Who are the Republican candidates for governor?

Joe Blystone is a self-described constitutional conservative whose run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination stems largely from his anger at Ohio governments’ response to COVID-19.

“All this government overreach has to stop,” he said.

By that Blystone means, at least in part, early-pandemic orders to temporarily close nonessential businesses where people gathered in close quarters.

He accused DeWine of “work(ing) against the people in wanting to steal our rights.”

“One barn-burner that is very bright right now is individual health autonomy,” Blystone said, by which he means prohibiting any requirement to get a COVID-19 vaccination or tell anyone whether you have.

“It should be your choice and your choice only,” he said.

Blystone said he received childhood vaccinations but refused to say if he has been vaccinated against COVID-19 — calling the question “Nazi Germany stuff.”

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Mask requirements for students were a “heinous abuse of our children” that scientific data does not support, he said.

A nationwide study by Yale researchers, published in January, found mask requirements for children cut school closures due to COVID-19 outbreaks by 13%. A study of Arkansas school districts by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in January, found those with universal mask requirements had 23% fewer COVID-19 cases than districts that didn’t.

Blystone, 53, was born in East Liverpool and founded Blystone Farm in 2004. That includes a steakhouse, market, butcher shop, bakery and event venue, employing more than 70. He founded the nonprofit Agricultural Community Inc. to educate about food and farming in 2019.

“I’m like the majority of folks here in this state,” Blystone said. “We work hard, we try to take care of our families, we run our businesses or work outside the home. We just want to be left alone to do what we do in this great country.”

Blystone has never run for office before. His running mate is Marion native and fellow political novice Jeremiah Workman, an author, Marine Corps veteran and former IT worker. In January Workman replaced Blystone’s former running mate, Canton restaurant owner Joanna Swallen, who dropped out in October.

Jaclyn Mims has known Blystone since 2018, and since January 2020 has handled social media, marketing and events for Blystone Farm.

“I love working for Joe,” Mims said. “I would not say Joe is a perfect person, but Joe is somebody who has heart and goes for it. If he sees something that is wrong, he’ll be the first person who will fix it.”

Mims described Blystone as hard-working, usually on the job before she arrived at 6 a.m. He’s a good leader, dedicated and a good listener, she said.

“He’s misunderstood a lot,” Mims said. “A lot of people don’t really give him the chance to get to know him.”

Mims said Blystone “has a heart for kids” and loves to teach them about farming.

Bystone said he stands for “what’s right, what’s Godly,” and wants to “put the power back into the people’s hands.”

He said he has publicly declared he won’t accept money from PACs, SuperPACs, nonprofits, money from unknown sources or “with strings attached.”

Blystone said he would appoint people to state departments who “have the same ideologies, that want to work for the people.”

“The special interests will be gone,” he said. Too many current appointees are working to “pad their life and their pockets,” Blystone said.

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As for getting his agenda through the General Assembly, “I’m just going to take Trump’s playbook,” Blystone said. “He let us know where the roadblocks were.”

Mike DeWine

Incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine said he wants another four-year term to develop the long-term agenda he laid out in the year before COVID-19 hit. He reiterated several of those initiatives during his State of the State speech in March.

“I’m running for reelection as governor to complete the work that we started,” DeWine said.

As the pandemic wanes, Ohio is moving forward economically, due to a good business climate with low taxes and reasonable regulations, he said.

DeWine pointed to Intel’s announcement last year that it will build two computer chip factories northeast of Columbus, a $20 billion project. That will be augmented by the relocation or development of Intel’s suppliers, as happened following Honda’s 1977 announcement that it would build factories in Ohio, he said.

DeWine, 75, was born in Springfield. After attending Miami University and Ohio Northern University’s law school, he worked as an assistant prosecutor in Greene County until his 1976 election as county prosecutor.

Elected to the Ohio Senate in 1980, he served until 1982, when he was elected to the U.S. House district southwest of Cleveland and Akron. DeWine held that seat until 1991, when he was elected lieutenant governor under Gov. George Voinovich.

DeWine resigned that office on his 1994 election to the U.S. Senate. He was reelected senator in 2000, but in 2006 lost to current Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Barbara Mills of Beavercreek was DeWine’s state director during his time in the U.S. Senate.

“I met the DeWines in November of 1992,” she said. Mills went to their Cedarville home for her job interview, and found the house full of children.

“That has sort of been the theme of their life,” she said. “He doesn’t have a lot of hobbies outside of his public service, and if he can’t do it with his wife and his family, then he doesn’t do it.”

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Elected Ohio attorney general in 2010, DeWine held that position until his 2018 election as governor. For 2022 he retains his 2018 running mate, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.

DeWine had been governor for a year when the pandemic began. Early on he shut down in-person schools, restaurants and stores, later issued a statewide mask mandate and imposed other restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19. He was advised by Dr. Amy Acton, then director of the Ohio Department of Health, but she stepped down in summer 2020 after backlash from Republican legislators. Subsequently, legislators gave themselves the power to cancel any further health orders.

“Even though the legislature and I have not always agreed on everything, this legislature has been very supportive of the major initiatives that we have placed in front of them,” DeWine said.

He cited the General Assembly’s support of H2Ohio, a decade-long water quality effort that was allocated $172 million for its first two years. Legislators understood the need to protect Lake Erie for recreation and to provide drinking water for 3 million Ohioans, DeWine said.

Barbara Mills said DeWine is thoughtful, low-key and dedicated to his job.

“You cannot outwork Mike DeWine,” she said.

DeWine said the state has put more money into early childhood development, assistance to pregnant women, and education — defining education broadly, from prenatal care to state-paid advanced training for late-career workers.

“But we have a ways to go,” he said.

Topping his agenda for the next four years is greater state investment in mental health to dramatically accelerate community-based mental health services.

“No state has lived up to the commitment that was made in the ‘60s,” he said. “As we deinstitutionalized people, turned them out into the community, the promise was that we would have the support they needed in whatever community they lived in.”

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DeWine said he’ll also call for construction of statewide high-speed internet, especially for the Appalachian region. That would be coupled with more water and sewer infrastructure money for Appalachian communities.

“We still have places in Ohio where they’re trucking water in to residents,” he said.

DeWine said he will propose creation of a dedicated fund to provide annual training for police, especially for small-town departments that can’t afford it.

“There needs to be a real emphasis on what’s called scenario-based training,…