Mike DeWine
Richard Michael DeWine is an American politician and attorney currently serving as the 70th governor of Ohio. A member of the Republican Party, DeWine is a former United States Senator, elected in 1994 and re-elected in 2000. In 2006, DeWine ran for re-election to a third term but lost to the Democratic nominee, U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown. DeWine had served as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio under George Voinovich from 1992 until 1994. In 2010, DeWine was elected Ohio Attorney General, defeating Democratic incumbent Richard Cordray, and was re-elected for a second term in 2014. In the 2018 gubernatorial election, DeWine was elected Governor of Ohio, defeating Cordray in a rematch of their 2010 race.
Prior to his being nominated as Voinovich's running mate in the 1990 election, DeWine served as a four-term U.S. Representative for Ohio's 7th congressional district beginning in 1983. He also served a term as an Ohio State Senator.
Personal life
DeWine was born and grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the son of Jean Ruth and Richard Lee DeWine. He lives in Cedarville, Ohio. Of Irish descent, he was raised and identifies as a Roman Catholic. DeWine earned his Bachelor of Science degree in education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1969 and a Juris Doctor from Ohio Northern University College of Law in 1972.He and his wife Frances have been married since June 3, 1967, and have had eight children, one of whom died in an automobile accident in 1993. Current Ohio Supreme Court Justice R. Patrick DeWine is Mike DeWine's son. Former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine is DeWine's second cousin. DeWine and his family own Minor League Baseball's Asheville Tourists.
Early political career
At age 25, DeWine started working as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Greene County, Ohio, and in 1976 was elected County Prosecutor, serving for four years. In 1980 he was elected to the Ohio State Senate and served one two-year term.in 1985
Two years later, U.S. Representative Bud Brown of Ohio's 7th congressional district retired after 18 years in Congress; his father, Clarence Brown, Sr., had held the seat for 26 years before that. DeWine won the Republican nomination, assuring him of election in November. He was re-elected three more times from this district, which stretches from his home in Springfield to the Columbus suburbs. He ran unopposed in 1986 during what is regarded as a bad year for Republicans nationally. DeWine gave up his seat in 1990 to run for Lieutenant Governor of Ohio as the running mate of George Voinovich. The Voinovich-DeWine ticket was easily elected.
In 1992, DeWine unsuccessfully ran for United States Senate against the former astronaut and incumbent Senator John Glenn. His campaign used the phrase, "What on earth has John Glenn done?" echoing Jeff Bingaman's slogan, "What on Earth has he done for you lately?"" against former astronaut Harrison Schmitt in their 1982 Senate race.
U.S. Senate
In 1994 DeWine ran again for Senate, defeating prominent attorney Joel Hyatt by a 14-point margin. DeWine was re-elected in 2000, defeating gunshow promoter Ronald Dickson and former U.S. Rep. Frank Cremeans in the primary and Ted Celeste in the general election. DeWine was defeated in the 2006 midterm election by Democrat Sherrod Brown, receiving 905,644 fewer votes in 2006 than he received in 2000.DeWine had seats on the Senate Judiciary and Select Intelligence committees.
DeWine was the initial sponsor of the Drug-Free Century Act in 1999.
Post-Senate career
DeWine accepted positions teaching government courses at Cedarville University, Ohio Northern University and Miami University. In 2007, he joined the law firm Keating Muething & Klekamp as corporate investigations group co-chair.He also advised the Ohio campaign of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.
Attorney General of Ohio
On July 21, 2009, DeWine announced his intention to run for Attorney General of the State of Ohio. On November 2, 2010, DeWine was elected attorney general, defeating incumbent Richard Cordray, 48–46%. As attorney general of Ohio, DeWine sent letters to drugstore chains encouraging them to discontinue the sale of tobacco products.In the 2012 Republican presidential primary, DeWine endorsed Tim Pawlenty, then endorsed Mitt Romney after Pawlenty dropped out of the race. On February 17, 2012, DeWine announced he was retracting his endorsement of Mitt Romney and endorsed Rick Santorum. DeWine said, "To be elected president, you have to do more than tear down your opponents. You have to give the American people a reason to vote for you, a reason to hope, a reason to believe that under your leadership, America will be better. Rick Santorum has done that. Sadly, Governor Romney has not."
