It looks like federal officials are moving one step closer to deporting Haitians in central Ohio who no longer have temporary protected status.
Action from ICE officials over the weekend contrasts with comments Gov. Mike DeWine made just days ago.
Democratic governor candidate Amy Acton put out her first TV ad, months and many ads after her Republican challenger Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno doesn't want voters to forget the COVID years, using a profanity-laced cross-examination of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
A longshot effort by a Democratic representative could let 16 and 17 year-old Ohioans vote.
We're talking about all of these topics on this week's Reporter Roundtable.
Guests:
- Jo Ingles, senior reporter, Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau
- Jeremy Pelzer, chief political reporter, Cleveland.com
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to the All Sides Reporter Roundtable, an hour where we catch up with the political news of last week and preview the week ahead. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. Joining me on the round table this week, Jo Ingles, senior reporter at the Ohio Public Radio State House News Bureau. Welcome back, Jo. Great to be here. And Jeremy Pelzer, chief politics reporter at cleveland.com. Welcome back Jeremy.
Jeremy Pelzer: Good morning.
Juravich: So Max Miller, U.S. Representative for Cuyahoga, Holmes, Medina, and Wayne counties is running for re-election, and he's been under fire for domestic abuse allegations, raised by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, who is the daughter of U. S. Senator Bernie Moreno. On Sunday, Miller addressed the issue in a live statement on X. Jeremy, are you able to give us a snapshot of what he said? Basically, he is reiterating, it was like 18 minutes long, and he reiterated that he is not dropping out of the race. What else did he say?
Pelzer: This is an amplification of what's been a really contentious divorce case between Max Miller and Emily Moreno. Emily Morena previously filed legal papers claiming that Miller abused her, threw hot water on her, showed a picture of bruises on her. Max Miller has vehemently denied doing this, and this just got whipped up even more over the weekend because Well, for one thing, Bernie Moreno, Max Miller's former father-in-law, posted on social media claiming that Max Miller is unfit to serve in office, that he's a danger to Max Miller daughter, and that he should not serve in the House of Representatives. So then Max Miller then on Sunday came out not only with like a statement denying, you know, that. He said, well, these are very serious accusations. And if these were true, I would be in jail. So he denied them. He released a drop box with all sorts of information to support that contention. And it looks like this is going to be an issue all the way through the election.
There's lawsuits on both sides, in addition to the divorce case, one about defamation filed against Max Miller. I'm sorry, Max Miller sued his ex-wife for defamation for statements that she made to the press after the divorce was filed.
Juravich: Basically like a defamation of character thing.
Pelzer: Moreno said, you know, this is a nuisance lawsuit, so she said this should be dismissed, but they have yet to rule in that. So it's really, I mean, it's not often you have a sitting U.S. Senator call for a member, a congressman from his own party saying that he's a danger and needs to like stop and resign from the U. S. House. So this is very serious and it's, it's. It suddenly got whipped up, what was already a soap opera, whipped up into something more.
Juravich: And Joe, basically, it got whipped up over this weekend because Max Miller wanted to make these statements saying he was staying in the race because there's a deadline coming up. If the Republican Party was going to replace him with someone else, they have to do it within the next day or two, is that right? Yeah. Was that right?
Jo Ingles: Yeah, I think it's the fifth this week. Wednesday, yes. So they have until Wednesday. And it's one of those situations where he's in a very safe district. So it's gonna be an uphill challenge for a Democrat to beat him in that district, regardless what is true here, but if anything. But the thing is that people love to talk. This is like one of those things where people read it and it's so salacious. It's so out there that people love to talk about it and it it's something they can... A lot of things that people are accused of or involved in like scandals, HB6, right? That doesn't have legs because it's complicated. It, you know, voters don't seem to understand it, but voters, this is one that they read the story and they can understand what's going on here. So we'll see how it plays out.
Juravich: And Jeremy, a lot of people are asking Senator Moreno why he hasn't spoken about this until that just this past weekend. He's kind of I mean, he's been around, I guess, supporting his daughter, but he's been quiet on the actual Max Miller running for reelection issue. Is that true?
Pelzer: Overall has, he certainly hasn't put out any statement like the one he put out over the weekend until now. And there's been a lot of speculation about why that is. I don't, you know, I'm not gonna. You don't want to speculate on the speculation. I don't know which is legit and which is not. But suffice it to say that Bernie Moreno now is most certainly speaking out on this. I mean, it's not like he's been completely removed. Like he helped his daughter get a house. When she moved out. So it's not like he's just been completely divorced from the situation, but now he's speaking out against it. To Jo's point, it has been, she's absolutely right that it has a pretty Republican district, but at the same time, already even before this weekend, the political handicapping class has been moving, inching this race closer to the Democrats just because of all the allegations that have come out. This, as Joe said, is a pretty Republican district, but the Democrat in the race, Brian Poindexter, who's a Brook Park City councilman and a union worker, it has more of a chance than I can only imagine. Poindextor right now is just sitting back and eating popcorn and watching this play out.
