Conservative firebrand Kari Lake is coming back to her home state to stump for Trump, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is paying cash for campaign contributions, and Chris Christie says he’s got the meat.
Here’s a look at the latest news from the presidential campaign trail in our Road to ’24 Roundup.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the appointment of Republican attorney James Payne to the Vinton County Court of Common Pleas, General and Domestic Relations Division serving the Ross, Gallia, Jackson, Hocking, and Athens communities.
Judge-designee Payne, of McArthur, has been the Vinton County prosecutor for the past two-and-a-half years. Before that, he started his own law practice that year in South Point, a village consisting of about 3,500 individuals in Lawrence County, where he had lived most of his life after beginning his career as a judicial attorney in Lawrence County in 1994.
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Former President Donald Trump continues to crush the competition, but political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy is swiftly rising in the crowded field of Republican presidential candidates, according to a new Morning Consult poll.
Trump is polling at 56 percent, distantly followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, at 17 percent, according to the poll of more than 3,600 potential Republican primary voters.
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Donald Trump won’t be attending the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines later this week. The former president has other plans. But Trump will be back in Iowa next week for a second town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity, eschewing influential Christian conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats‘ cattle call of Republican presidential candidates for his own political show. Vander Plaats, who has said it’s time conservatives “turn the page” on Trump, is hosting his annual summit on Friday. Most of Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination will be there — including former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Ohio businessman and anti-woke crusader Vivek Ramaswamy, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump’s nearest competitor in the polls. The summit is a big deal. Put together by Vander Plaats’ Family Leader, a suburban Des Moines-based evangelical Christian organization that aims to inspire “Christ-like leadership in the home, the church, and the government,” the summit is now in its 12th year. It’s seen as a top stop for conservative candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in the first-in-nation caucus state. If nothing else, the day-long event is a great way to meet…
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Iowa lawmakers passed the Heartbeat Protection Act in a special session Tuesday night, leading one pro-life representative to say, “Iowans recognize the humanity of unborn children with beating hearts and won’t rest until they are protected.”
“Today, the Iowa legislature once again voted to protect life and end abortion at a heartbeat, with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother,” Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) announced Tuesday following the legislature’s approval of the measure.
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Ohio State Representative Bob Young (R-Green) will not resign as state representative or chair of the Ohio House Pensions Committee due to alleged domestic violence charges.
This follows Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) requesting that Young step down as state representative and committee chair so he can focus on his family.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that the state of Ohio is awarding over $30 million in grant funding to support safer and healthier learning environments for Ohio students.
747 districts and schools across the state will receive the grant funding totaling $33.3 million as part of the Ohio Department of Education’s Stronger Connections Grant.
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GOP Presidential hopeful U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) released a new ad Wednesday in advance of two major campaign events in the Hawkeye State.
His campaign also reported raising north of $6 million in the most recent quarter.
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GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took his campaign to the steps of the Iowa State Capitol Tuesday, throwing his support behind a swiftly moving “heartbeat bill” that would limit most abortions in the Hawkeye State after six weeks of pregnancy.
The Ohio biotech entrepreneur met with Republican state legislators and Governor Kim Reynolds, as a special legislative session to take up the bill got underway amid loud opposition from hundreds of pro-abortion activists.
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Some of the headlines have been misleading, but there’s no doubt former President Donald Trump is displeased with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.
Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy says it’s far too early to worry about who’s endorsing — or not endorsing — whom.
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Cleveland-area lawmakers are citing a Sunday-morning mass shooting that wounded nine people in the popular Warehouse District to push gun safety legislation already introduced in the House.
“What played out in our community is just one of more than 365 mass shootings in the U.S. this year already,” State Reps. Darnell Brewer, D-Cleveland, Terrence Upchurch, D-Cleveland, and Juanita Brent, D-Cleveland, said in a joint statement. “Ohioans can’t afford to wait for more proof that it is well past the time to pass common sense gun safety measures that will keep our children, families and communities safe. Congress must step up and we will continue to engage our Ohio House of Representatives colleagues in meaningful dialogue to come together and find common ground to reduce gun violence and keep people safe.”
