Ohio House GOP divided as rebels pursue own interests
Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, a Republican from Lawrence County’s Kitts Hill, recently stripped committee chairmanships from rebels in his GOP caucus. That provoked yelps from those who lost gavels (and the constitutionally questionable $9,000-a-year salary supplement a committee chairmanship confers).
At issue: The rebels’ attempts to undermine Stephens by supporting primary election challengers to GOP House candidates who had backed Stephens for speaker in January or were seen as possible Stephens supporters in 2025.
Burrs under dissidents’ saddles: Stephens won the speakership almost 18 months ago because the House (67 Republicans, 32 Democrats) voted 54-43 (with two Republicans absent) to hand him its gavel.
And of the 54 votes to elect Stephens. 32 came from the House’s Democrats, 22 from House Republicans. The remaining 43 House Republicans present voted for suburban Toledo Republican Derek Merrin: A third of the House’s Republicans voted for Stephens, twothirds for Merrin.
That touched off a civil war inside the House GOP caucus, which had the self-defeating effect of further empowering House Democrats – the very thing that the anti-stephens rebels oppose.
Of course, the rebels seemingly forget that in 2019,
Perry County Republican Larry Householder unseated the previous session’s speaker, Gallia County Republican Ryan Smith, because 26 of the 38 Democrats then in the House voted for Householder. Thanks to the House Bill 6 scandal, Householder is now in federal custody. That is, what was acceptable to House Republicans in 2019 became a sneaky double-cross in 2023.
And in a complicating factor for Stephens, lameduck Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, certain to be elected to the House in November, has all but officially declared he’ll challenge Stephens for the speakership in January.