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Concerns about the future of free speech on college campuses following Charlie Kirk's assassination.

I'm Joe Ingles.

This week we take a look at farmers what they're facing tariffs weather and more.

All this week on the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

College and university campuses have long been forums for political discussions, sometimes featuring controversial figures in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination in Utah.

Students who put on political events at some of Ohio's institutions of higher learning say they are rethinking logistics.

My Statehouse News Bureau colleague Sarah Donaldson has the story.

Even though it wouldn't have been my thought, it would have felt like it was my fault.

So when I was talking to my friends, they were like, well, we can't you probably can't have another political event outside ever again.

Jonah Hendershot is chief of staff of the Miami College Republicans and chairman of the Butler County Young Republicans.

Kirk's killing shocked and angered Hendershot.

Like a large swath of American.

In Dublin on Sunday, more than a thousand Ohioans crammed into Coffman Park for a candlelight vigil honoring Kirk.

It mirrored vigils across the country briefly when GOP candidate for governor of the Big Ramaswamy was on stage, a protester in the park shouted out at him.

Tense moments like that are not always uncommon.

When the Miami College Republicans hosted Ben Shapiro last fall.

They were preparing for demonstrations against Shapiro.

They didn't materialize.

Yeah, it wasn't anything crazy.

I mean, I thought I thought we were going to see massive protests because the event was also held at an indoor venue with police presence and metal detectors.

Jacob Burdick is the past Dayton College Democrats president and the current Greater Dayton Young Democrats vice president.

Burdick says they have mostly hosted Democratic candidates running for state and local offices in the last year.

There is a box to check on whether or not we need security at the event.

Never once did I ever think I would need security at an event such as that.

Now.

I don't know.

Burdick says he disagrees with almost everything Kirk had to say.

But is someone planning to go into politics?

The assassination still hits close to home.

Political violence and truly all violence should be condemned to the fullest extent.

He notes he has friends across the aisle.

You know, I don't really handle conversations like I'm going to change their mind.

But I want to know why they think that way.

Hendershot does too.

There's a guy I was just talking to the other day on their board about Charlie Kirk's assassination, and, I just want to say they gave a really good statement this time around, and I just want to thank him for doing that.

So I think I think the climate's getting better.

Both men say they still feel strongly about giving political figures a platform at their schools.

Sara Donaldson, Statehouse News Bureau.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah comes as a sweeping higher education overhaul known as Senate Bill one took effect in Ohio in June.

That law was approved by Republicans as a way to protect free speech and what they termed intellectual diversity on public college campuses, which they have said is being threatened by woke liberal indoctrination.

An effort to overturn the law failed to get the signatures needed to put it before voters.

Senate Bill one sponsor is Republican Senator Jerry Serino, but I want to ask you about Senate bill.

What is a free speech bill, which is what you've always defended is, as you said, the goal was protecting true intellectual diversity and viewpoints on college campuses.

Is it possible in this environment where we're seeing a lot of what people would call cancel culture, that the pendulum is going to swing the other way that you've been talking about protecting conservative viewpoints and ensuring that those students are protected on campus.

What about students who now feel that they can't say something about the Charlie Kirk assassination?

Well, I think Senate Bill one is about free speech.

Regardless of what position you're taking on an issue.

And let's face it, I don't know if Charlie, knew anything about Senate Bill one.

To be honest with you, but what he was practicing going to campuses and engaging people who disagreed with him.

Right.

And trying to educate and persuade.

Sometimes he succeeded.

Sometimes he didn't.

That's what the essence of Senate Bill one is.

Let's have that debate.

Let's let the, participants decide how they want to, feel or take a position on a particular issue here.

You know, the difference is when when people on campuses are saying things that are encouraging violence and that sort of thing that is not protected speech.

In my opinion, free speech is not absolute.

I can't defame you, without facing consequences if it's if what I'm saying is untrue.

So it's not absolute and it cannot incite violence.

But if people want to disagree with me or Charlie Kirk's position, they have every right to do that, and I will defend that, right?

So you've got Ohio State recently expelling a student for sharing pro-Palestinian comments online, the ACLU suing over that.

But across the country, you've got professors dismissed over comments they made following Kirk's assassination at Clemson, UCLA, Fresno State, University of Mississippi, University of Arkansas, Cumberland University, East Tennessee State, Coastal Carolina.

You have said that there's a far left tilt on college campuses.

That's part of what Senate Bill one tried to do.

But you also said cancel culture was bad.

Is this not cancel culture?

Well, I think cancel culture is bad and I've never really liked it.

But I think the nuance that we'll probably have to see played out in the courts is when a university professor is associated with the university and they make comments like this.

