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Lawmakers take off for Thanksgiving, leaving both finished bills and leftovers.

We look ahead to next year's big statewide races.

And I'm Joe Ingles here in Ohio.

Multi-jurisdictional task forces are fighting crime together I'll tell you how in the state of Ohio Just.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

We start the show with breaking news as a Friday morning, Democratic former Congressman Tim Ryan has ruled out running for governor next year.

Ryan said in a statement, quoting here.

After careful consideration, much prayer and reflection, and after long conversations with my family, my closest friends and advisers, I've made the decision not to run for governor in 2026.

That potentially clears the field for former Ohio Department of Health director Doctor Amy Acton, who's been campaigning for governor since January.

If there's no primary on either side, Acton would face tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who recently touted his second endorsement by President Trump for governor and got the early backing of the Ohio Republican Party in May.

Lawmakers launched their holiday vacation this week, passing a bunch of bills but leaving some for later.

And that leftover list includes a long awaited bill on marijuana and intoxicating hemp regulations.

That last item was what held up business at the state House long after midnight on Wednesday, as a deal appeared dead and then returned, revived a few hours later.

The bill would require sales of THC products and marijuana dispensaries only and ban them at convenience stores, gas stations and other retailers.

And it mirrors a recent federal ban on THC beverages taking effect next year.

Representative Brian Stewart, Senator Steve Huffman and Representative Tex Fisher, all Republicans, were the key negotiators this is a big bill.

It's a compromise.

Everybody's going to have to accept some things they like and some things they don't like.

And I think there was enough of a, a sentiment in the room that we felt like we could take another run at a whip count and potentially get to a number.

We'll see.

We still have a vote to take, but, felt like we were close enough that we could get a conference report out.

No, I agree.

I think sometimes you have to have patience.

You know, an understanding of what's really in the bill.

And we were, I think we were so close that, you know, things came together, and we did not want to walk away being so close.

With with where we are at.

And I think we came to a good compromise going forward.

Yeah.

I mean, we moved the long way from, you know, this was supposed to be done at 8:30 a.m.

and it's after midnight.

A lot of accommodations were made, to get to the point where it was the will of our caucus to proceed.

Democrats were frustrated with the bill over money for expungements of previous convictions, and the way the bill moved, including representative bride Rose Sweeney and Senator Bill Tamura.

At the end of the day, we are in the minority.

This is a gerrymandered state, and I do what I can to make bad bills less bad.

We made that bill less ban and what they did was make it even worse.

the whole process, as we said, is ridiculous.

The fact we're voting on stuff and we have no idea what the hell is in there.

Again, I saw it when I walked in on a screen and I didn't understand all the stuff they were actually putting in it.

It was lines about changing things that was already in the bill.

I mean, that's not the way we're supposed to do business here.

What it is, the way they do business.

It's not the way I like to do business.

Like I like to read things for a vote on them, God forbid.

House Minority Leader Danny Isaacson voted against the bill.

for us, it's very important that there is that there is not only the streamlined expungement language that we got, a month ago, but that there is hopefully some expanded access to expungement funding to to help waive the fees as a barrier to folks who have, you know, these minor marijuana misdemeanors from 20 years ago that are continuing to hold them back from jobs and housing and, other opportunities.

I think it's important that we be smart and intentional about keeping kids safe from intoxicating hemp and regulating that industry in a way that we know what's in those products.

We've been saying that for not just months, almost years now.

And so I think there's a way to get to a place where the bill makes sense, is smart, does the right thing.

I just don't know that this legislature always does all those things all at once.

The bill would also preserve the 36% of marijuana sales taxes the state has been collecting since voters approved legalizing marijuana in 2023, and start distributing it to communities that host dispensaries.

It passed in a close vote in the House, but the Senate must still approve it, which could happen next month.

Also this week for property tax bills passed that Republican sponsors say add up to $2 billion in tax relief.