On November 4, 2014, DeWine was re-elected as attorney general by defeating challenger David A. Pepper. DeWine carried 83 out of Ohio's 88 counties.
Legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act
In 2015, as Attorney General of Ohio, DeWine filed a lawsuit in federal court in Ohio against a part of the Affordable Care Act. In the suit, DeWine alleged that the ACA's Transitional Reinsurance Program was unconstitutional as applied to state and local governments. When he filed the suit, DeWine claimed that the fee was "an unprecedented attempt to destroy the balance of authority between the federal government and the states."In January 2016, the federal court dismissed DeWine's suit, with U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley holding that the Transitional Reinsurance Program did not violate the Constitution. DeWine appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed Judge Marbley's dismissal of the suit.
Criminal justice
DeWine's stated goal has been “Protecting Ohio Families.” To that effect, Attorney General DeWine made it a priority to significantly reduce DNA testing turnaround times in connection with open criminal investigations. Under his predecessor, DNA testing at the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation took approximately four months in cases such as murders, rapes, and assaults. Under the DeWine administration, DNA test results are now returned to local law enforcement in less than a month, leading to faster apprehension of dangerous suspects.Upon taking office in 2011, Attorney General DeWine launched a special sexual assault kit testing initiative after learning that hundreds of police departments across Ohio had thousands of untested rape kits on their evidence room shelves. DeWine invested resources to test the 13,931 previously untested rape kits over the course of his administration, which led to more than 5,000 DNA hits in the Combined DNA Index System. These DNA matches led to the indictments of approximately 700 alleged rapists, many of whom were serial attackers, connected to cases that would never have been solved if not for the DeWine initiative.
DeWine also launched the Crimes Against Children Initiative, which paired BCI criminal investigators with seasoned prosecuting attorneys to investigate and prosecute child predators. DeWine's Crimes Against Children Initiative focuses on holding accountable those who sexually and physically abuse children, those who share and view child pornography, and those who target children online. DeWine's office also developed several task forces for the investigation and prosecutions of human trafficking throughout the state.
Opioids
As attorney general, DeWine took steps to close down "pill mills" in Ohio that fueled the opioid epidemic. By the end of his first year in office, DeWine had worked to close all 12 pill mills in Scioto County, considered by many to have been the national center of the prescription drug crisis. DeWine's efforts also led to more than 100 doctors and pharmacists losing their licenses for improper prescription practices. In 2013, DeWine formed a new Heroin Unit to provide Ohio communities with law enforcement, legal, and outreach assistance to combat the state's heroin problem. The Heroin Unit draws from new and existing office resources, including: BCI investigative and laboratory services, Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission assistance, prosecutorial support, and outreach and education services. In October 2017, DeWine announced a 12-pronged plan to combat the opioid epidemic, drawing from his experience breaking up pill mills, prosecuting traffickers, supporting recovery, and advocating the importance of drug-use prevention education. In addition, Attorney General DeWine has gone after the pharmaceutical industry, suing opioid manufacturers and distributors for their alleged roles in fraudulent marketing and unsafe distribution of opioids that fueled the epidemic in Ohio and across the country.Columbus Crew relocation lawsuit
In October 2017, news reports surfaced that Anthony Precourt, the investor-operator of the soccer club Columbus Crew, was exploring the option of moving the team out of state. After the move of the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in the late 1990s, the Ohio General Assembly passed a law requiring professional sports teams that had accepted tax-payer assistance to provide an opportunity for local owners to purchase the team before initiating a move. In December 2017, DeWine sent a letter to Precourt reminding him of his obligations under Ohio law. After Precourt failed to respond, DeWine filed a lawsuit in March 2018 against Precourt and Major League Soccer to enforce Ohio law and insist upon a reasonable opportunity for local investors to buy the team. As the lawsuit played out in court, an investor group including Dee and Jimmy Haslam, owners of the Cleveland Browns, and the Columbus-based Edwards family announced in October 2018 they were working out the details of a deal to keep the Crew in Columbus.Governor of Ohio
2018 election
On May 26, 2016, DeWine announced that he would run for Governor of Ohio in 2018. He reconfirmed this on June 25, 2017, at the annual ice cream social held at his home in Cedarville, Ohio. On December 1, 2017, DeWine officially chose Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted as his running mate. On May 8, 2018, DeWine successfully won the Republican primary, defeating incumbent Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor, with 59.8% of the vote. He faced Democratic nominee and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray in the general election, their second election against each other, defeating him by a margin of about four percentage points.Tenure
2019
On February 22, 2019, President Trump appointed Governor DeWine to the bipartisan Council of Governors.On August 4, 2019, a mass shooting occurred in Dayton, Ohio, which killed ten people and injured twenty-seven others; this followed a separate mass shooting in El Paso, Texas by just thirteen hours. At a vigil for the victims of the Dayton shooting the next day, DeWine was drowned out by a crowd chanting 'Do something!'; the chant referred to the lack of legislative gun control actions on the state and federal level. On August 6, DeWine proposed to allow judges to confiscate firearms from those deemed potentially dangerous and to provide those individuals with mental health treatment while maintaining their due process rights. Other notable aspects of DeWine's plan include: expanded background checks before purchasing a firearm, increased access to psychiatric and behavioral health services, and increased penalties for illegally possessing firearms.