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On Monday, Ohio Republican Orlando Sonza announced his candidacy to run for Ohio’s 1st Congressional district in 2024. U.S. Congressman Greg Landsman (D-OH-01), who is currently in that seat, is serving his 1st term in Congress.
Sonza is the first Republican to announce his candidacy for this position.
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The Ohio Republican Party called on Mayor Justin Bibb to stop deflecting responsibility for the violence occurring in Cleveland and to instead fix the problem by supporting law enforcement.
On Sunday, an early morning shooting in a nightclub area of downtown Cleveland sent nine people to MetroHealth Medical Center with injuries. According to authorities, no fatalities were reported.
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U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) is urging Ivy League universities and two Ohio colleges to preserve admission records following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning affirmative action.
On June 29th the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that declaring racial preferences in college admissions is unconstitutional.
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July is about to heat up on the presidential campaign trail in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
On Tuesday, Ohio businessman and top tier Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. on the steps of the Iowa State Capitol.
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With Iowa Republicans scheduling their first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses for Jan. 15, 2024, it’s now New Hampshire’s move.
While it’s likely the Granite State will set its 2020 presidential primary eight days after the Hawkeye Cauci, it’s still very much a fluid situation.
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Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) requested that State Representative Bob Young (R-Green) resign as State Representative and as Chair of the Ohio House Pensions Committee due to alleged domestic violence charges.
On July 6th Young held a fundraiser with Speaker Stephens as the guest of honor. According to a statement from Stephens, he attended the fundraiser and afterward went to Young’s home to spend time with his friends and family. According to Stephens, the alleged incident occurred after he left the Young home.
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GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley says her campaign has banked $15.6 million since she launched her bid for the White House in February.
The former South Carolina governor on Monday announced that her campaign raised $7.3 million in the second quarter of the year, which wrapped up June 30.
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A Republican Ohio lawmaker introduced a bill into the Ohio House of Representatives to reduce the size of Ohio’s State Board of Education and remove governor-appointed positions.
House Bill (HB) 235 sponsored by State Representative Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula), and former state education board member, looks to downsize the 19-member Board of Education to fifteen members by 2027. It also aims to remove the eight positions appointed to the Board of Education by the governor beginning in 2025.
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Two Republican Ohio Lawmakers have introduced a bill into the Ohio House of Representatives that aims to increase the penalties for drug and human trafficking in Ohio.
House Bill (HB) 230, known as the Saving Ohio Communities Act, sponsored by State Representatives Cindy Abrams (R-Harrison) and D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron) looks to address the staggering increase in drug overdoses, specifically fentanyl poisoning in the state.
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Calling the 2024 presidential race the “final battle,” former President Donald Trump pledged to “expel the war mongers” and “demolish the Deep State” during a campaign rally Friday afternoon in western Iowa.
Campaigning in the shadow of a federal indictment and mounting legal troubles, the Republican Party frontrunner sounded as defiant as he takes on the political fight of his life.
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A group of marijuana legalization activists delivered thousands of signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday in an attempt to put an initiative to legalize the purchase and sale of marijuana by Ohio residents aged 21 and older on the ballot in November.
The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol submitted 222,198 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office before the deadline to go before voters in November.
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Among Iowa’s likely Republican primary voters, former President Donald Trump leads Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by 23 points. Trump bounced back to 44% that he had back in the May survey, while DeSantis lost five points from the May survey. Senator Tim Scott saw a marginal increase since last month and now stands at 7%.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence says his “former running mate,” among others in the Republican Party presidential nomination chase, are missing the significance of the U.S. coming to the aid of Ukraine.
Pence said he recently paid a call on the war-torn European nation and its president to see firsthand “the results of the extraordinary, unprovoked invasion by Russia” as well as the “tenacity and toughness” of the Ukrainian military.
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A group of pro-abortion activists delivered thousands of signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday in an attempt to put an amendment to enshrine abortion into the state constitution on the ballot in November.
The Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of radical pro-abortion activists that includes Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice Ohio, the Abortion Fund of Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, along with the Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights submitted 710,131 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office before the deadline to go before voters in November.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) submitted signatures Wednesday for its Ohio ballot initiative that would not only bring late-term abortions to the state but also end parental consent laws and other protections for women and children.