Ingles: And I think we're amiss if we don't point out that these allegations from Emily Marino are not alone. He has been accused of abusive behavior before by Stephanie Grisham at one point, and then even going back further, there are people, women who he dated in the past who had said things. Now the thing is that he's not convicted of them. So, you know, but there, and it is a political season, so everything's amplified.
Juravich: Well, and one other factor in here is that President Trump did endorse Max Miller. I believe that Miller and Moreno, Emily Moreno were married at one of Trump's golf resorts or something like that. So President Trump has been a supporter of Max Miller, he endorsed him as a candidate and he was, and Trump was asked to weigh in on Sunday during one of like the press on Air Force One and he said. I'm going to look at it. I mean, so far it's just accusations. I'll be looking at it, so I mean do you think, I don't know what President Trump will say here. And, you know, so no one knows what Trump will says.
Pelzer: That's the answer you give when you haven't really you don't really know the situation. Yeah
Juravich: And also Governor DeWine was asked about it, Congressman Miller last week, did the governor have anything to say? Do you know? I think someone asked him about it there.
Pelzer: Yeah, Morgan Trowell asked him about it, I believe. Said it was troubling. He said it was the accusations were troubling, but DeWine basically stayed out of it and didn't say whether Max Miller should leave the race or not.
Juravich: All right. Well, we'll have to keep watching what happens there because it definitely is a back and forth. Another issue related to Ohio's senators, Ohio's senior senator, Republican Bernie Moreno, made the news last week and he was in the news for another reason. He was using quite colorful language in exchange with Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Senate hearing. Dr. Fauci is the former adviser to the president during covid. Let's listen.
Sen. Bernie Moreno: It was about six years ago today that I decided I'm going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run through the United States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the ****do you think you were for doing that?
Juravich: So I know profanity is pretty out of character for a Senate hearing. But for those who know Moreno, is it I don't know, is it out of a character for him? Was he hoping just to get a sound bite and have him be talked about it? What what do you Jeremy, what do you make of, you know, the F word on the Senate floor from our senator?
Pelzer: This is in keeping with a trend among politicians. There was a New York Times story, I think a couple of months ago, about just the increasing use of the F word, particularly, to make, because if we're in an era where people wanna be politicians, if they're successful or seen as relatable, and no nonsense, and just talking the straight dope, and one way to do that is to cuss. And so you, even over the weekend at this, the Democratic state dinner in Ohio here in Columbus, Mark Kelly, Senator from Arizona, I don't think he used the F word, but he used some colorful language. And it's a trend among politicians, even U.S. Senators, certainly, to go a little blue in their language like this, because as you suggested, it will get noticed. And people who, you know, are looking Agree with him or are looking for answers from Fauci in this point Are going to say yeah right on, you know, you mean we need to take it to Anthony Fauci about this
Juravich: Yeah, well, Joe, did he he's getting talked about for saying the F word, but is he getting talked about? For what he wanted to get talked about was to have Americans not forget about COVID. Did he defeat his own point, I guess, maybe?
Ingles: Yeah, I guess it depends on where you listen for the talk, you know, I'm sure Fox News is talking about it, but you know there's a trend here, that being a trend, you know, the Senate was always held as somewhere that there was decorum, that there was, you, know, dignified speech and people would say things that, you had been researched.
Juravich: They all say, my good friends, from the audience.
Ingles: And so it is kind of, he was very proud of it apparently because he put it out on social media and he doubled down on it. It wasn't like a slip. And it's a big sea change. And if voters are really attracted to this kind of... Kind of guttural, that's what I'll call it, language. You know, that says something about the voter, doesn't it?
Juravich: All right. Well, Jeremy, do you think the idea of basically wanting to remind people about COVID and Marino saying that's why he ran for Senate is because he was upset with everything that happened during COVID and basically like saying what Fauci did is why he ran for senate. Do you think that that's going to keep coming up or was this our little blip and now it's going to go away?