They are effectively speaking for the university, at least in the minds of people who are hearing it, that those professors can, in their own capacity, can say whatever they want.

But when they're associated with the university and compensated by the university, they have a responsibility to be a little bit more measured in what they say and how they present themselves.

I think that is a one of those nuances of this First Amendment.

Charlie Kirk's assassination was a violent, horrible tragedy.

It shouldn't have happened to him.

It shouldn't happen to anybody speaking publicly or not publicly.

And his family deserves support and sympathy.

Having said that, you are hearing people who are sharing comments and words that Charlie Kirk set himself as showing that he may not have been a person that they agreed with, and that is it appropriate to talk about Charlie Kirk and some of the things that he said now, is is that wrong to be saying I disagree with him because he said these things about women or people of color or religious views or anything like that?

No.

Again, in in the spirit of what Charlie stood for, if he were here today, he would encourage those kinds of comments and challenges.

I've watched many of his, college campus events.

Okay.

And, and and he not only accepted other people's opinions.

If they disagreed with him, he encouraged them.

He brought them to the front of the line, to the microphone.

As a as a priority to others who might have agreed with him.

And so, in his spirit, there's no, no way we could take issue with people being able to say, I disagreed with Charlie in a professional in a respectful manner.

That's how it always should be.

I think that's great.

And we should encourage that in Charlie, I believe, would encourage that today if he were here and so, just to be clear, you don't think I mean, if college professors say something privately on their own social media, for instance, not associated with the university, and they are dismissed, is that cancel culture?

Well, I think there's a there should be some professional standards that we have here.

These are people in our classrooms paid by the state in many cases or private institutions.

And they should they should use a measure of, of respectability, I think, in, in, in determining how they express themselves.

Some of the language, some of the postings that I have seen are just, you know, I wouldn't want that person teaching a kindergarten class or a college class or anything in between.

It's unprofessional.

It's it's, it condones violence or even suggests that violence is okay, in for political reasons.

And that is just plain wrong.

Do you think Senate Bill one can help improve the environment, or could.

I mean, his critics have said it's going to make things worse.

Senate Bill one, it will create a backdrop for free expression and debate.

That's really what it's all about.

And if we have more of that on our campuses, I think we'll see less extreme on both sides.

And we'll see that people feel that they have an opportunity to convey their viewpoints, and express themselves without fear of any kind, whether it's physical fear or, ostracization, by students and faculty members.

Senate Bill one, I think it's it's growing in perceived value.

Now, unfortunately, because of this, grotesque circumstance, and I think it's going to help things on our campuses if it's carried out the proper way by our trustees.

Serino says there are several proposals to honor Charlie Kirk in some way circulating among lawmakers.

This week, the Republican and Democratic leaders of Ohio's House and Senate put out a joint statement condemning political violence, which mentions the assassinations of Kirk.

And Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman of Minnesota, who was killed along with her husband earlier this year.

As Ohio Farmers approach harvest, many are facing some tough choices brought on by heavy rains and then drought conditions and tariffs put in place by President Trump.

State House correspondent Joe Ingles hit the road to find out more.

Farmers who went to the annual agricultural trade show called the Farm Science Review this past week were sizing up their situations, including Sam Smale, who farms about 200 acres of soybeans near the Pennsylvania and Ohio border.

Smale blames the summer weather, which ranged from too much rain to no rain at all.

Inflation and the impacts of tariffs for making it more expensive to get what is needed to grow the beans.

Well, basically our input costs are about double was in the past five years.

Fertilizer spray equipment, fuel.

And this year, you know, we had a lot of rain getting them in.

So they were late getting in.

And now we have the dry weather.

So they're very small and the cost of them isn't going up.

My boys sent me something about five years or from about five years ago.

You know, the input costs are almost double, but we're still getting paid for prices.

Ten years ago for the soybeans.

And then there's tariffs on top on top of that.

Yes.

And how's that affecting?

Just affecting the prices.

You know, seven years ago we were getting 15 to 17, 17, you know, dollars a bushel this year were barely meeting ten.

So that's a big, big cut in the pocketbook.

Ty Higgins with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation said soybean farmers are hurting right now because of tariffs.

China has not bought anything from U.S.

farmers this year.

And it wasn't long ago that, a third of the soybeans we grew here in Ohio went directly to China.

So, there's a lot of market share that we're missing.

Higgins said while farmers in other parts of the country are expecting record yields, Ohio farmers are not.

You look at the I states, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and they're talking about record yields.

And we're not, here in Ohio.

It doesn't bode well for the crop prices, right.

Supply and demand kind of takes hold.

And we are seeing, commodity prices that are equal to that, that we saw in 1974.

So farmers are doing what they can to make up for it.

You cut the cost where you can.

You basically there's no new equipment.

