There’s a little more than a year left in Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s tenure, and with time winding down he’s considering how best to secure his achievements before leaving office.
He also has a raft of important legislation on his desk awaiting a decision.
DeWine spoke about his plans at an annual breakfast for reporters hosted at the Governor’s Mansion in Bexley last Thursday.
Legacy
As he got up to speak, DeWine addressed the question of how he’ll wrap up his final year by holding up a little black box.
“This was given to me, actually, by former Governor Jeb Bush,” he said. “It’s a countdown clock. There’s exactly 395 days, 16 hours, 29 minutes and one second.”
He explained that ticking clock is encouraging his administration to approach its work with a “great sense of urgency.”
One of its central efforts has been tied to reading.
In addition to First Lady Fran DeWine championing the Dolly Parton Imagination Library — “We’re number one in the country,” she noted — Gov. DeWine has forced schools to adopt a phonics-based curriculum for teaching young readers as well as future teachers.
“That’s a very unusual thing to do,” he said, “but the evidence is just, as you’ve heard me say, it’s just absolutely overwhelming.”
“Look, kids only have one chance to grow up,” DeWine added. “So if you miss that opportunity, the child cannot read. Yes, they can learn to read later, but it’s much more difficult.”
In line with that effort, the governor announced a vision care effort for kids earlier this year.
State law already requires basic vision screening, but many kids don’t get the follow up care they need. DeWine’s OhioSEE pilot program will use mobile clinics to serve students from kindergarten to third grade in 15 counties.
“One of my goals, frankly, is to demonstrate how effective this is, how cost effective it is,” he said, “so that when we leave office, it will be embedded, and the next governor will want to continue, not only continue it, but to expand it to all 88 counties.”
The short term
That next governor seems likely to be a departure from DeWine’s tenure.
If Ohioans elect a Democrat, like current front-runner Amy Acton, they’ll put a different party in the governor’s mansion for the first time since 2011.
If, on the other hand, voters choose the current GOP frontrunner, Vivek Ramaswamy, they’ll get a different kind of Republican.
Ramaswamy made a name for himself as a culture warrior, writing books criticizing “woke” politics before launching a quixotic presidential campaign premised on fighting the “secular religions” of “COVID-ism, climate-ism and gender ideology.”
When DeWine vetoed a measure banning gender affirming care for minors, Ramaswamy wrote on social media, “Shame on Ohio Governor Mike DeWine for this failure.”
DeWine insisted he plans to endorse the Republican candidate for governor “at some time,” but he has yet to formally do so.
The governor said he’s had policy discussions with Ramaswamy “and I’ve enjoyed those discussions,” but he was cagey about the delay.
“We’re still having discussions,” DeWine said. “I want to get a better understanding of his positions, what his vision is, and I would say the discussions have been good. And obviously I want to talk to him about some of the things I see, as well.”
DeWine wasn’t particularly forthcoming about a major voting bill that landed on his desk Wednesday either.
The measure would invalidate any absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day.
Currently ballots postmarked before Election Day have a four day window for arrival.
The bill’s supporters, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, readily acknowledge thousands of valid ballots arrived after Election Day in 2024.
But they dismiss them as a tiny fraction of the electorate and suggest voters will adapt to a changing deadline.
In 2023, when DeWine approved a photo voter ID bill, he said it should settle any questions about election integrity, “and I do not expect to see any further statutory changes to Ohio voting procedures while I am Governor.”
As for the pending bill, he said only, “I’m looking at it at this point, and we’ll have more to announce.”
The governor was more positive about a series of property tax measures and a recent cannabis measure hammered out between the Ohio House and Senate.
“Yes, I will sign the bill,” he said about the marijuana measure, praising it for addressing “juiced up hemp.”
The longer term
DeWine also offered a plea for compromise on redistricting and immigration.
Ohio’s redistricting debacle following the 2020 census left a bitter taste, and the governor has since called the Iowa approach.
There, nonpartisan legislative staff draw the lines and lawmakers take and up or down vote.
Now’s the time to pursue changes, DeWine said, with the next presidential election and census both a few years down the line.
“You know if there’s a citizen’s group that wants to put something like the Iowa plan on the ballot I’m going to be for it,” DeWine said.
The governor also described immigration as an opportunity, “whether or not we can take it, I don’t know.” DeWine noted he was in Congress the last time significant immigration policy was signed into law.
That was almost 40 years ago.
DeWine praised the Trump administration for dramatically reducing border crossings, but added, “That, to me, presents an opportunity to have a discussion about, what should legal immigration be?”
DeWine referenced Republican former U.S. Senator from Texas Phil Gramm’s contention that “there’s always room in the country for people who want to pull the wagon,” and said it’s “crazy” the way we treat foreign students.
“So, we’ve educated them here in the United States,” DeWine said, “they could have been a contributing factor to our economy, and to our country, and make our country better. And then many of them, we’re saying you have to go back.”
“Some of these things that we’re doing,” he added, “they’re not really good decisions.”
This story was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and republished here with permission.