So it was hard to guess how the first week would go following my announcement that I am exploring a run for Ohio governor (yes, in 2026). I had hoped for a little bit of news coverage and some good feedback from the grassroots. Thankfully, things went far better than expected. A special shoutout to the various grassroots leaders who pushed the announcement far and wide resulting in many emails, Join the Movement signups, and invitations to speak. I also want to thank Bruce Hooley of The Answer for allowing me to break the news on his daily radio program (98.9FM in Columbus and 94.5 in Dayton/Cincinnati).
The announcement received excellent coverage by these media entities: Akron Beacon-Journal, Alliance Review, Ashland Times Gazette, Canton Repository, Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, Fremont News-Messenger, Mansfield NewsJournal, Marion Star, NBC News, Port Clinton News Herald, Southeast Ohio Daily Jeffersonian, and Zanesville News, as well as the Statehouse News Bureau, WOUB Athens, and WOSU Columbus. Sadly, I didn’t see any mentions from my hometown paper, the Dayton Daily News.
Believe or not, Republican/conservative groups in ten counties reached out for me to speak to their members in the coming months. That means I heard from 10% of the counties already. My goal is to hit all 88 counties by the end of the year, so your help in making that happen would be fantastic. Please keep spreading the word to family, friends, and colleagues and ask your local Republican/conservative group to invite me to come speak and answer any and all questions you might have (have them email me at mayer4governor@gmail.com).
For those who want to get a great sense of what I want to do and see me think on my feet (and don’t want to read my 12-page agenda), please watch The Conservative Crusader podcast in which GOPJosh does a phenomenal job asking me tons of questions covering many key issues. You can watch the :35 video here:
To read my critique of the latest DeWine-Husted budget, check-out my Substack page here:
Listen to my weekly spin on The Bruce Hooley Show where we talk about the proposed budget and why Hunter Biden’s admission that the laptop is his makes Joe Biden a liar: https://omny.fm/shows/thebrucehooleyshow/tbhs-02-02-23-seg-3
Lastly, a few people asked if I’ve ever run anything other than think tanks. The short answer is: yes. In Colorado, I served Colorado Governor Bill Owens as the Deputy Director of the Colorado Department of (De)Regulatory Agencies, which consisted of more than ten divisions, over 500 employees, and a $68 million budget. The divisions included: Banking, Civil Rights, Financial Services, Insurance, Professions and Occupations, Real Estate, Securities, and the Public Utilities Commission. In the Bush Administration, I was the Executive Director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, which had over 1,000 employees and contractors, a $3.5 billion budget, and extensive outreach to all fifty states, hundreds of local governments, and countless law enforcement and fire departments. The punchline is I’m not just a policy geek, which I am, but I’ve also spent time at the state and federal level running entities much larger than most businesses with the pressure of congressional oversight and national media always a phone call away (yes, I was deposed by several congressional lawyers for the Hurricane Katrina investigation, flew in a Black Hawk helo to an undisclosed location, and made the front-page of the New York Times, but those are stories for another time:-) Thus, I’m an ideas guy who knows how to get those ideas implemented.
Have a great weekend!