2022 Voter Guide: 3 Republicans challenge DeWine for governor; Whaley vs. Cranley for Dems

Welcome to the 2022 Voter Guide produced by the League of Women Voters and Akron Beacon Journal with funding from the Knight Foundation.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine faces three challengers in the May 3 primary, while former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley are vying for the Democratic nomination.

Candidate responses are not edited.

Ohio governor race: Republicans try to unseat Mike DeWine, Democratic mayors face off

$350 million in revenue? John Cranley wants to pay for jobs with marijuana. Would that work?

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine faces three challengers in the May 3 primary, while former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley are vying for the Democratic nomination.

The following information was provided by candidates to the 2022 Voter Guide, produced by the League of Women Voters and Akron Beacon Journal with funding from the Knight Foundation.

Candidate responses are not edited.

Republicans

Joe Blystone

Website: https://www.blystoneforgovernor.com/

Candidate did not respond.

Mike DeWine

Website: https://www.mikedewine.com/

Candidate did not respond.

Ron Hood

Website: https://www.hoodkellerforohio.com/

Candidate did not respond.

Jim Renacci

Website: https://jimrenacci.com/

Candidate did not respond.

Democrats

John Cranley

Training and Experience: Former Cincinnati Mayor and Co-Founder of the Ohio Innocence Project

Education: Xavier High School; John Carroll University, BA (magna cum laude); Harvard Law School, JD; Harvard Divinity School, Master in Theological Studies

Website: https://www.johncranley.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mayor.cranley

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnCranley

What are the most pressing policy issues facing Ohio? What solutions will you promote? Jobs and the economy are the most pressing issues to Ohioans. As governor, I will create 30,000 jobs every year that pay at least $60,000 per year and do not require a college degree, rebuilding roads and bridges, expanding broadband Wifi access to the entire state and creating advanced manufacturing and renewable energy jobs. Secondly, I will help pay for those jobs by legalizing and taxing adult-use marijuana. Finally, take on inflation by halting the gas tax and providing Ohio middle-class families with a yearly energy dividend funded by energy profits, similar to that of Alaska and North Dakota.

How will you address challenges in the healthcare system? Too many Ohioans have to drive too far for basic health care, and when people change jobs they wonder what benefits will be lost. This is wrong. As governor, I will make sure that each of Ohio’s 88 counties has at least one federally qualified health center. These centers focus on primary health care and offer services that are affordable and high quality. I also will make health care benefits portable so that workers can take their insurance with them from job to job. Using Obamacare and making improvements that are right for Ohio, I will bring health care providers and good-paying jobs to each of the 88 counties and workers will have confidence they can keep their benefits. I also will increase treatment for the opioid crisis and mental health, because we should treat addiction and mental health as a top public health priority. And I know that abortion is healthcare so I will veto and bills that seek to limit abortion care or restrict access to it.

The pandemic has brought to light social and economic inequities, what role does the governor have in alleviating such inequities? Growing up in Cincinnati, my city was losing population and in decline. I’m proud that under my tenure, we’ve had a major comeback, with more jobs, higher wages, and population growth for the first time in sixty years. In 2021, the Milken Institute ranked Cincinnati as the best performing city in Ohio, a ranking that evaluates job and wage growth, housing affordability, and high-tech GDP. Cincinnati has more Black-owned businesses that make a half a million dollars than any city in Ohio, we built the largest municipally-owned solar farm in the country, and passed the only $15-dollar minimum wage for city workers in the state. Cincinnati municipal government, which supplies water to 1.1 million people, is carbon neutral. In short, by prioritizing and implementing ideals of economic inclusion and sustainability, we have shown that Democratic principles work.

What steps will you take to assure free, fair and secure elections, and that every eligible voter has full access to the ballot? I will lead an effort to change the Ohio Constitution and replace today’s unfair system that lets politicians draw lopsided legislative and congressional districts with one that puts citizens in charge. Republicans on today’s panel knew they were ignoring the constitution and did not care. They knew that more than 70 percent of Ohio voters wanted fair maps - and refused to provide them. The Citizens’ Commission will be independent and responsible for drawing maps that accurately reflect Ohio’s population and swing-state status. I will work with voting rights advocates to expand voting opportunities and veto any legislation that seeks to limit them and deny anyone full access to the ballot.