But opponents say were rushed and could have done more for the bills seek to cap the growth of increases on funding that can be levied without a vote, known as inside millage, and limit property tax revenue growth for districts at the guaranteed minimum funding rate, known as the 20 mill floor.

That bill also comes with an expansion of the owner occupied tax credit for people who live in the homes they own.

One bill would allow county budget commissions to reduce millage of property tax levies.

Lawmakers in both chambers also approved and sent on to governor Mike DeWine a budget correction bill that started as a way to ensure college name, image and likeness contracts and when college eligibility does.

But they added in $40 million into a fund for first responders with post-traumatic stress.

A change the formula for nursing home payments, and made it clear that publicly funded child cares are paid based on attendance, not enrollment.

They also eliminated the four day grace period for absentee ballots to arrive at boards of elections and still be counted.

And they overhauled the vicious dog law, requiring owners to lock the animals away when guests are in the home and euthanizing a dog that kills or seriously injures a person.

There were also bills approved to require public schools to display so-called foundation documents in social studies and history classrooms, which can include the US Constitution, the Magna Carta, the Northwest Ordinance and the Ten Commandments to mandate that public school students starting in fifth grade watch a video on fetal development produced by an anti-abortion group and to declare the Buckeye the state's official candy.

Those still need to be voted on in the other chamber before going on to DeWine.

The 150 Ohio National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, this summer by governor Mike DeWine at the request of President Trump, will not be returning to Ohio for a while.

Their mission, which Trump had said was about fighting crime in DC but also has included doing landscaping and picking up trash, has been extended from an end date of November 30th to February 28th.

But DeWine continues to say that National Guard troops will not be going into Ohio's cities, and that he thinks bringing in a team of Ohio Highway Patrol troopers and other law enforcement experts is a better approach to fighting crime.

Those task forces have been working in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton to target high crime areas and repeat offenders who were illegally carrying weapons.

And the state can help with air surveillance, increased information sharing and enforcement of alcohol laws.

we can bring in another 1800 or a that can help local community target the violent offenders.

And that is something.

That works very well.

State House correspondent Joe Ingles and photographer Dan Connick wanted to see how one of those task forces operate, and went to Cincinnati to join them for a night on the streets.

If an AI in Batavia will be two for service.

This is the Cincinnati Violent Crimes Task Force.

She is a staff lieutenant with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

We are.

There are several units out.

And when I say units, we have state troopers.

Probably 15.

And then there's also a number of Cincinnati officers.

They probably have 15 or 16 as well.

We we also have SRT units out with us.

So that special response team units, they are in unmarked cars.

And the reason for that is, is if we have a traffic stop, because our guys will be out there and they'll be proactive on our ride along.

Earlier this month, it didn't take long for something to pop up.

Cincinnati police had received a report of shots fired.

The suspect ran off into the woods next to a freeway, and a highway patrol helicopter was on his trail.

Yep.

He's, He's not moving anymore.

He's walking down, and, he's in a position, below this tree.

Might be trying to hide under a log or something.

Shrink and other local and state officers were able to see exactly what was happening in real time here on I-74 and Cincinnati.

They just apprehended a suspect.

Cincinnati police, Ohio highway patrol, air patrol.

They worked together and got the suspect that this was shortly after that.

Another call came in.

Police had pulled a car over in downtown Cincinnati, initially for having windows that were tinted too dark.

So this guy was frequenting that known drug area off of Green and Republic.

When when police came around, he quickly hurried off.

They went to, stop the car and he slow rolled for a long time.

So not knowing what he's doing in the car, but it sounds like he might have some drugs right now stuffed up in his racked up.

He was searched.

Drugs were found.

He was booked on drug charges.

And no sooner had that happen.

Then another call came in from a nearby area.

This time the suspect was on foot and from the air, officers could see him throw a gun away while being pursued.

The task force seeks to target hotspots with the highest crime rates.