Protect Women Ohio (PWO) is a parental rights and pro-life coalition that is seeking to block radical leftist organizations’ attempt to rewrite Ohio’s Constitution via the ballot initiative that would eliminate parental notification and consent requirements for minors obtaining abortions and gender transition hormone drugs and surgeries.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed the state’s $86 billion biennial operating budget containing tax cuts for individuals and businesses, higher income limits for school vouchers, and a new requirement for parental approval of social media accounts for children under 16.
DeWine vetoed a total of 44 budgetary measures, including a two-week sales tax holiday, legislation that would have prohibited the regulation of tobacco and nicotine products, and legislation that would have prohibited higher education institutions from forcing students to have specific immunizations.
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The Ohio House of Representatives passed a Republican-backed piece of legislation last week that tries to make hospital prices more transparent and affordable.
The Ohio House progressed House Bill (HB) 49 by a 90-5 vote advancing the legislation to the Ohio Senate for its review.
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An illegal immigrant is due to appear in an Ohio court Wednesday for his trial after he allegedly raped a minor who was nine years old at the time.
In July 2022, Gerson Fuentes, who the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced in 2022 was in the country illegally, was charged with two counts of felony rape after he was accused of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old in Ohio twice between January and May 12, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The minor obtained an abortion in Indiana at the age of 10, leading police to arrest Fuentes, who is set to stand trial this week for the charges in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, in Ohio.
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Ohio Secretary of State and undeclared candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2024, Frank LaRose, told The Ohio Star that Ohioans need to know about two lies the Left is spreading about State Issue 1 before going to the polls.
“People need to know about the outright lies the Left is saying about Issue 1,” LaRose told The Star.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine requested on Monday that President Joe Biden issue a Major Presidential Disaster Declaration for damage resulting from the catastrophic East Palestine train derailment that occurred earlier this year.
This follows two groups of protestors, Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment and River Valley Organizing, pressuring the Ohio Governor to submit a disaster declaration before the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Monday deadline.
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The dean who oversaw the suspension of conservative law professor Scott Gerber recently negotiated a new five-year employment contract at Ohio Northern University (ONU).
Charles Rose III, dean of ONU’s law school, announced his new contract about two months after abruptly suspending Gerber.
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ohio’s highest court must reconsider the congressional districting of the state that the Ohio Supreme Court previously ruled unlawful.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a summary judgment, a decision made without listening to oral arguments, reversing the Ohio Supreme Court’s judgment from last July that the congressional districting process unfairly favored the Republican Party.
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Florida’s first lady is scheduled to launch her “Mamas for DeSantis” effort as she campaigns Thursday in Iowa for her husband and Republican presidential hopeful Governor Ron DeSantis.
Casey DeSantis’ stop is part of a busy Fourth of July holiday week for presidential campaigns in the Hawkeye State, with former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum returning to Iowa, as well.
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State lawmakers approved the state’s biennial operating budget including tax cuts for individuals and businesses, higher income limits for school vouchers, and 1.8 billion for public schools.
A temporary budget is currently in effect until Ohio Governor Mike DeWine can review and sign the permanent one.
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University of Cincinnati administrators reprimanded professor Melanie Nipper earlier this month for violating the free speech of a student when she gave her a zero on an assignment, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Student Olivia Krolczyk released a viral TikTok video discussing how she was given zero points for a section of her project for using the term “biological women” in her Gender in Popular Culture course, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Krolczyk submitted a Freedom of Speech claim with the school which resulted in Ashley Currier, head of the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at UC, issuing the reprimand to Nipper on June 14, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
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Following the sentencing of former Ohio Republican Speaker of the House Larry Householder on Thursday, Ohio lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives voiced their opinions.
A federal judge sentenced Householder this week to the maximum of 20 years in federal prison for his participation in the largest bribery scandal in state history.
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U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is currently holding a narrow lead against his Republican challengers for U.S. Senate in 2024 in a new poll conducted by the East Carolina University (ECU) Center for Survey Research.
The poll details that among the registered voters in Ohio surveyed, Brown holds a slim lead over both the already declared and undeclared candidates.
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Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) says that he is now confident in lawmakers passing the state’s biennial budget before its June 30th deadline.
