Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at porterwright.com.

Porter Wright inspired Every day in Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.

opponents show up, but stay quiet.

In the first hearing for a controversial bill about university policies and a conversation with the former congressman, many Democrat are hoping can help them win statewide again, that's this week in the state of Ohio.

Just.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

The bill that conservatives say will strike back against what they view as liberal indoctrination on public university campuses in Ohio, got its first hearing this week.

And as they did in the last session, opponents turned out and were silent but visible.

Senate Bill one would ban most diversity, equity and inclusion programs at universities and block faculty strikes, along with promoting what Republicans call intellectual diversity.

Opponents packed into the room wearing anti Senate bill one t shirts and tape over their mouths as sponsoring Senator Jerry Serino outlined the bill, which he did last week on this show.

The bill is considered a top priority of Senate Republicans, who say it was vetted last session and could come up for a vote very soon.

several state lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats are preparing a bill that's been introduced every two years since 2011, but this time with a new twist.

The bill announced this week would ban executions, but would also reaffirm existing bans on state funds going toward physician assisted suicide, which is illegal, or to abortion, which is already outlawed under state law.

The bill's sponsor say it's an exercise in compromise, but abortion advocates are not happy, especially after Ohioans voted to protect abortion access in 2023.

Auditor Keith Faber has announced a move it's been long expected.

He's running for attorney general in 2026, and the latest move among term limited Republican officeholders.

Faber stressed the law enforcement part of the job in his announcement video, but also says protecting Ohioans in consumer lawsuits is important.

Faber is the first candidate from either party to formally announce a run for attorney general.

If he's elected, he would be the second auditor in a row to move immediately into the AG's office.

Dave Yost, who's now running for the Republican nomination for governor, was elected in 2018 after two terms as auditor.

One person many Democrats hope will consider a campaign in 2026 is the one who lost the U.S. Senate race in 2022 to now Vice President JD Vance.

Tim Ryan is a ten term former congressman from the Mahoning Valley, following the notorious Jim Traficant into that office.

Ryan occasionally stood at odds with the party.

He ran against Nancy Pelosi for U.S. House speaker in 2016 and briefly for president in 2019.

Ryan is considered a moderate, but is a somewhat divisive figure among more left leaning Democrats who don't like the work he's doing now for the natural gas and cryptocurrency industries.

I talk with Tim Ryan about his future and the future of the Ohio Democratic Party.

Well, we got to get off the culture wars.

We've got to get away from kind of a sole focus on wokeism.

And you got to get back to the bread and butter of, what I grew up in outside of Youngstown, Ohio.

I thought a Democrat was and that was economics.

That was jobs and wages and unions and pensions.

But I think there's a new element to this now is that the Democratic Party has got to become the party of reform.

You know, these systems are broken health care, immigration, education, economic inequality, globalization, like it's broken, the whole damn thing.

And so we were seen as the incumbent party, which, of course we were, and not really attentive to those issues.

That's why I thought that Elon Musk piece was very strong, that Trump brought up the Doge and the government reform.

You know, you go back to Bill Clinton.

He had a reinventing government plank in his platform that he featured.

Like, this is broken.

It's not working for you.

We get it and we need to do something about it.

And so until the Democrats become the party of reform, I think it's going to be a while before they can get back, especially in Ohio.

I think you and Sherrod Brown got compared a lot to each other.

He also endorsed you in 2022.

He is he was elected three times statewide with Republicans on the ballot, though never on the same ballot with Trump until this last time.

Why do you think your campaign in 2022 and his campaign this year, your blue collar populace focusing on working class voters?

You called them the exhausted majority.

Why didn't that resume resonate with Ohio voters?

Well, I think a couple things.

One.

We were up three points in my race.

We were up three points at Labor Day and got zero help from, the the National Democrat Party.

And JD Vance got $50 million and we just could not keep up.

But we had a winning formula and that was the economics and all the rest.

But I think the national brand of Democrats sank.

Sherrod Brown sank.

Bob Casey sank me.

They the national brand is an echo chamber of lobbyists, consultants, politicians who, you know, are 70 and 80 years old and have no clue what someone living down the Ohio River or in southern Ohio or working class Niles, Ohio, where I'm from, are going through and the perception that we're going to die on these culture war hills.

And, you know, I'll give you one example.

You know, the Social Security fix, that Sherrod Brown and I pushed for years and years.

Schumer passed that after the election.

You know, I mean, like, what are we doing?

You know, like, is it just the idea that the working class don't matter?

And I always got ten people used to try to pin me and say, all Tim Ryan talks about is, you know, working class.

And what he really means is white working class, I mean, working class, white, black, brown, gay, straight.

It doesn't matter if you're working man or woman.

If you're working, Democrats need to be for you.

And what we saw in this last election is black working class voters go to Trump, Brown working class voters go to Trump.

So it's not that they necessarily wanted to.

They just identified that he was going to address their economic insecurity way better than the Democrats.

And they had to look past a lot of stuff to get to that point.

And they did, because economics is number one in their life.

It's what they deal with every single day.

And so they voted for Trump for those very reasons.

And you're not the first person to say this.

I mean, I'm thinking back 2016, when former Mahoning County, Democratic Party chair Dave Beatrice included you on a letter that he said about warning the party that Hillary Clinton was going to lose Ohio and Michigan and these other states because of the messaging.

I just talked to him recently.

He says the messaging is still broken.

He says Democrats talk down to people with words like fascist and racist, but they how do you expect to get voters that way?

Is the messaging broken, or is there a real problem with the messaging?

