The race to become the newest state treasurer for Ohio comes down to financial experience, and growing the state’s coffers through smart investments, according to the candidates in the race.
Two Republicans will vie for the party nomination in the May 4 primary, one backed by Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and the other backed by Republican Vice President JD Vance. Their Democratic opponent is moving forward with his campaign for the November general election.
Both Republicans have experience as legislators, while the Democratic candidate has local experience, but is a newcomer to state politics.
The candidates are also very aware of the controversy surrounding the unclaimed funds account, which Republican legislators have pledged to use to help fund a new stadium for the Cleveland Browns, as part of a provision in the most recent state operating budget.
A Franklin County Court of Common Pleas judge has blocked the effort for now, but the topic is still a big issue for candidates in race, and for Ohio voters.
The issue has become more complicated as owners of venues across Ohio have come forward asking the state to support their efforts.
Kristina Roegner
Republican state Sen. Kristina Roegner announced her intention to move to the treasurer’s seat amid her second term in the Ohio Senate serving the 27th district, where she represents residents in Portage, Summit, and Geauga counties.
Prior to her Senate run, Roegner was in the House from 2011 to 2018, and sat on Hudson City Council for five years before she headed to the legislature.
With her degrees in mechanical engineering and business administration, she has worked as a management consultant and a project manager at a power generation company.
“It was a combination of both my legislative experience, as well as my work in the private sector, my educational background, that sort of triangulated and brought me to the decision that the role of Treasurer of State would be the right role for me,” Roegner told the Capital Journal.
Her work in the Statehouse and Hudson City Council showed her what her true focus should be, according to Roegner.
“It’s through that experience I learned that I absolutely love public service, and I love making a difference,” she said.
While her work in the legislature brings a different public policy topic from one minute to the next, she said she’s looking forward to making the financial health of the state her primary focus.
“The treasurer’s office doesn’t make policy decisions, per se,” Roegner said. “The most important role is we’re the chief financial stewards, the chief investment officers of the state’s resources.”
Roegner said she plans to keep up the goals of previous treasurers, with eyes on “financial discipline” and a “nice strong conservative approach to managing the state’s funds.”
When it comes to the unclaimed funds account, Roegner first wants to see that moved from the state’s commerce department to the treasurer’s office. After that, she pledged to be “very proactive” in getting the money in the fund back to the Ohioans to whom it belongs.
Roegner wasn’t in favor of using the funds in the way that was supported by other legislators in her party. She voted to support a Democratic amendment that would have stripped out that provision of the budget.
“I love our football teams, certainly love the Browns, the Bengals, they’re awesome, but I don’t believe that public dollars should be used to fund stadium projects,” Roegner said.
Seth Walsh
Democratic candidate Seth Walsh has spent the last seven years working as a community organizer in the College Hill area of Cincinnati. He started the redevelopment projects in College Hill and worked to grow the community’s investment in the area, even during the COVID pandemic.
Walsh’s interest in the area began in 2002, when the business district was fearing permanent decline, after the closure of longtime businesses.
“The decline was because of the reasons we see so many things in Ohio declining,” Walsh said. “It’s just third, fourth-generation families that don’t want to continue their small business, but it all kind of coalesced at the same time.”
Walsh said the fear of losing the business district gave him an opportunity to “get aggressive and creative” to help save the community, even before the pandemic caused shutdowns and the need for even more creativity.
“I think so often we think about community development as bricks and mortar, and it’s the people,” Walsh told the Capital Journal.
At the end of 2022, Walsh joined Cincinnati City Council, taking the seat vacated by current Ohio Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman. Going from the budget of a community development program to the budget of the city of Cincinnati was a big jump already, but Walsh recognizes that overseeing the $280 billion the state treasurer handles is an even bigger responsibility.
“That $280 billion comes with a lot of, I’ll say influence, but I think it’s more opportunity,” he said.
His background in Cincinnati gave him ideas he said he could easily implement within the structure of the statewide office, including a new way of thinking about investments. Bringing banks to the table in an effort to nail down their investment in the communities in which they live and work is one way he says the state could leverage their help.
“When you think about $280 billion and how you invest that, investing it in the banks that think that way, and want to be that way with communities is going to go a lot further for Ohioans than just investing in anybody for a (return on investment),” Walsh said.
Walsh said Ohioans shouldn’t expect to hear from elected officials like the treasurer when things are running smoothly, but when they aren’t, officials should be vocal. That includes the use of the unclaimed funds for sports-related issues.
“The state treasurer’s office has a fiduciary responsibility to be on that lawsuit saying absolutely not,” Walsh said.
Jay Edwards
Edwards is a former member of the Ohio House, who served the 94th District, with portions of Athens, Meigs, and Washington counties, from 2017 until he left under term limits in 2025.
The Ohio Capital Journal made multiple attempts to interview Edwards for this story over several weeks but Edwards did not make himself available.
Edwards did speak about the race in comments after the Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee declined to endorse in the race.
Edwards said he asked for the committee not to endorse, because he would rather have Ohio Republicans outside of the committee make the decision, though he also touted the endorsement of Vice President J.D. Vance and Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno.
He told reporters at the event that his election would bring “young energy” into the office, and keep the Republican Party itself from reverting back to pre-Trump ideals.
“I’m very much in the camp of the new-school Republican Party, of the Trump Republican Party, and making sure Ohio carries on that legacy, and really all across America, so that we stay the party of the blue-collar middle class, and continue to advocate towards the voters,” Edwards said.
He said his own conservative record would benefit him as state treasurer, an office that has “unique tools at its disposal” to help with issues like property taxes and the struggle young adults are having buying homes. Another of his goals focuses on “keeping taxpayer money in Ohio.”
“Right now, we give a lot of money to national banks and those sorts of things,” Edwards said. “I’m not going to pull the rug out from underneath that, but I want to make sure the money we’re giving these banks, they’re investing that in the state.”
He, too, thinks the funding of stadiums shouldn’t be the priority of the state, saying he felt the money “could have been spent a better way,” especially when Ohioans in the rural parts of the state like his native Southeast Ohio are focused on increasing property taxes and utility bills.
“I’m not against economic development,” he said. “I love football, I’m for these sorts of things, if we can afford to do them, and if we’ve checked all the other boxes.”
The deadline to register to vote in Ohio is April 6, and absentee voting begins April 7.
For the May 5 primary where Edwards and Roegner will face off, military and overseas absentee voting begins Mar. 20, and early in-person voting begins April 7. Absentee ballots must be received by local boards of elections by April 28.
The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election is Oct. 5, and military and overseas absentee voting begins Sept. 18. General absentee voting begins Oct. 6, and early in-person voting begins that day as well.
Absentee ballots that weren’t returned by mail should be returned by election day.