Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) will not run for his present post this next legislative session, changing the field ahead of a long-awaited Republican caucus vote Wednesday.
In a press conference that ran just over 10 minutes, Stephens said he's concerned about several bills that await action during the lame duck legislative session, including the so-called "Parents Bill of Rights" and legislation to modernize the adoption process,
"I want to be solely focused on working to get these issues through the finish line," Stephens said. "And as we look back over the past two years and what we've accomplished in the House, I have done what I said I would do."
The announcement bookends more than a year of back-and-forth between Stephens and his then-opponent, current Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima). Stephens and Huffman both won seats in the House in November, since Huffman was at the end of his term in the Senate, and neither of them faced challengers.
“I do have a resume of things that I’ve done in the legislature, and most recently with Issue 1, and I’m going to be sending that out to the members for their review,” Huffman said Wednesday.
GOP lawmakers and conservative advocacy circles have been critical of how Stephens took the gavel in January 2023—with the votes of some Republicans and more Democrats, rather than a majority of Republicans.
“It’s difficult when, in effect, you have three caucuses,” Huffman said Wednesday. “When it’s two sides versus three, on contentious issues, it’s easier to get to a conclusion.”
Huffman isn’t the only Republican seeking the speakership as of Monday afternoon.
Rep. Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville), who backed Rep. Derek Merrin’s (R-Monclova) failed effort for speaker two years ago, said in a text he was “running until (he’s) not.”
Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, an anti-vaccine mandate organization, has lobbied against Huffman for weeks on social media—now rallying behind Rep. Tim Barhorst (R-Ft. Loramie).
