Randazzo to help pass a utility bailout on Ohioans’ dime, Mike DeWine and Ohio’s Republican leadership continue to become further linked to the ongoing scandal.

Mike DeWine was aware of Randazzo’s close ties to FirstEnergy when he selected him to lead the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). Despite repeated warnings, DeWine appointed Randazzo to oversee the very utility company that was in the process of bribing him.

“Randazzo had deep business ties with the state’s largest electric utility and had long been hostile to the development of wind and solar power, making him unsuitable for the role, critics warned early on,” notes the Associated Press.

Within days of his appointment by Mike DeWine to the utilities commission, Randazzo received a $4.3 million payment from FirstEnergy. FirstEnergy later acknowledged the money was likely used to influence Randazzo’s work.

Mike DeWine later met with Randazzo several times, including the day before signing the utility bailout bill (HB 6) into law.

Recent shifts within Governor DeWine’s staff also point to his close ties to this massive scandal. In May of this year, Mike DeWine removed his chief-of-staff, “who played a key role in the appointment of [Randazzo],” and moved her down to an advisory role.

When asked about Mike DeWine’s connection to the ongoing scandal, Acting US Attorney Vidal Patel would only say he can’t and won’t discuss this matter today.

Mike DeWine is the latest Ohio Republican to be intimately tied to this growing scandal. Last year, then-Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives Larry Householder was arrested by the FBI for “likely the largest bribery, money laundering scheme ever perpetrated” in Ohio.

Householder is accused of funneling money to help several Republican candidates in order to win his House Speaker race and pass the massive utility bailout bill (HB 6).

The Ohio House and Senate are both currently controlled by a supermajority of Republican members. Progress Ohio encourages Ohioans to contact House and Senate leadership to demand a full repeal of HB 6. 

Contact Ohio House and Senate leadership. Demand a full repeal of HB 6.

  • House Speaker Cupp: 614-466-9624 Rep04@OhioHouse.gov
  • Senate President Matt Huffman: 614-466-7584 Huffman@OhioSenate.gov

####

Written by admin · Categorized: Uncategorized

Feb 25 2021

Memo: Wheels Coming off DeWine’s Pandemic Response

To: Ohio Reporters, Editors, Columnists, and Editorial Boards

From: Michael McGovern, ProgressOhio

Date: February 25, 2021

Re: The Wheels Are Coming Off DeWine’s COVID-19 Response


Despite widespread praise for his early handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Mike DeWine’s response has become increasingly ineffective as Ohioans continue to struggle. Scandalous new developments in recent weeks have put a fine point on this failure. From a broken unemployment system, to an ineffective vaccine rollout, to massive data mismanagement, it is clear that the DeWine Administration is not up to the task of guiding our state through this crisis. 

As you continue to cover Gov. DeWine, we hope that your reporting and writing will take into account the context laid out below. A clear pattern has emerged: the DeWine Administration’s response to each new COVID-19 challenge is too little, too late.

Vaccine Fiasco

Despite having months to prepare, it is obvious that the DeWine administration had no unified plan for providing life-saving vaccines for Ohioans. While the governor has blamed a lack of supply, that is clearly not the only issue. Ohio continues to lag every one of our neighboring states in vaccination rates. Tellingly, Ohio has struggled to distribute vaccines, ranking at times among the worst in the country, illustrating that this was not simply a supply issue. 

Reporting has made clear that our lackluster numbers are due to Ohio’s disorganized, decentralized rollout. As has often been Gov. DeWine’s approach, he has simply passed the buck to local leaders, who have been left to fend for themselves. As state Rep. Allison Russo, a public health expert, has said, “To me the failure is we’ve known about these vaccines. We should have been planning in October. From my conversations with people who are on the ground, there really was not planning and coordination before we got the vaccine.”

We have seen story after story laying out the frustrations of everyday Ohioans trying to navigate the system. As cleveland.com noted, it takes, “‘luck, persistence and privilege” to get a vaccine in Ohio. Rather than clearly communicate, Gov. DeWine has left Ohioans in limbo. Unlike other states, we have been given almost no indication of future priority groups, so Ohioans under age 60, in front line jobs, and with serious but not the most critical underlying health conditions still do not know when their turn in line will be.

Despite these well-documented problems, there is no end in sight. For months, the DeWine administration knew vaccines were coming, but failed to build a centralized system for Ohioans to sign up. As of mid-February – fully two months after the first vaccines arrived in Ohio – Gov. DeWine admitted that they were still working on a centralized website. Two weeks later, details about the new system continue to trickle out, but we still do not have a firm timeline of when the website will be live. Other states, however, already have such websites up and running. Why has it taken Ohio so long?

Broken Unemployment System

The DeWine administration has effectively ignored Ohio’s broken unemployment system for nearly a year. Almost immediately after the pandemic’s economic impacts began to be felt in Ohio, we began to see story after story about how hard it has been for Ohioans to get the unemployment benefits they were owed. Yet for months, no action was taken. 

To make matters worse, Ohio’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, funded by federal CARES dollars, was completely overtaken by fraud. Despite being unable to adequately deliver benefits to those legitimately in need, the state managed to pay out more than $330 million in fraudulent claims. The Department of Jobs and Family Services claims to have put in place new measures to stop such fraud, but won’t discuss them. 

Despite all this, Gov. DeWine’s response has been wholly inadequate. On February 2, 2021, he said, “No one’s going to work a miracle. This was an avalanche that hit, along with the pandemic, so many Ohioans. And the system was simply not built for this.” But by that point, we had known the system was broken for nearly a year. In typical politician fashion, he announced a special commission to look into the unemployment system, not real action to help struggling families. Once again, what took them so long to deal with this problem? When will struggling Ohioans see real action from the governor? 

Unbelievable Data Mismanagement

Perhaps most stunning of all was that the DeWine Administration somehow “lost” more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths – roughly a third of all deaths in the state. The lost data aligns almost perfectly with the tenure of new Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud – a  political appointee with no medical background who was appointed to placate right-wing critics of the governor. 

Rather than take real real responsibility, McCloud and DeWine waited to announce this unbelievable news until 6pm on a Thursday, when few were paying attention. They subsequently blamed low level staff and did their best to minimize this incident. 

What is especially alarming is that this data mismanagement calls into question Gov. DeWine’s ongoing, opaque approach to COVID-19 restrictions that rely on ODH data. How can we trust Gov. DeWine when we can’t trust his administration to honestly share data?

Inadequate Budget Response

In addition to failing to properly deal with the vaccine rollout, our unemployment system, or Ohio’s COVID-19 data, it also now appears that Gov. DeWine will not adequately fund our state’s economic recovery. 

Ohio’s economy has been decimated by the pandemic, but Gov. DeWine’s proposed budget fails to meet the crisis our state faces. In a recent survey of Ohio economists, 87% believed that the $1 billion in DeWine’s budget for COVID-19 recovery efforts was wholly insufficient. Rather than provide Ohio with the resources needed to fully recover from this pandemic, Gov. DeWine is once again selling Ohioans short. 

The bottom line is, the wheels are coming off Gov. Mike DeWine’s COVID-19 response. The confusing vaccine rollout fiasco, the broken unemployment system, and losing track of thousands of deaths are part of the same pattern: the DeWine Administration’s failure to help Ohioans navigate the COVID-19 crisis. We need consistent, honest communication and bold leadership from the state. We aren’t getting it from Gov. DeWine.

Written by admin · Categorized: Uncategorized

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