In October 2019, he held the first meeting of a Lead Advisory Committee he appointed for the state. The committee is meant to advise Dewine on the state's lead remediation efforts. In December 2019, he expressed his support for Ohio allowing cities to ban plastic bags, opposing two bills in the state legislature that would have forbidden it being pushed by fellow Republicans.
On December 10, 2019, During the Ohio Contractors Association's winter conference in Columbus, DeWine said that he wanted to improve the Interstate rest areas in Ohio by adding more information about Ohio's history and culture, he also said that "I'm told that our rest areas are sorry." In late December, DeWine announced that Ohio would continue to accept refugees. In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, DeWine mentioned that "Before entering the United States, there is a lengthy, complex, and careful vetting process done by multiple federal agencies to confirm a refugees's eligibility for entrance."
2020
In January 2020, DeWine sent troops from the Ohio National Guard to Puerto Rico, which had recently experienced several earthquakes. On January 15, DeWine signed a $30 million funding bill for Ohio farmers to prevent algal blooms, which went into effect on February 1. On January 27, DeWine signed Senate Bill 7, which gives military members and their spouses better employment opportunities by simplifying the process to transfer their occupational licenses to Ohio. In February 2020, he announced new distracted driving legislation he was sponsoring. Also in February 2020, he attracted some note for declining to share his opinion about Ohio's death penalty, at the time having "frozen all Ohio executions indefinitely as the state struggles to find lethal-injection drugs."Informed of the public risk by Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton, MD; on March 3, DeWine cancelled most of the Arnold Sports Festival due to the imminent threat of a COVID-19 pandemic in Ohio, prior to any cases or deaths being reported. The cancellation was widely regarded as "radical" at the time but was soon seen as less so, with Axios calling him "among the leading governors in the country sounding the alarm about the threat of the coronavirus" and the Washington Post calling his and Acton's response "a national guide to the crisis" and "textbook recommendations," pointing out numerous occasions when moves taken by Ohio were soon followed by other states. The Hill said he'd "been one of the most aggressive governors in responding to the pandemic". He has supported funding for COVID-19, signing his support of a funding bill along with 37 other governors in March 2020. On March 11, 2020, DeWine issued an order limiting visitors to Ohio assisted living facilities and nursing homes, limiting visitors to one per day per resident, with all visitors to be screened for illness. Also on March 11, 2020, he announced he was drafting legislation to limit mass gatherings in the state. Gov. DeWine barred spectators from sporting events; was first in the US to shut down schools throughout his state; and, on the night before it was to take place, postponed Ohio’s primary election. He directed the Ohio department of health to order the closing of the state’s more than 22,000 food service locations and bars, except for carry-out. This was one of the earliest state closures of restaurants in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and drew disapproval from many high-level state Republicans. On April 1, DeWine was noted by the BBC as "quick to defer to Dr Acton for specific questions on the virus and its spread," during daily news briefings, "reminding Ohioans that the state's decisions are driven by science."