State Issue 1 Strengthens Democracy
Constitutional proposals should always have required a higher threshold to pass and lower threshold to kill.
As I’ve said during several questions and answers sessions following my speeches, I’m deeply conflicted by State Issue 1, which would increase the threshold by which amendments are added to the Ohio Constitution, if passed. The threshold would go from 50% plus one vote to 60% plus one vote. My conflict isn’t related to the reason this ballot proposal is in front us; rather, I firmly agree we need to do whatever we can to protect the life of the unborn, especially given the radical nature of the Left’s anti-life proposal scheduled for the November election that would place Ohio firmly outside of the mainstream, not only in America, but in Western countries on the issue of protecting human life.
The reason I am deeply conflicted is that passage of State Issue 1 will make it harder for me as governor starting in 2027 to enact some of the key items of my agenda should the legislature resist my common sense, bold colors agenda. Specifically, these are the items we may have to go around the legislature to enact:
Enacting a private sector right-to-work law to make Ohio more competitive with Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and the South;
Eliminating the state income tax to make Ohio the 10th state to do so and spurring an economic boom in Ohio;
Repealing Medicaid expansion under Obamacare to allow greater control over the state budget;
Decentralizing state government to share the wealth of state government with other parts of Ohio and to populate it with people more representative of Ohio;
Creating a truly universal school choice program in which 100% of state funds follow each child no matter where that child opts to school, including homeschooling;
Replace Ohio’s failed term limits law with a 20-year time limit on all legislators and statewide elected officials to end the hopping back and forth between the Ohio House and Ohio Senate and the musical chairs career politicians play with statewide offices; and
Place all legislators, the governor, and the lieutenant governor on a pay for performance plan in which their pay is cut by 50% with ability to earn 100% bonus if Ohio enters the top ten in net percentage job growth—until we pass this reform, I pledge to live by this reform from the moment I am sworn in.
All of these ideas are critical to Ohio’s renewal and to reining in the career politicians who have failed to fix Ohio yet have gotten paid in full (when you don’t) for those failures. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted is the best example of this broken system. Come 2026, he will have hung around Columbus since 2001 pulling down nearly $3,000,000 from taxpayers (as well as gold-plated healthcare and a government pension) despite Ohio remaining in the bottom half of most rankings year-after-year. Those taxpayer funds weren’t enough for Husted, as he manipulated a loophole to bring in another $21,000 per year starting in 2022 for private sector work at the same time he is a full-time government official. Needless to say, we will close the Husted loophole for all statewide elected officials, as their taxpayers salaries should be enough and they should be 100% dedicated to serving the state, not corporations.
At any rate, after much prayer and thought, I have decided that we must pass State Issue 1 to protect Ohio’s Constitution from reckless measures that would weaken Ohio. State Issue 1 isn’t an attack on majority rule, as the Left and its media sycophants claim; rather, it is merely creating a bright line that constitutional amendments must attract popular support commiserate with a constitutional amendment (versus a simple ballot initiative that is on the same level as a law passed by the Ohio General Assembly). Changing the Ohio Constitution should require and always should have required a higher vote threshold than 50% plus one vote just like amending the U.S. Constitution requires a higher level of support than passing a law in Congress. State Issue 1 fundamentally is about more democracy, not less, as it ensures broader popular democratic support for constitutional measures that empowers both a majority seeking change and a smaller minority seeking to stop that change. The Left and their media sycophants know that their radical, progressive agenda is dead on arrival in Ohio given the control conservatives have over Ohio, so the only way to sneak through their left-wing ideas is via ballot initiatives in which they deceive voters or pick election times when turnout will favor their base.
The focal point of the Left and JINOs (Journalist In Name Only) is strictly on the pro-abortion constitutional initiative expected to be on the November ballot. Flip the script and ask yourself this question: if the expected November ballot was a constitutional right-to-work law, would the Left and their media mouthpieces be against lowering the threshold to kill such a proposal to 40%, or would they still be tossing around claims about “undermining democracy” with wild abandon? We all know the answer to that question. State Issue 1 is both a sword and a shield for the Left and the Right, which I am happy to live with and govern under.
If passing State Issue 1 makes it harder for me to pass the above policies thereafter, then so be it. After all, if we cannot garner 60% plus one vote of support for the above initiatives, then that failure would be the voice of Ohioans speaking clearly that they prefer the status quo. Could there be a better representation of democracy at work than that? I hope that won’t be the case and believe firmly Ohioans will support the above ideas with majorities north of 60%, especially the political reforms. Nonetheless, as governor, it will be my job to convince Ohioans to pass these measures and I would accept the task with zeal and great passion.
With early voting starting tomorrow, please do what you can to support State Issue 1.