The chopper gives officers on the ground some added protection.

We don't necessarily come into the city a lot.

So when our officers do come down here, we have their officers with them.

Not only do the officers here know their patterns of different suspects and different things that are going on in the city, but they know where they're at in the city.

So as our troopers driving, that officer can direct them to wherever we need to go.

If there's a call like we had earlier tonight where a suspect was shooting at whatever he was shooting at and takes off on foot so that officer can direct him exactly where to go.

So we work well together that way.

And like I said, you got more eyes in the car, right?

You got not only watching vehicles that are doing whatever on the roadway.

Well, that officer is also watching people on the sidewalks and seeing if they're jaywalking or, you know, if they do a certain thing when we drive by, if they do some kind of behavior, that's not normal.

You know, they can stop and you can talk to somebody.

You can talk to anybody you want.

You don't necessarily if they say, I don't want to talk to you and they walk away.

That's fine too.

But sometimes you get stuff out of that as well.

Since September, the state has offered a menu of services to local law enforcement on ground highway patrol officers, air patrol, liquor control agencies, and data related services.

Cincinnati Police are also working with the US Marshals Office and have arrested suspects for arson, sexual assault and murder.

Joe Ingles, Statehouse News Bureau.

With the 2025 elections in the rearview mirror, next year's midterms are ahead.

And that in Ohio, means a race for governor and U.S.

senator, plus the four other statewide executive offices of attorney general, auditor, secretary of state and treasurer.

The entire Ohio House, half the Ohio Senate, all 15 members of the U.S.

Congress in Ohio under a new map approved last month, and two seats on the Ohio Supreme Court, one of which is occupied by Justice Jennifer Brunner, the lone Democrat in elected statewide office.

For a preview of the politics ahead after the holidays, I talk with Christopher Devine, associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton.

We talked before former Congressman Tim Ryan announced that he won't run for governor next year.

incumbent Republican Senator John Houston is facing his first run for that seat after being appointed in January.

Democratic former Senator Sherrod Brown is running against him after losing his seat to Bernie Marino last year.

He is one of the few senators who has been ousted who's trying to get back into the Senate.

What are your thoughts on that race?

Because it's gotten a lot of attention recently, because you've got a current senator and a former senator, and that's kind of unusual, right?

Given the trend we saw, heading into 2024, Jerry Brown losing election for for the first time since since, Bob Taft being for secretary of state back in 1990, another loss of his career.

He lost that race, but just narrowly by three points at the same time that President Trump was winning, in Ohio again, this time by 11 rather than eight points.

Clearly the trend lines seem to be one that that was a real warning sign for, for Democrats.

And you might have even expected that Sherrod Brown would say, I'm not going to try that again.

There's reason to believe that they have a better chance in a midterm election year with traditionally, we've seen the out party doing pretty well.

Sherrod Brown in particular has high name recognition.

And so if any Democrats are going to step into that role, I don't think Democrats are going to imagine anyone who would have a better shot than Sherrod Brown.

And I think to the the fall that we see from the shut down the, the, how it fed into a larger narrative, which I was, referencing earlier, about the economy, but especially about affordability and about health care.

Even more specifically, to the extent, you know, that has legs, if that's not able to be resolved somehow through subsequent, legislation.

So the vote that, Leader Thune in the Senate has promised, Democrats on, the ACA, subsidies, you know, if that's not resolved, that persists as an issue.

And if we keep having prices going up, or at least a perception that that prices, have been up, then that's something I think that actually works pretty well for Sherrod Brown politically.

You know, we think of his political profile as one that's it's pretty unique.

He's carved out a profile over decades of being someone who, was more of an economic populist, you know, before that became associated in some ways more with, with, you know, Trump and the Republican agenda.

But for decades, well before the Affordable Care Act, he was talking about health care reform, much more expansive ones even than what we saw with the ACA.

So for him to step into that role now and talk about health care as a leading issue in the campaign or other things relating to it about affordability, particularly for working class voters.