Pelzer: Well, it's not just a cynical campaign tactic. I firmly believe that Bernie Moreno and many other Republicans and many people in this country are still upset about COVID. So, but it's also speaking to those other people saying, look, look I'm with you, I'm trying to hold these people's feet to the fire here and if I have to use colorful language, that's just illustrating my passion about how I feel about this issue. So it's not just a cynical, like, oh, well, if I drop an F-bomb here, then I'll get some social media play. It's also out of genuine feeling of anger and frustration against Anthony Fauci.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking with Jeremy Pelzer from Cleveland.com and Joe Ingalls from the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau. Pivoting for a few minutes to something else that happened on Sunday, hundreds of people showed up yesterday in the Cincinnati area to show their support for Haitians who have lost their temporary protected status. They lined the side of the road near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in Blue Ash, which is outside of Cincinnati. They were holding signs, they were singing, they were showing solidarity for the Haitians. Some Haitians in Springfield received letters that told them to report to Cincinnati yesterday, Sunday, and public radio station WVXU said that some were given court dates, others were given ankle monitors. What do you think, Joe, here, what is the latest? Does this put them one step closer to deportation? Is it ICE trying to just have tabs on them? What do make of this?
Ingles: Well, I don't know that we know. It certainly sounds like ICE wants to have tabs on them if they're putting ankle monitors on people. But, you know, the temporary status, temporary protective status has been lifted. But there are some questions about how to implement deportation. Where do you send the Haitians to? If you're, you now, can they actually go back to Haiti? Because, you, know, Major airport there is closed. You can't get in there. There are, you know, if they do go back, they are in dangerous situations. That's been attested to by many people who are in the known governments, the different governments. So where do you send all these people who are, you know in areas of Ohio and largely are working and functioning in the society? It's a real, It's a real big question, and I think there's a question of whether they should be sent anywhere because they are, a lot of, you know, the governor has made this point continually. He says they're working, they're part of their community, they're renting homes from landlords who, if they disappear, what's gonna happen? Or they're owning homes, or, you now, they're holding up things in their community that if they disappear. Are gonna fall apart. So I think there's a lot of questions.
Juravich: WOSU's George Shilcock last week reported on a recent meeting of Springfield clergy. They had a meeting with ICE officials. Here is Springfield pastor Carl Ruby recounting what was said in that meeting.
Carl Ruby: That's what they said, is we're using a carrot and stick approach, the carrot is we are going to offer them an airplane ticket, we're going to offer some money, and the stick is we are going to make their lives miserable.
Juravich: So Jeremy, I mean, basically what Joe just said is true. They want to offer them some money and a plane ticket, but it's like a plane tickets to nowhere because there are no flights going into Haiti. So it's very confusing. Is that why you think the letters and the court date a month from now and the ankle monitors came into play? Because ICE is trying to do something, but they can't actually send them to Haiti.
Pelzer: Yes, everyone's been sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop here and there's no agreement yet it seems about what that shoe is going to be and to use a hackneyed metaphor. But I mean it seems right now that there's not a political will to have large-scale deportations to go in there and sweep everyone into large cargo planes and send them to Haiti. That or like a third country extend them somewhere else. Exactly. Or just remove them from the United States. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure, obviously the logistics of that have not been worked out, but also like John Husted, U.S. Senator John Husted said last week that DHS, Department of Homeland Security told him that they're just going after the criminal violators of immigration law right now. They're not at that if Haitians are not. Violating the law, then they quote, there's nothing to be concerned about. That despite a CBS News report that came out that had internal ICE documents outlining plans for deportation operations. So what's it gonna be?
Juravich: Right. And if they're not violating the law, but they but they're not allowed to work because they don't have a work permit anymore. That's that. I mean, that's confusing. Not only.
Pelzer: Not only not allowed to work, but I mean, if you're now an undocumented immigrant, are you even going to leave your house?
You know, are you gonna go to the store? Like, there's just uncertainty for a lot of people, especially in Springfield, about what do I do right now? What, if I, can I even just go outside? Otherwise someone will, you know put handcuffs on me and put me on a plane to who knows where. Yeah.
Juravich: Well, the anxious wait continues, because I don't think anyone really knows the answers or what's happening here. And that group that met, the hundreds that met outside of the ICE office in Blue Ash said that they planned to be there, again, next Sunday as well. So I guess there's more court dates and more letters going around, so.
Ingles: It's odd that it's on a Sunday, isn't it?
Juravich: Yeah, why is the ice office open on a Sunday? I have no idea. I don't know. That's a good question. This is the Reporter Roundtable on 89.7 NPR News. Coming up, we're going to talk about Amy Acton, who has released her first TV ad in her campaign for governor. Many months and many ads after her opponent. That is when the Reporter roundtable from All Sides continues on 897 NPR News.
You're listening to the All Sides Weekly Reporter Roundtable, an hour where we talk about all things Ohio politics. I'm your host Amy Juravich. And still with us, we have Jeremy Pelzer, Chief Politics Reporter at Cleveland.com, and Joe Ingalls, Senior Reporter for the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau. There are lots of ways politicians try to connect with voters. We have the old school method of going to the state fair, a long time, very traditional platform that politicians like outgoing governor Mike DeWine love. There's also making speeches, holding rallies, using social media, and of course, TV ads. Democrat Amy Acton hopes to replace DeWine, and she launched her first television ad last week. It comes many months, and many ads, after her GOP challenger Vivek Ramaswami. I wanted to discuss ads from both candidates, so we decided to do the introductory ads. So here is what Amy Acton chose as her first ad to introduce herself to voters.
