by J.D. Davidson
The outgoing president of the Ohio Senate is expected to be the incoming speaker of the House of Representatives for the first time in more than a century.
Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, received unanimous support from House Republicans in a closed-door meeting earlier this week. Huffman could not run for reelection in the Senate due to term limits and won election to the House earlier this month.
“I want to thank the Republican members of the Ohio House for their vote of confidence,” Huffman said. “It is time the Republican majority unites for the greater good of our neighborhoods across the state. I look forward to the new leadership teams from the House and Senate working together to make this the most effective and efficient Ohio General Assembly in decades.”
Former Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, who won the speakership two years ago with support from every House Democrat in a surprising vote over Rep. Derrick Merrin, withdrew from consideration earlier this week. The official speaker vote will come in January.
If his support holds, Huffman will be the first to hold the same position since the late 1800s.
Huffman’s election news was followed Friday morning by the announcement that Sen. Kirk Schuring, the second-longest-serving lawmaker in the state, had died following an illness. He was 72. Schuring held the No. 2 leadership position in the Senate, behind only Huffman.
The Senate will elect someone to fill Schuring’s seat.
“Kirk was a statesman,” Huffman said. “There is no finer member of the General Assembly or finer Ohioan who served in the halls of the Ohio Statehouse. Kirk’s heart was in Ohio, and it showed with his commitment, drive, and integrity for the job the people elected him to do decade after decade.”
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An Ohio native, J.D. Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience in newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He has served as a reporter, editor, managing editor and publisher. Davidson is a regional editor for The Center Square.
Photo “Matt Huffman” by Matt Huffman.