You fix what you got and you put it back together.

Some farmers are able to store some of their crop and hope it will bring more later.

But not all farmers are feeling the pain equally.

Mark Meyer has a small organic soybean farm near Marysville and sells soybeans to customers in Ohio and nearby states.

So he's not affected as much by being able to export to other countries.

And when it comes to inputs, and that's not as big of an issue either.

The reason why is because I build up my soil to where I don't need fertilizer anymore.

I don't use sprays, I cultivate everything, all I have is my time and fuel and I use my own seed.

It's a thought process.

Okay.

My brother farmed conventionally.

He doesn't like what I do because I got weeds.

I put in rows, I don't spray, I run my tractors late.

But on the other hand, I get twice the price for my grain, and I don't have hardly any inputs.

So, price per acre, I probably do better.

Or as well.

Many conventional Ohio farmers do have some recourse.

While soybean farmers might be hurting with the tariffs.

One industry that's not hurting beef Chris Gibbs has cattle on his Shelby County farm, along with other things.

And because beef prices are high, he hopes he can recoup some of his soybean losses.

He said he learned something about tariffs in the first Trump administration in 2018.

That time, President Trump had applied punitive tariffs on all of our traditional trading partners.

And then because the markets, came apart and we started to lose exorbitant amount of money, particularly in soybeans, he offered us hush money, to keep us quiet.

That hush money, as Gibbs called it, came in the way of federal subsidies that haven't been offered so far in this tariff tiff.

But that loss was enough for Gibbs to make some changes, including political ones.

Gibbs, who was chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, now heads the Shelby County Democratic Party and the Ohio Democratic Party's Rule caucus.

He says farmers throughout Ohio are giving him an earful, especially when it comes to the cost of farming.

Even with American companies like John Deere.

I had a chain go bad on my corn planter.

Okay.

And so I went to to John Deere, bought a John Deere part right here.

This a 200 and 505.

That's a John Deere part number, a true John Deere part number.

Maybe say it on the other side.

I don't know.

But looky here.

Made in China.

But I do know this, that I had to pay a tariff on this thing and that cost me more money.

And Gibbs says that's the kind of economic sensibility farmers understand.

So he's trying to mobilize farmers to take action against Republicans and the Trump administration.

They're petrified of farmers.

And this is the time for farmers to stand up and say, we demand trade.

We want trade with China.

We want trade with the Pacific Rim, and not just these minor trade deals where we're increasing from not very much to just a little bit more.

We want real trade to push these commodities out, because I'll tell you the best way to extract foreign dollars and put them right into rural communities is through trade.

Back at the Farm Science Review, Democratic candidate for governor, Doctor Amy Acton, was making the rounds.

She said she's been talking to farm families, especially women.

They own farms.

They inherit farms.

They do the books on farms.

They run the forest, the culture.

So and on both sides of the aisle, they're sharing many of the same issues.

They're talking about costs.

They're talking about the cost of health care.

And that somebody has to work a second job off the farm just to have health insurance.

Acton said the farmers she speaks to talk about the cost of housing, property taxes and public education, all issues where she thinks Democrats can offer a better deal.

But getting farmers who have been voting Republican for decades could be a hard sell.

Republican candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, has also been speaking to farmers who say they'll continue to support the GOP and him.

I'm honored to have the support of Ohio's grain farmers, our corn and wheat farmers who made the first endorsement they've made in over 30 years for a gubernatorial candidate.

And I think that that speaks volumes.

Ramaswamy said he understands the importance of working with farmers, and has a plan to relieve them of some of their property taxes.

So far, the political arm of the Ohio Farm Bureau has endorsed anyone for governor, but in the past has favored Republican candidates for various offices.

Farmers say they want more than political talk.

They say they need action.

In the meantime, many are changing the way they do business.

Some smaller family farmers are giving up and selling to larger operations, Schmale said in his county.

Less than a dozen farmers are responsible for nearly all of the farming.

They're getting bigger.

You have to do the quantity to make the profit.

And the question this year is whether the profit will be high enough that farmers can offset the losses, and whether any losses and income might impact future political losses.

Joe Ingles, Statehouse News Bureau.

A panel of state lawmakers from both major political parties are meeting on Monday to talk about the 15 district congressional map that must be approved by November 30th.

That's happening because a 2018 constitutional amendment says a map must have bipartisan support, or it's only good for four years.

And the map it's been used for the last two cycles did not have Democratic support.

Hundreds of advocates calling for a congressional map that they say will more fairly represent Ohioans met for a rally in Columbus this week, starting at a church on Capitol Square and then crossing the street to encircle the statehouse.

There are ten Republicans and five Democrats in Ohio's congressional delegation now, but some in the GOP have pushed for a 12 three map.