Dr. Amy Acton: I think it was somewhere off Route 7. I was 12, and we were living in a tent, but it made me tough and determined to find a way out. I waited tables, delivered newspapers, anything to put myself through college and medical school. I don't want anyone to have to struggle like I did. As governor, I'll take on the corruption that's raising our costs and fight for an Ohio where your hard work pays off and you always come first.
Juravich: And then here is how Vivek Ramaswamy first introduced himself to voters a few months ago. He chose his wife, Apoorva, to speak for him following the birth of their third child in February.
Apoorva Ramaswamy: Everything into perspective. I'm Apoorva Ramaswamy. Nothing means more to my husband Vivek than being a father. He knows Ohio families are working hard, but falling behind. Like every parent, he wants safe communities, great schools, and a state where hard work means you can afford your home, your groceries, and your future. Vivek is running for governor to give every family a fair shot at a better life. So Ohio's future.
Juravich: Stays right here. So Jo, let's start with you. Can you compare and contrast the efforts of these two candidates to try to introduce themselves to Ohioans? I mean basically those were both just introductory ads. Here's who Acton is, here's who Ramaswamy is. And what do you make of the approach?
Ingles: Well, I think that Vivek's ad is obviously the family man. He's this guy who wants the same thing you do. And Acton's ad, she came up from situations that she were not good and she doesn't want you to have to suffer like that. There's two different themes there, but they're both kind of setting up the theme that Their candidate is the good person who has good intent for the state of Ohio and its citizens, who wants the citizens of the state to have what they need, school, education, healthcare kind of things. So I think though what we've seen since then in ads are very different from those introductory ads. Really doesn't say much. It just gets her name out there.
Juravich: But Jeremy, what do you make of Acton just getting this ad out last week, basically? I mean, Ramaswamy did his introductory ad in February. Is Amy Acton late?
Pelzer: It reflects that Vivek Ramaswamy has a whole bucket of money that Amy Acton does not have. And it's not that Amy act in is particularly poor. She's set consistently set new fundraising records for a democratic candidate in Ohio. She has raised millions of dollars, but Vivek Rameswamy not only has raised, I think his campaign has raised 25 million so far, he's put in 25 million of his own money. And that's not even including his, uh, the main pro-Ramaswamy super pack, uh V pack, which has dumped millions more into the race. So when you have that much money, why not start airing TV ads back in March like V pack and the Ramaswami camp has done. I mean, this, as far as these ads, I mean this is right out of the playbook of your first ad usually is an introductory ad, just here's who I am. I'm going to introduce myself to voters. That's especially important for two candidates who have not held elected office before has been the case of Ramaswami and Acton. So it's even more important for them to define themselves to voters. And there's this old axiom in politics of you want to define yourself to voters before your opponent can define you. And this is what they are trying to do, presenting themselves as likable and saying, here's what I'm going to do for you. And that's what kind of these ads are trying do.
Juravich: Yeah, so this idea, Joe, of introducing yourself before your opponent can define you, I mean, there have been some negative ads against Amy Acton, whether they're made by the Ramaswami campaign or they're by different PACs and organizations, probably PACs at this point with money. So Ramasvami is trying to define Acton basically in the light of like, she ruined your life because of COVID and those kind of ads. What else, what do you make of the like Ramaswami trying to define actin.
Ingles: You know, it's really kind of strange because I've seen a lot of ads and I've I've a lot comments from Republicans, the Ohio Republican Party about how Acton, what she did in the pandemic ruined people's lives. But you know, when you go out in a general election, you're trying to reach independence. And I haven't heard a lot, seen a lot from independents saying that, you know, they're critical of how she handled, you, know, maybe it's out there and I'm just not seeing it. But, you, know, a lot of independents, we were in a pandemic. No one really knew what to do back then. And so the way that she handled it, and even Dr. Fauci, a lot of the independents were the ones, you and still. Open-minded about that. And we're not seeing polling that shows that that's being particularly effective against, you know, against her. So I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it, honestly.
Juravich: Jeremy, are we gonna see Acton's campaign or some sort of packs? Are they gonna try to Are they going to do negative ads at some point with Rama Swami? I mean, we're not there yet. I guess. Oh, yeah. Yeah Just just do wait. Yeah
Pelzer: Get ready. We're coming the traditional time for campaigns to really start in earnest in Ohio's Labor Day. Yeah. So between Labor Day in November, get ready. Get ready, we're going to be begging, begging for non-political ads on TV.