You know, whether you agree with him on the issue or not, just I think the fact is that he's going to have, more credibility in making that argument than just some random Democrat who steps in that had built that profile over time.

I think voters will see that as consistent with who they've known Sherrod Brown to be over the years to be talking about, for example, health care front and center with what we've seen over the last couple of weeks with the elections and and obviously the shut down, the Epstein files, all this.

What about the, members of Congress?

The newly drawn congressional map seems to suggest a 12 Republican, three Democrat map.

But do you think Republicans will indeed get to that 12 or could Democrats potentially hold their own?

And we're primarily talking about, Marcy Kaptur in Toledo and Greg Landsman in Cincinnati.

You know, it's it's so hard to project that just given what could happen in the next year.

And, who gets the blame if it goes wrong or who gets the credit?

If it goes well, we don't know what other issues are to come up, for that matter.

You know, many of us have seen enough, election cycles to know that some issues come on to the agenda that you don't expect, whether that's national security related.

It's just very hard to anticipate that.

So with a big caveat there, I would say that, you know, it looks it looks like Democrats are headed for a strong midterm as, again, we typically see and a president's I don't know if we consider this President Trump's first midterm.

It's not exactly, but it sort of is, that he was out of office before this.

And we saw Democrats doing quite well, I really think better than a lot of people expected in those for not just Virginia and New Jersey races.

But even in California with, with their their district map vote, Pennsylvania and Georgia and some other races.

There are a lot of indications that Democrats are going to do, well.

So with that said, you know, to the extent that Republicans were building into these maps, some expectations based on past elections, well, Democrats might overperform, relative to what they've done in the past and relative to what Republicans were expecting.

So, it's very hard to judge that.

Probably the safest thing to say is Republicans, were giving themselves a better shot, to win more seats than if they had stuck with the old maps.

Of course, there were also, proposals to go even further with the maps that could have been more favorable to Republicans, perhaps.

But, I think we're to have some close races.

I would expect Republicans to do a little, you know, better than they would have otherwise.

But, Democrats very much have a shot in these races as well.

Turn to the governor's race, doctor Amy.

Acting governor Mike DeWine, former Department of Health director, has been campaigning for the Democratic nomination since the beginning of the year.

Tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy joined the race not long after her and got the endorsement of President Trump the day he entered the race.

And later, after Attorney General Dave Yost dropped out, Rama Swamy got an early endorsement from the Ohio Republican Party.

The Democratic Party has not endorsed Acton, perhaps because there may be another candidate in the race and former Congressman Tim Ryan.

What are your thoughts on that race and specifically on a contested Democratic primary in a strongly Republican state?

When the GOP candidate comes in with a lot of money and already a ton of endorsements, I, it's a fascinating race.

Especially if it ends up big Ramaswamy versus Amy Acton to have two people running for the office who haven't held political office before, is fascinating.

Of course, involving government in some ways, we see with enacting it as, Ohio health director and Vikram's swami briefly being involved with Doge.

You know, there's there's something to speak of there, but but none of the traditional experience, political experience we would expect would be different, of course, if Tim Ryan were to get in as a former member of Congress and someone who would run for president, Senate, much more politically experienced, in that way, but also a losing record on the statewide level.

But yeah, and that may be one of the knocks against him.

If he couldn't beat JD Vance, why should we expect him to to beat, Vikram Swamy in, in this race?

Although Senate and governor races can be different, emphasizing legislative versus, executive abilities.

So forth, but his record is as a legislator.

So, you know, some of it will hinge on who the Democratic nominee is.

Is Tim Ryan actually going to get in the race?

We were supposed to have a decision by September 30th, and then that didn't happen.

And now we're waiting a little longer and we'll see in the later it gets, you know, the the stranger.

It seems that Tim Ryan has entered it like, what's the reason, for this.