What is the role of the governor to protect the rights of women and LGBTQ Americans? As a young city councilmen, I helped pass a non-discrimination laws for housing and employment for to include sexual orientation in 2005. Under my watch, Cincinnati became the first city in Ohio to receive a 100% score for the Human Rights Campaign and the first city in the state to ban conversion therapy. As governor, I will sign an executive order on my first day in office preventing discrimination in state employment. I will fight for equal protection by passing nondiscrimination laws and protecting reproductive rights, and I will ensure the state of Ohio is serving each and every one of its people with dignity — and I will veto any attempts to take away women’s reproductive freedom.

What is your position on efforts to protect our water, air, and land? Include climate change. As Mayor, I led the way in making climate change a priority in Cincinnati. Our solar project is the largest solar installation led by a city in the country; the size of 750 football fields. The installation employs 130 workers with salaries that pay $62,000 annually — and city government is now carbon neutral. As governor, I can do similar projects in at least 10 new counties per year, and will generate 1,300 new jobs per year while doing good for the planet. Furthermore, my plan also will dramatically expand H2Ohio to help farmers upgrade tractor and manure practices to stop the fertilizer overflows that contribute to algae blooms in Lake Erie and elsewhere.

What is your position on government oversight of gun ownership and safety? Ohioans have the right to bear arms but all citizens have the right to be free from the epidemic of gun violence. That is why I will push for common-sense gun reforms that are supported by a majority of Ohio adults, including police and firefighters. These reforms include universal background checks and repealing Ohio’s new law allowing people to carry concealed weapons without training or a permit. I’ll expand my efforts to require smart technology that would authenticate a gun user’s identity and disable it if anyone else tries to fire it. It would help reduce suicides, render lost or stolen guns useless and protect law enforcement if their weapons are grabbed from them.

How will you use your role as governor to shape and implement PK - 20 education policy? I will introduce an education budget first - and it will include a constitutional system of paying for public education and a system to properly fund it. Ohio went 25 years without a constitutional school-funding system until it adopted a method from a bi-partisan team in the current two-year spending plan - but Ohio has no way to pay for it after this budget expires. I’m going to fix that. As mayor of Cincinnati, I helped lead the effort to make Cincinnati the first city in Ohio to provide preschool to 3- and 4-year-olds. I will keep up that work by expanding options for early learning opportunities statewide so every child is ready for school, make each school building a technology hub so every student has portable skills and a pathway to a good-paying job and offer voluntary summer school to help students recover from the pandemic. Ohio has $5 BILLION in unspent federal covid relief money that can help our kids catch up from learning lost during the pandemic.

What is the state’s obligation to local governments? For decades, Ohio has been balancing the state budget by making cuts to local governments. That must stop. I’m a former mayor. I know that the majority of city budgets are spent on police and fire – vital services that keep our communities safe. I will restore cuts to Ohio’s Local Government Fund so cities and villages can offer walking patrols, community-oriented policing and properly staff police and fire services. I also plan to set the record straight and note that Republican Party cuts to local governments are the real efforts to defund the police.

How will you use your role to impact the criminal justice system? As the co-founder of the Ohio Innocence Project, which has cleared and freed 34 wrongfully convicted people, this issue is deeply personal to me. That's why, over the course of the past twenty years, I have worked as both a City Councilman and Mayor in Cincinnati to make real change in my city. Our Collaborative Agreement has become a national standard and I encourage you to read this Cincinnati Enquirer piece, “Opinion: City's commitment to Collaborative Agreement stronger than ever” at https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/2020/02/21/opinion-citys-commitment-collaborative-agreement-stronger-than-ever/4806546002/ for more information. As a result of these changes, we improved community-police relations and made the city safer by arresting less people. As Governor, I have licensing authority over law enforcement. I will enact reform that mirrors the Cincinnati experience statewide through that authority.

Nan Whaley

Website: https://nanwhaley.com/

Candidate did not respond.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Voter Guide: Meet the candidates for Ohio governor