Democrats have proposed a map that in most years would yield an eight Republican seven Democrat congressional delegation, which Republican House Speaker Matt Huffman called gerrymandered.

One of the leaders of the fair districts, Ohio coalition that led that statehouse demonstration is Jenn Miller, the executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

it.

What we are saying is we want a map that reflects the preferences of Ohioans, and we know that, Ohio is slightly more Republican and Democrat in terms of percentages of votes.

When you start talking about presidential elections, for instance.

Yeah, right.

And so what we would like to see is that the percentage of votes that go to each party for Congress, would be about the percentage of seats.

And the reason why the Democrats are a deep minority in the state House is also because of gerrymandering.

And I just want to really quickly remind folks that we opposed gerrymandering here in Ohio when the Democrats were the ones doing it and actively campaigned against it.

We actually recently opposed gerrymandering in Cleveland, done by Democrats in City Hall.

And so we understand that politicians of both parties do this.

Our point is that we want to see maps that really respond to voters.

Instead, what we tend to see are districts that stay Republican or stay Democrat, no matter what the lines are drawn to reduce competition.

And when we don't have competition in districts, we get lawmakers who know that they can win their seat over and over and over again without responding to the people.

So that harms every single one of us, regardless as to our party affiliation.

And so that's what we want.

We want an open process where voters can engage in that process in a meaningful way.

And ultimately, we want maps that have some more competition and respond to the way that the voters vote.

If a map is drawn to be eight 7 or 12 three, or what are all of those maps, if they're drawn that way, are they gerrymandered?

A 12 three map is absolutely gerrymandered.

Is that eight seven map gerrymandered?

No.

It doesn't.

No.

So what I would say is, well, it could be I mean, again, like any eight seven map, we would want to look and see what those lines look like.

But the only way you could get to a map that is 12 Republicans and three Democrats is by slicing and dicing communities with the goal of guaranteeing those political outcomes.

Governor Mike DeWine had said last year during the campaign to create that 15 member citizens commission that would draw the lines that if voters rejected it, which he said, that issue would directly result in the worst gerrymandering we have ever seen.

He said that he would work to put together a proposal for a nonpartisan legislative commission, like the one that's in Iowa that draws the maps.

There were even Republicans during the campaign who said they realized that there were people who were frustrated.

Maybe some changes could be made.

Well, here we are now, DeWine is now saying that there isn't time to do any sort of a change to the commission and that he, he didn't think he could raise the money to put it on the ballot.

What are your thoughts on that Iowa commission and his plan back then to to put that forward?

So first off, we've known for years that we needed to redraw these, congressional district lines.

And we've certainly known since November that citizens, not politicians, did not pass.

So the governor has had time to work on reform efforts.

Ultimately, the Iowa plan works for Iowa.

So Iowa is, you know, their population is spread more evenly across the state.

It's more homogenous.

I think Iowans are just kind of very lovely humans.

And so it works in Iowa better.

It appears to work in Iowa.

But it actually also doesn't take politicians out of the equation.

So, yeah, there's this nonpartisan commission that makes the map, but it's still the politicians who are going to approve that map.

And so it still gives a lot of power for politicians to approve maps that favor them.

And and that's where we really need to draw the line.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow.

But Ohioans, we have got to get to the point where we take politicians out of the process, that we understand that the people of Ohio are much better at working together to design district plans that represent us and our communities fairly.

Congressional candidates have to file by February 4th.

You've got Republican Secretary of State Frank Larose saying that the map really needs to be in place by November 27th.

So Thanksgiving for the cycle to stay on track.

Is that feasible?

I mean, there is possibly going to be litigation over this.

Is there time enough to get a constitutional map in place by February 4th?

They have so many constitutional maps to choose from.

So if folks may remember that we went to the Supreme Court last time, there are maps that were introduced there that are that constitutional.

I think there's a website where citizens can introduce maps.

There's like 60 maps there.

Yeah.

I mean, it's actually much harder to make district lines that are designed to reduce competition and make sure certain favored candidates win over and over again.

That is much harder than drawing districts that truly represent the people of Ohio.

Ohio's constitution dictates a new congressional map has to pass by September 30th.

With a 3/5 vote in both the House and the Senate, including half of all Democrats.

If that doesn't happen, which doesn't seem likely, the Ohio Redistricting Commission has until October 31st to come up with a map that gets the votes of both Democratic members.

If not, redistricting then goes back to the General Assembly, where a map must be approved by November 30th.

That can happen with just a simple majority, though a Partizan map would only be good for four years.

Congressional candidates must file their paperwork by February 4th.

And that's it for this week for my colleagues at the statehouse.

News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

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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 Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at porterwright.com.

Porter Wright inspired Every day in Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.