Juravich: Or we'll be begging for introductory ads and stuff.
Pelzer: Alright, yeah, even non-attack ads.
Juravich: Yeah.
Pelzer: I mean, for Amy Acton, it's pretty straightforward why they're going after her, because her time as state health director is both her biggest asset and her biggest liability, depending who you ask in Ohio. I mean the main reason she has such high name recognition and why she has so many fans around the state is because of her time, you know, reassuring Ohioans during these daily coronavirus briefings with Governor DeWine at the same time. She's also become a big lightning rod for many people who are upset with the COVID restrictions and blame Amy Acton for that. So these ads, these attack ads, go right at that, both to gin up opposition to her and also try to knock down one of the biggest pillars of her support by saying, hey, she's, but then in addition, recently in the last few weeks, We've gone beyond just Amy Acton. You know, closed your friend's business to sensationalizing a lot of other stuff about her. So that ranges from a 2019 police report that led Republicans to accuse her basically of being a drunk and using pills, to quoting out a context of 2022 commencement speech she gave at Ohio Wesleyan, suggesting misleadingly that she had to Google the word pandemic because she didn't know what it meant. So they're kind of
Juravich: It's like they took one sentence out of a longer speech, but they cut off the sentence before she even could explain what she was talking about.
Pelzer: So they're really present trying to give an image of Amy Acton as erratic, as not a very good doctor, and just going full at the idea like she's this comforting, reassuring presence to, no, she doesn't know what she's talking about. And it's gone beyond just, hey, we don't like her COVID policies too. And in many mostly misleading ways, trying to present her as this unstable person.
Ingles: You know, I go back a few years, and I remember back when former justice, Supreme Court Justice Alice Roby Resnick was running for office. And there was a dark money campaign. Chamber of Commerce had a big hand in it. And they came out accusing Alice Robi Resnack of basically being a thief. You know she's bought off by the unions and. It was really nasty. Back at that time, people were talking a lot about how nasty it was. Alex Ruby Resnick won that re-election and won it by a decent amount. So it wasn't close. So, you know, you kind of kind wonder sometimes when you, especially with a woman candidate, female candidate, do you get to a saturation point? Where the voter is sitting there going, well now you're just beating up on this person, and it kind of could work against you. I don't know, because our politics have changed so much since then. We were just talking about- Everyone's mean-spirited now aren't they? Yeah, using bad language and whatever. So maybe our politics has changed so that that's not an issue anymore, but that's at least from a historical perspective what happened back then.
Pelzer: But don't think for one second that Acton's campaign and Democrats haven't been launching attacks against Ramaswamy, even if they haven't been going on TV. Yeah. They've been labeling him basically. Their presentation of Ramasvamy is that he's out of touch billionaire who doesn't give a darn about you or your family.
Juravich: If you follow her social media, there's a lot of that, yes.
Pelzer: Yeah, so so it's not like they're not throwing some bombs of their own. Yeah, but they're but they are.
Juravich: Showing it to their own supporters through social media instead of getting it out to the general public.
Pelzer: Sure, but their main limitation is money more than a desire.
Juravich: Which is making her point that he's a billionaire, she doesn't have the money anyway. This is the Reporter Roundtable on 89.7 NPR News. We are talking with Joe Ingalls from the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau and Jeremy Pelzer from Cleveland.com. Vivek Ramaswamy also was in the news over the weekend or at the end of last week, all the days run together. He had an interesting exchange with a crowd at an event for young libertarians. The video has gone viral because he basically gets booed in it. The full video is 14 minutes long. And if you watch the full video, there's applause and boos. A lot of the edited videos that you're seeing circulating around focus in on the boos, Jeremy, why do you think Ramaswamy went to this event with a group that maybe he, I mean, he had to know that the libertarians were not going to 100% agree with him.
Pelzer: Well, to be clear, this isn't a libertarian event necessarily. This is it's the Young Americans for Liberty, which is has small libertarian leanings. OK, yeah, they define the Libertarian Party. That's true.
Juravich: That's true. The Young Americans for Liberty say they support limited government, individual freedom, and libertarian ideals. That was their line.
Pelzer: Yeah. And we're at a time now where Ramaswamy is campaigning across the state. And I mean, to be fair, you know, Ramasvamy could be forgiven to think that he was walking to a sympathetic room. You know, he he talked for 14 minutes. That's not like he came up for 30 seconds and got booed off stage. But I mean he still get got a lot of booze. He was talking about things like property taxes, inflation, you know things kind of both things that are part of his stump speech. And things that on theory you would think would resonate with this sort of crowd, but it didn't resonate. He got booed and he clashed with them a few times. People yelled no, and they yelled about Israel and data centers, but they also clapped when Ramaswamy mentioned capitalism. I don't wanna make it, it's. It doesn't look good for Ramaswamy, but at the same time, it's hard to extrapolate that to say, oh, well, this is reflective of everyone. It absolutely reflects concerns among many people that in theory aren't in his base, but to say well, he's gonna lose the election now because his base isn't with him, I think that's a pretty far stretch.
