If Jim Renacci or Anyone Else Wants My Outsider Mantle, He (or She) Needs To Come Rip It Out of My Hands
How many more bites of the apple does he think he is entitled to? All I will need is one.
In a somewhat lame 9:00pm Facebook post on July 26, Jim Renacci took a shot at me and my experience without naming me. Renacci wrote:
“We have good people running for Governor in 2026, but I hope we can get someone to run who has experience in running something other than a governmental agency or non for profit organization. We have failed Ohio by accepting the status quo and basically electing career politicians who have never had to risk capitol (SIC) or make a payroll or have to live within the rules government makes. If Ohio is going to compete in the next century, we need leadership from the outside, soneone (SIC) who knows what it means to make payroll and mortgage payments, not the status quo.”
Clearly, Renacci is not-so-subtly begging for people to demand that he run (again). Renacci’s 2026 plan is the worst kept secret in Ohio. It won’t be long before we start seeing more pseudo news stories promoting Renacci, as suddenly started to appear in 2022. As my son would say, “Whatever.” Frankly, Renacci sounds like the same Establishment insiders I wrote about recently who dismissed Ronald Reagan as “just a B-movie actor” (who, by the way, never built a business, but just acted in movies, gave speeches, and ran a non-profit like me before becoming governor of California and changing world history).
Let me unpack Renacci’s plea.
First, on my experience, Jim is largely right about what I’ve done…though that very experience was why Renacci told me in 2018 I was on his shortlist to be his Lieutenant Governor running mate, but that was when he needed my conservative street credibility to allay grassroots conservative concern over his moderate voting record. Among other things (I’ve also built a small business and run top political campaigns), I’ve successfully run two government agencies and two non-profits in my career. Perhaps those experiences aren’t the best experience to be governor. I don’t know how big Renacci’s businesses were that he ran (seems he’s only been running for office that last decade or more), but the two agencies I ran had over 500 and 1,000 people working in them and $68 million and $3.5 billion budgets, respectively. I may not have been held accountable for my performance by a Board of Directors, but I had to defend my actions to Cabinet Secretaries, a Governor, a President, Members of Congress in hearings, and a very hostile media. If I had failed at my job working with state and local first preventers and responders to prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack, people could have died. I learned a great deal running those agencies about how government works, doesn’t work, and the challenges that come with instituting reforms in government. Heck, reforms I pushed even won my agency the Denver Business Journal award for being the most innovative product or service in 2003--we beat many private sector competitors. I’d submit those experiences make me highly qualified to take the reins of government.
Regardless, I’m more than happy to make my case to Ohioans over the next two-and-a-half years on why my bold color agenda and experiences are exactly what Ohio needs to move from the back of the pack to the front. As I say at every speech, if Ohioans like the status quo of back of the pack rankings, then Jon Husted and Dave Yost will gladly take their vote, but if they want bold color leadership then I’m their guy. If Renacci wants to spend the next few years fighting me for that position, then I welcome him to the arena and can’t wait to see his agenda, which I know will be a weaker version of mine since I wrote his 2018 gubernatorial agenda and had to work mightily around his moderate views.
Next, I don’t want to quibble too much, but in running non-profits, I’ve had to make payroll and do so by convincing people to donate funds to promote conservative ideas. That isn’t easy to do, as they don’t get a car or any hard asset for donating funds to develop and push ideas to make Ohio better. They just believed in a vision of a better Ohio I painted for them. I’ve managed to raise $5 million doing it. Again, maybe that isn’t the right business experience, but I’ll let Ohioans decide in May 2026.
Finally, a word on the status quo. I don’t want to get sidetracked on whether being an elected official for twelve years with a fairly moderate voting record (The Heritage Foundation gave Renacci a very moderate lifetime score of 61) makes Renacci part of the status quo or not. If he wants to now pitch himself as a conservative outsider, then fine. I also don’t want to get in the weeds about whether failing to win three statewide elections should be a loud enough message that Ohioans aren’t buying what Renacci is selling (and please spare us the excuses about broken promises about funding and blaming Joe Blystone—Ohioans hate poor losers and excuse factories). Renacci got blown out by Sherrod Brown in 2018 (he lost by 6% in a +8% Donald Trump state) and managed to win just TWO—count them on one hand—TWO counties in last year’s Republican primary for Governor (he didn’t even win all of the counties he represented in Congress for eight years by voters who know him best). If Renacci wants to try again, then he should just say so and stop slinking around the state pushing an issue that really is about pushing himself. And I really don’t want to waste time explaining why the last thing Ohio needs is another gazillionaire who wants to buy himself a political office like Mike DeWine, Matt Dolan, and others have done or tried to do. If Renacci wants to spend more of his large fortune losing another statewide race, then at least he will help Ohio’s economy by employing some staff, buying yard signs, and funding his cronies until Ohioans once again reject his milquetoast brand. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of gazillionaires who can self-fund a campaign instead of a true outsider who can build a real and lasting grassroots movement, which I’ve been doing for fifteen years.
