MIKE DEWINE’S PLATFORM
■ Opioids: Institute prevention abuse prevention programs at every grade level; expand the use of drug courts to all counties; increase funding for children’s services and foster care; spend any money obtained through Ohio’s lawsuit against drug makers on addressing the crisis; increase use of drug task forces.
■ Gun violence and
control: Increase penalties for repeat violent offenders who use guns in their crimes; add mental health services in schools; improve accuracy of criminal records added to the gun purchase background check system; add school resource officers and continue to allow local districts to decide whether to arm staff inside schools; support a “red flag” law but only if it includes due process measures.
■ Online charter schools and education: Require that a portion of funding for online charter schools be withheld until test scores show students pass courses; continue the state’s lawsuit to recoup $72 million from the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow; reduce the number of mandated standardized tests; introduce more fairness to the state school funding formula.
■ Medicaid expansion:
Mandate that ablebodied adults meet work requirements to qualify for the health care coverage; require Medicaid recipients to pass drug tests; emphasize prevention and wellness for the 3 million Ohioans on Medicaid.
■ Criminal justice
reform: Institute harsher prison sentences for repeat violent offenders who use guns; work with local judges to encourage sentences that keep
non-violent offenders in community programs instead of state prison beds.
■ Marijuana: Oppose legalization for recreational use.
■ Abortion: Would sign a heartbeat bill that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
■ Jobs and the
economy: Use technology to better match workers with job openings; expand the use of career tech centers, apprenticeships, and job certification programs; keep taxes and regulations “rational, reasonable and predictive;” create opportunity zones to lure investment of unrealized capital gains; improve transparency at JobsOhio. ■ Children: Invest more state money into home visits for at-risk pregnant women and for highquality early childhood care and preschool.