Juravich: Ramaswamy is also an Ivy League school, um, educated debater. Like he can handle something like this, I would say he had, you know. Um, but also it, the idea that he was, that he was booed, um Joe, the, the video, the video was edited and the booze were, uh, all edited together. Um, I mean, what do you, what do you make of this idea that Ramasvamy went to this event and that this video has gone viral?
Ingles: Well, I think any time any candidate's booed like that, the other side is going to definitely make sure it gets out there, and not even just the other side. I mean, it's interesting, you know, to people who follow politics. But like Jeremy said, I mean honestly, this is one event. It was a smaller event in the scale of things. And we don't know all the details about who exactly was there. You know, could there have been hecklers in the audience that, you know, kind of, you know, we don't know everything about it. So it just looked bad.
Juravich: Yeah, one of Ramaswamy's campaign stump speech lines is that he talks about that the country is full of winners and whiners, and that didn't seem to go over well. I mean, Jeremy, you probably heard him say this a few times. This is a part of his stump speech where he's basically saying that people are, it's the capitalism thing where he shouldn't be villainized for having money. He's a winner and other people are whinies.
Pelzer: Yeah, I mean, to what you just said. I mean that's a response to Amy Acton's campaigns, attacks that he says out of touch billionaire. And then his response is, well, you know, I'm not going to demonize success here. Like he wasn't born a billionaire and he made his money and we shouldn't demonize people who do that.
Juravich: But he didn't go over well with this young group, because I think the young group feels like they can't, I don't know, they can afford a house and they can do this and that. Like they were struggling maybe with the capitalism. I don't know.
Pelzer: Absolutely, and it reflects a real vein of discontent among people. Now, whether that you can extrapolate from that, that he's not gonna win the election because there's millions of Ohioans who feel the same way, we don't know that. And we'll see how many of these people come to vote in November. At the same time, it's not like. You know, there's Amy Actons had an issue with her base. There's been a number of LGBT activists who have been upset with her comments about trans athletes playing women's sports. Now, how much you can extrapolate from that, that Amy Acton's now has huge troubles with her bass, you know, I mean, again, it's about, you can't do that anymore, then you can extrapolate from this that Vivek Rambaswamy is gonna lose.
Ingles: But if you look at the numbers right now, a lot of people are telling pollsters that they don't feel like they're winning. They don't like economically that they are in a better place than they were a couple years ago. They don't feel like everything is so expensive and they're just barely, you know, a lot people say they're barely making it. So when they hear someone say winners and whiners, Do they think that that... Whiner is them and maybe they're they don't feel like a whiner either. I you know I don't know that it's an interesting statement that he keeps saying that over and over. But I think for a lot of people who hear that it reinforces the image that they have.
Juravich: His head that he's out of touch. Before we take the break, Jeremy, I did want to mention that you interviewed the third candidate for governor in this race. You wrote about libertarian candidate Don Kissick. Can you tell us some more about him?
Pelzer: He's a 56-year-old TV control room operator from Ottawa, and he has been involved in the Ohio Libertarian Party for years. And he is, in many ways, he holds traditional libertarian views, lower taxes, less government. But that in some ways, though, he deviates from that, like he supports environmental regulations for fracking especially under state lands. He seems to have more moderate views on certain on certain issues like that. So for example like on abortion his stance is well the people of Ohio voted in 2023 to put abortion rights in the Constitution I'm going to respect that because the have decided and who am I I'll just be governor at the main thing for libertarians, the reason this matters is because if Don Kissick can get 5%, then libertarians can still remain a recognized minor party, which means that libertarian candidates will appear on the ballot as libertarians as opposed to them in the past, they've had to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures to keep their party status. So that's not, you know, whether he's in it to win it or not, there's different reasons people run and that's one reason the libertarians are running.
Juravich: Do you feel that he could make a dent here? Can he, who would he be siphoning votes away from? Would it be Ramaswamy? Would it Be Acton? Could it be both?
Pelzer: The traditional political wisdom is that libertarians take, I don't want to say takeaway because that's insinuating it's Republicans to lose, but that people who end up voting for Republicans would otherwise, or I'm sorry, vote for libertarians would otherwise vote for Republicans. However, many libertarians don't wanna vote for either political party. You know, these are independent voters who might otherwise stay home and not vote at all. So it's a mix. And I'm sure there's some Democrats who would end up voting Libertarian, too. So we'll see who ends up voting for Don Kissick, but...