Personally, I think Ohioans are looking for bold color leadership and an agenda that will renew Ohio. I’ve detailed what I want to do and why I want to do it in my agenda. I’ll put that bold color agenda up against the pale pastel status quo ideas you’ll hear from Husted, Yost, and Renacci. Back when Renacci, Husted, and Yost were buddying up to John Kasich, I was the lone voice in Ohio denouncing Kasich and his plans for Ohio because I knew what his bad ideas would do to Ohio. I wish I would have had more support from Renacci, Husted, and Yost, but they remained silent as Kasich drove Ohio in the wrong direction. It only became fashionable to be anti-Kasich after he announced his ill-advised NeverTrump presidential campaign. Unlike Renacci and his moderate voting record, I have a long paper trail of published op-eds, books, reports, and tweets that show I’ve always been a conservative, I’ve always taken on the status quo in the Republican Party, and I’ve always pushed the ideas that form my bold colors agenda. At the end of the day, I’m willing to put my record, experiences, and ideas for Ohio up against anyone, including Renacci.
Now let me be crystal clear about something. I have a great life and I don’t need this job. I’m doing this because I’ve watched for too long as career politicians and moderates like Renacci have failed time-after-time to do the bold color ideas that would get Ohio moving again. While the ten counties in the Greater Columbus and Cincinnati areas are doing okay, the other seventy-eight counties are hollowing out as they lose people, jobs, and opportunities. I’m going to make sure state government benefits ALL eighty-eight Ohio counties, their families, and their businesses. If another bold color outsider comes along who is better than me, I’ll gladly step aside, but Renacci is most definitely not that man (or woman). I do not believe for a minute that he will beat Husted or Yost and I firmly believe I will. Thus, I will not cede an inch of ground to Renacci and, as I work tirelessly to secure Blystone’s 22% of voters, I also will be appealing aggressively to Renacci’s and Hood’s 2022 voters.
Every now and again, I get asked if I’d be willing to serve as someone’s Lieutenant Governor. The answer is absolutely and unequivocally no. That is why I’m different. I’m not subjecting my kids and me to the grind of attaining high office because I’ve been a politician for years and “need” this feather in my cap. This effort isn’t about obtaining political power as part of a decades-long political climb or biding my time until I get to be the top dog so I get my portrait in the State Capitol. I know without a doubt that no other candidate will push the bold color policies Ohio needs. Most of Ohio is suffering. Its people and businesses face taxes that are too high and regulations that are too burdensome; they see too few job opportunities and too meager pay raises; they watch as too many political insiders get too little done as those politicians get paid in full (or a growing number go to jail for corruption); they struggle to get ahead as the federal government’s presence over their lives grows uncontrollably with too many Republicans putting their hands out to DC instead of their hands up; they feel their kids are improperly exposed to woke ideology in the classroom with their daughters exposed to danger in the bathrooms and unfair competition on the sports pitch; they stand powerless as their kids leave for greener pastures or die from fentanyl coming from Mexico and China; and they remember all too well when people used to say “look what is happening in Ohio” and yearn for those days again. I don’t believe Ohio can afford to wait eleven years (three years plus me treading water as LG for eight more) to enact the bold color policies needed to renew its promise to Ohioans and to make our beloved state great again. If I’m fortunate enough to win, I will enact those policies or die trying, then do what few politicians do and go home.
So, I suggest that Renacci knock it off with the 9:00pm Facebook posts. If he or anyone else wants to take my outsider mantle, then they should come and try to rip it out of my hands. Otherwise, Renacci and his allies should stop taking lame shots at me and get behind my effort to ensure that another career politician insider doesn’t win in 2026. Renacci had his chances in 2018 and in 2022. How many more bites of the apple does he think he is entitled to? All I will need is one.