This follows his previous statement that with the approximately 800 differences between the biennial budgets passed by the Ohio House and Ohio Senate, it is likely that the state legislature may miss its end-of-the-month deadline and need to pass a temporary budget until they can strike a final deal.
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A federal judge sentenced former Ohio Republican Speaker of the House Larry Householder today to the maximum 20 years in federal prison Thursday for his involvement in the largest bribery scandal in state history.
Prosecutors asked federal judge Timothy Black to sentence him to 16-20 years. The 64-year-old Householder asked for less than two years. Householder was remanded to the custody of U.S. marshals following Thursday’s hearing.
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GOP presidential candidates Tim Scott and Doug Burgum this week launched new ad campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The commercials are just part of what promises to be a record-smashing presidential campaign cycle — already at $70 million in campaign ad buys and rapidly rising, according to AdImpact.
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The Ohio House of Representatives passed a Republican-backed Concurrent Resolution to urge the Federal Government to officially name Wright Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio as the permanent location for the U.S. Space Command headquarters.
The Ohio House Passed House Concurrent Resolution 8 by a 90-2 vote advancing the resolution to the Ohio Senate for their review.
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The City of Columbus is trying to implement its gun control laws while a lawsuit filed by The Buckeye Institute to protect the rights of Ohioans to keep and bear arms is being heard.
The city requests that the 10th District Court of Appeals overturns a ruling by a Delaware County judge to temporarily halt a state law that would make it difficult for municipalities to establish specific gun control measures.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign reminded supporters on Wednesday that the Democrat challenger to President Joe Biden is facing a “crucial deadline” on Friday. It will be the first time the presidential hopeful’s campaign donations will be made public.
In an urgent appeal for contributions, the Kennedy campaign disabused the notion that the Kennedy Family scion is running a “$100 million campaign.”
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Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is an undeclared candidate for the U.S. Senate, told The Ohio Star that he thinks that the abortion and marijuana legalization efforts in the state will both obtain enough signatures to get on the November 2023 ballot.
“Both efforts are very well funded and it wouldn’t shock me if they are able to get the adequate number they need to get on the November ballot,” LaRose told The Star.
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Six Republican Ohio House veterans wrote a letter opposing a committee adding a seven-day interim budget to a bill that gives military families a tax break.
On Monday, the House Rules and Reference Committee approved an amendment to include this budget to Senate Bill (SB) 43 to expand the situations in which surviving spouses of disabled veterans may receive the “homestead” tax exemption.
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Broad, sweeping language can easily mislead those caught up in its charm, especially in discussions about abortion “rights.” A deceptively worded constitutional amendment that pretends to protect the “right” to abortion in the Buckeye State would, in fact, abolish the need for parental consent laws for abortion, should it be placed on the ballot this fall and approved by voters.
Abortion activists are proposing an extreme amendment to the Ohio constitution that would go as far as denying loving parents the ability to consult with their own daughters about their abortion decision. Such a dangerous change to the 172-year-old constitution would do nothing but threaten young women for years to come.
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The Ohio House of Representatives passed two Republican-backed pieces of legislation on Tuesday one that modernizes and streamlines the adoption process across the state and another bill that excuses breastfeeding mothers from jury duty.
The Ohio House passed House Bill (HB) 5 by a 93-0 vote and HB 34 by a 94-0 vote advancing both pieces of legislation to the Ohio Senate for review.
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The Ohio House of Representatives advanced a piece of Republican-backed legislation that aims to protect a healthcare provider’s ability to fill off-label prescriptions.
House Bill (HB) 73, known as The Patient and Health Provider Protection Act, sponsored by State Representatives Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester) and Mike Loychik (R- Bazetta) passed 75-17 out of the Ohio House of Representatives advancing it to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Jon Husted announced that Amazon Web Services is expanding its data center operations in central Ohio making the second-largest single private sector investment in Ohio’s history.
DeWine said that Amazon Web Services will invest an estimated $7.8 billion by the end of 2029 expanding its data center operations in the state and creating hundreds of new jobs. The new data centers will be equipped with networking hardware, computer servers, data storage devices, and other types of technology infrastructure needed to support cloud computing.
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