Juravich: And he will appear on the ballot with an L next to his name.
Pelzer: But it will be interesting to see that if people at this Young Americans for Liberty convention are really fed up with Vivek Ramaswamy if they see Don Kissick as a viable alternative.
Juravich: All right, coming up, we are going to talk about whether 16 and 17 year olds should be allowed to vote and we're going to talk about a car accident that involved Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. That is when the Reporter Roundtable from all sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides in the Weekly Reporter Roundtable. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. And still with us, we have Jo Ingles, senior reporter at the Ohio Public Radio State House News Bureau, and Jeremy Pelzer, chief politics reporter at Cleveland.com. U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur was in a car accident over the weekend. Kaptur is the longest serving congresswoman in American history. She's a Democrat from Toledo who is running for reelection. She was on her way to church when her car was struck. Her spokesperson said in a statement, that she's active and alert and being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. So, I mean, it seems like she's okay. She's in the hospital, Jo, but she's OK. But she's running for re-election and she is 80 years old. So when you heard she was in a car accident, did you pause for a second thinking, oh.
Ingles: Yeah, I think everyone had that reaction, but they very quickly came out and said, yes, she's in the hospital, but she's going to recover from this, and this is not something that's life-threatening. So I think the curious thing is that it was a hit and run accident, and then when you look at the picture of the scene, the car that supposedly hit her is completely torn apart. I mean, there's no doubt it's totaled. Okay, I can call that from looking at the picture, and I don't know anything about cars, so that tells you something. But the person who was driving that car ran away from the scene somehow.
Juravich: So the hit and run literally was a run like the like taking off and running ran. Yeah. Yeah. So Jeremy, Kaptur is running for re-election. It's a rematch with Derek Maran. And I know that they're saying she's fine after the accident, but it always, you know, 80 years old, longest serving congresswoman. I mean, do you think like, will that will this impact the campaign? I mean. Derek Merrin came out with a statement hoping she's OK. But like he was he was probably already running on the she's 80 years hold thing.
Pelzer: I mean, it's never good if you're in a heat of political race and you get in a car crash like this where you have to go to the hospital. It's not never good. I certainly have no reason to believe she's anything other than active and alert, which is what her campaign paint is saying. This isn't the first time she's been in an auto accident either. A few years back, I think in 2019, she hit a backhoe or the car she was in hit a back hoe when they were in the construction site. So it's It can be wild out there on the campaign trail.
But yeah, anytime you're in the hospital, and especially if you're 80, it's a cause for concern, especially if your one of the most watched congressional races in the whole country, and the person you're running against only lost to you two years ago by only a few thousand votes.
Juravich: And Marcy Kaptur's 26-year-old campaign manager was also injured and is recovering in the hospital as well. I also pictured the juxtaposition of like 80-year old Marcy Kaptur and the 26-year old campaign manager. I just, I think that it's a lovely difference. I don't know, yeah. That's standard, you know. Standard, yeah, but.
Pelzer: That's standard, you know, in political campaigns like this, you have a lot of 20-year-olds with a lot positions of responsibility, over 20-something year olds, and, you know, and they obviously...
Juravich: Are working on a Sunday and going to church with their candidate, yeah. All right, well, let's pivot to one other thing. Joe, admittedly, this is a long shot effort by a Democratic representative, Sean Brennan, a former teacher. He is proposing letting those younger than 18 be allowed to vote. Where did this come from, and why does he want 16 and 17-year-olds to be able to vote?
Ingles: Well, he's working on this with another Democratic representative, Democratic Representative Glassburn. And they put this out there knowing that it's a very long shot, as you said. But Sean Brennan, I talked with him. He is a former government teacher. And as a teacher, he said he had a lot of 16 and 17-year-olds who were interested in voting. They were interested the whole process, But they were too young to vote And, but they were, he said, well, they were working, they were paying taxes, they were keyed into things that made him think that, hey, you know, they have a right to vote, you now? And he said sometimes they lose that, they go on to their senior year, they're 18 years old, they lose their love of interest in the government part of the politics and stuff. He says, capture it while it's there, and nurture it. So that's his thinking behind it, but it's really, Sean Brennan said the reason he thinks it's important to talk about it now is he wants to get people talking about it. What age is actually a good age to start voting?
Juravich: Do other states or can anyone let a 17-year-old vote? Yeah, there are.