In the meantime, Amy Acton does gain more experience as a political candidate, which could be valuable to her.

So, you know, it's a little hard to predict the dynamics of this.

I will say a couple of things on kind of the primary side of it.

It is impressive how much Bhavik Ramaswamy really easily.

He cleared the Republican field.

There's good reason to think, although we don't know, that maybe Jim Tressel was, was put in as lieutenant governor to to, apply for the job of governor and run against Vic Ramaswamy.

He chose not to.

I don't think that's a coincidence that he and others, stayed out of the race.

So that speaks to, Ram Swami's strength as a candidate, least among Republicans, his ability to unite Republicans.

And that's significant in a more or less Republican state on the Democratic side.

One thing I'm fascinated to see between and the Acton and Tim Ryan, if there in fact, there is a primary, what is the focal point for that primary?

What's kind of Tim Ryan's argument for why not to go with Amy Acton?

If it is it an experience thing, although she has, you know, governmental experience, but not elective office.

But as you pointed out, Tim Ryan's lost some races, statewide.

So, or, you know, failed in his presidential campaign and so forth.

So is that a credible argument from him?

Is it a policy debate?

Is it sort of an ideological debate?

I'd be really interested to see what character that takes on.

Of course, we don't know until Tim Ryan actually does get in.

If he does, and then I'll be fascinated to see what his, announcement, speech or video or whatever it may be would actually look like.

And finally, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde is said that next year will be the best year for Ohio Democrats since 2006, which is a year they won 4 or 5 statewide executive offices, and Sherrod Brown unseated US Senator Mike DeWine.

Democrats have been looking for a good year, basically ever since then.

You've kind of answered this, but does this year coming up really have the makings of a good year for Democrats, or is it likely to be another good year for Republicans who have won 82% of statewide elections with candidates since 1994?

Now, you know, I think it's valuable to step back as you're kind of indicating, referring to 2006, for those who haven't pause to think about it.

And many have, it's remarkable.

Republicans performance, especially while Ohio was still considered a purple state at the presidential level.

When we talk about statewide office as governor, lieutenant governor, and the four other statewide, so I'm excluding Senate as a federal office here, Democrats have not won one of those races since 2006.

I mean, that is remarkable.

And is that because of Democrats failures, I think they've had some ineffective, chairs of the party at times, for instance, had, problems with their organization.

Maybe sometimes it's the candidates.

Is that the strength of Republicans?

You know, we can all judge that for, for ourselves.

But Democrats have a real long term problem in the state.

It's not just about Donald Trump that preceded him.

In fact, I would say some of the environment, welcoming to a more populous Republican like Trump.

Was there.

So, I, I would agree that this looks like probably Democrats best opportunity since 2006 at this point.

You know, with those caveats, just looking at where the economic trends are heading.

But, if we're getting a push back push past 2026, you wonder, let's say it is fairly successful.

Is that a one off or is that something where Democrats are actually be able to build long term?

I will say just getting some Democrats into high profile offices would be helpful for them just to have a deeper bench going forward.

I think we're seeing that bench strained in some ways, which does provide opportunities for someone like Amy Acton to step up, but also, gives, you know, an opportunity for what you might feel like some voter to some voters, like a retread.

And Tim Ryan again running for office potentially.

by the way, on the Houston Brown race since 1947, 29 out senators have tried to return to the chamber, but only seven have been successful, including Ohio's Howard, Metts and Bob, who was appointed to the U.S.

Senate in early 1974 but then lost John Glenn in the Democratic primary.

But in 1976 he beat Robert Taft Jr in a rematch of their 1970 Senate race.

And that's it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State news.org or find us online by searching State of Ohio Show.

You can stay in the know by registering for Ohio State House alerts through this QR code, or by texting state news to this number.

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Happy Thanksgiving, and please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

You.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter, right, is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter.

Right.

Com Porter Wright inspired every day.

You know, Ohio Education Association representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at o h e talk.