Ingles: Yeah, there are other states where there are probably a dozen other states. I haven't counted them But there's a handful of other states, where you can vote younger than 18
Juravich: I did not know that. All right, well, we'll keep an eye on that, Bill. One other thing I wanted to pivot to is the state fair. Traditionally, it's been a place where politicians gather, glad hand, kiss babies, drum up support. Times have changed in many ways, but the fair continues to be a draw. Jeremy, you posted an amusing photo of Governor Mike DeWine and First Lady Fran DeWine eating their last cream puff in their leadership roles at the state Fair. It was kind of a funny photo, but can you speak to Governor DeWine's relationship with the fair a little bit.
Pelzer: Yeah, it was a big fair for Governor DeWine, both because he has kind of been the state's fairgoer in chief. He is an unabashed state fair fan. So it's notable this year because it's both his last state fair as governor where he can kind of go around and kind of be kind of the king of the fair. People say, Hi, how are you doing governor? And he goes and chats with people and, you know, kind of takes it all in. Also, it's the first fair where we're really starting to see the legacy of the hundreds of millions of dollars he has successfully pushed into the fair. There's a couple of new buildings. If you haven't seen them, they're actually pretty cool. There's like 360 theater where you can watch a film about the history of Ohio with a new food court and most importantly for me, air conditioning.
You can actually go get a cream puff in air conditioning instead of outside. So it's notable both in those two ways. The governor was actually pretty, you know, he was repeatedly asked about his legacy and whether he expects future governors will continue that putting money into the fair. And he just very, very, was very reluctant to talk about that. Both about his own legacy and kind of the future. He just kind of wanted to enjoy the moment right now.
Juravich: We in the newsroom thought that the Butter Cow was going to be a sculpture of Fran and Mike DeWine. I mean, it ended up being the America 250, which is fine, but I'm disappointed. I feel like it was a missed opportunity to make DeWine out of butter. But can you go ahead, Jo? I want to add, we were talking about the butter cow. Good to go ahead, Jo.
Ingles: I wanna add, we were talking about that voting bill and I just looked it up. There's 22 states and I believe Ohio is one of them where if you're going to be 18 by the time of the election you can vote in the primary ahead of time. So there's 22 States that do that. There are four states, California, Maryland, New Jersey and Vermont where a minimum age of 18 is set for some or all local elections. So. That's, you know, and that's what they're talking about, by the way, is local elections, you know, that kind of legislative election's not presidential. So anyway, it's got some ways to go. But yeah, the butter cow, back to the butter. Back to the fair. Back to fair. Yeah, I thought, I was surprised it wasn't the Imagination Library, because I thought it might be, I thought that would be the thing that they would seize on this year, because it's- or what?
Juravich: Or one of Fran's pies. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.
Ingles: Yeah, you know, the DeWines have expanded under, you know, that the legislature's expanded at DeWine's urging, you know involvement in the imagination library. And they've been so vocal about reading and stuff.
Juravich: We have two minutes left, Jo, and I wanted to ask you about a controversy that also happened. There was a poster contest for the fair, and the grand champion winner used artificial intelligence to make the poster. Fair organizers now say they're going to change the rules going forward, but tell Tell me about this fair controversy over the poster.
Ingles: They might want to consider changing the judges, because honestly, it took like very little time for me to figure out that that was AI. And I think most people could figure out that was a AI pretty quickly, but there were telltale signs of AI in it. And right now, the way that the rules are written. You can have AI, but they're going to change that. The thing is that the kids who didn't use AI for their posters and placed lower, I mean, they probably feel a little cheated. And I just, I wonder why it wasn't caught. I just wonder why I wasn't called.
Juravich: Yeah. Well, they said that if you disclose that you use AI and explain how and why you used it, then that was allowed. That's what the rule said.
Ingles: Yeah, but this was this was a you could see that this was AI I mean it was basically you're telling AI how to make a poster and you're representing it I mean, it's not just using a little bit of AI in it it's it was you when you look at the poster there are telltale signs and You know another thing is that you can take a picture of something like that and run it through AI and it can Tell you if it's AI in about 20 seconds. All right. It's like a Google Google lens thing
Juravich: Jeremy, we'll end on that picture of Mike and Fran DeWine sharing the cream puff that is, if anyone hasn't seen it, it is like Lady and the Tramp spaghetti style that they're sharing this cream puff.
Pelzer: There's only kind of one way to eat enormous fair food, and that's just to go for it. Just to go. And Mike and Fran DeWine go for. Thank you.
Juravich: They go for it. So everyone find the photo and we'll just end, we'll end on that note. I want to say thank you to Jeremy Pelzer, Chief Politics Reporter for Cleveland.com. Thanks, Jeremy.
Pelzer: Thank you.
Juravich: And Jo Ingles, senior reporter at the Ohio Public Radio State House News Bureau. Thanks Jo. Thank you. This has been the Reporter Roundtable from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News.