But, Beau, I mean, it's all it's all broken.

And you remember and it's not coincidental that the Mahoning County Democratic Party chair in 2016 and the congressman from the Mahoning Valley in 2016, I ran against Nancy Pelosi for Democratic leader that year.

We were on the this we were not use a Sherrod Brown term, but the canary in the coal mine.

We were saying like, look, this is this is going to come back and haunt us.

And nobody wanted to listen.

We got isolated.

You know, we got shamed at gaslit the whole nine yards for the next eight years.

And basically we were just saying, like we saw Youngstown in the Mahoning Valley was really kind of a precursor to what was happening around the country.

And so we have been on it, I think, before other people did and to to go around and, you know, and I think the President Biden was out of touch, even some of the stuff that he did really well, he couldn't articulate in the fact that he ran again, was was tragic for everybody involved.

You know, look, we're re industrializing chip manufacturing here in Columbus.

There's an auto plant, battery plant outside of Youngstown, in Lordstown, 2000 auto workers making 30 bucks an hour like we are re industrializing.

It's why the energy demand is going up.

And all of this has happened because of the re industrialization, policy of Biden.

But we're sitting here talking about bathrooms and you know, and men and boys playing girls sports and all of this stuff that really for 99% of the people in the country, it's it's not relevant to their own well-being, their own, you know, concern that they have every day.

And when you miss that, you're going to lose a lot of voters.

And really ultimately, that's what happens.

argument could be made that it's Republicans who have really driven this, because they've been the ones that have been passing these bills and that sort of thing.

But, they're the ones who have been talking about the culture war issues rather than Democrats.

Democrats are want to talk about other things.

But Republicans drove the conversation.

Yeah, I have an opinion about that.

I think they do.

And you know why they do?

Because we engage on that level on that issue with them.

And then we go to all the reasons why they're bad and we're right.

And then the whole argument becomes about, those issues as opposed to saying, you're wrong.

This is why.

But you're not focused on what's most important in the right back on, you know, bringing back manufacturing and making things again and helping small business.

And how do we grow the pie instead of talk about redistribution and just hating rich people and giving money to to poor people, it's about growing the pie and building the middle class.

But no, we stay in that fight and then that fight, you know, it gets amplified on social media and then it gets back up on TV.

And then next thing you know, the Democrats are on the wrong side of social issues, with, you know, 80% of the American people, instead of being the one saying, why do you keep talking about this instead of talking about what most people are concerned with?

And those are those pocketbook issues, and how do we put money in their pocket?

I think a lot of people have been talking about you as a possible statewide candidate, and apparently there are reports that you've been in touch with some big name Democratic strategists such as James Carville and David Axelrod.

Are you considering running statewide in 2026?

I'm really not sure.

I mean, I was talking to them all throughout the election in the past couple of years, and I've got got to know them 20 years in Congress.

And we were some of the few who were saying Biden shouldn't run.

So we were in contact a lot.

And they've become very good friends over the years.

But I really don't have any idea.

It's January.

I don't know, I really like my life, and I know it sounds corny and cheesy, but I'm like, coaching my ten year old, you know, football team and basketball team, and I just.

I absolutely love it.

20 years in Congress, I miss a lot.

I love my life right now.

You know, I love this family time.

And so getting back in, it's like, oh man, isn't this the stress level and the pressure and the travel and the time away from home?

It grinds on you.

So I'm enjoying where I'm at, you know, we'll see how things play out.

Who knows?

You know, still in ball, still commenting and still talking to people like you, which I enjoy.

And we'll see what happens.

But, you know, wherever the Democrats go, it's got to be reform.

The current brand of the Democratic Party is so toxic and the the voice is so narrow, that we need some big changes.

So I'll be help in any way I can, whether it's running for office or not.

But to be clear, you're not ruling it out.

No, no.

Not really.

I've been around too long to rule it out.

I don't want you to come back to me and say I like the, You know, people are calling me all the time.

And, look, I just ran a really great race.

Like I said, we were up on JD Vance by three points that Labor Day and got no help from DC.

And we spent a lot of money.

You know, we spent, you know, tens of millions of dollars on TV.

So I still got name ID, I still get, you know, bothered at the Costco in the grocery store from people I've never met, but, you know, so there's a lot of I think, a lot of built up goodwill there, an opportunity there, whether I take it or not, I don't know.

I know you said that they're your friends, but are these the kind of strategists who can win in this environment?

I mean, you said that the party is being dominated by consultants who are old and kind of out of touch.

Are those folks the kind of people who could beat up a bank?

Ramaswamy and Dave Yost, a John Houston?

Oh, yeah.

Well, the problem is the Democrats are paying a lot of people a lot of money to give them really bad advice.

You know, you look at you look at that.

You know what Axelrod's been able to do.

And Carville, not just with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but really their message has been really consistent.

Like what they've been commenting, obviously daily, weekly, through social media and how the Democrats have gotten it wrong.

And and that's when we all started reaching out to each other because we were all kind of separately saying, man, we're getting off message here.

This is years ago.

And so it's just, you know, cardinals from Louisiana, like, you know, axis from Chicago, from Niles, Ohio.

Like there's just certain people they Beatrice and others, like, there's just certain people who grow up with a certain sensibility that has allowed us over the years in politics to like, well, that's not working.

You know, that's not going to play.

And, that's not going to play in Lima.

You know, that's not playing in Chillicothe.

I just know it.

That's a sound.

Oh, you know, you get the heebie jeebies on something that a Democrat says.

But, you know, I think there are, there are great new, other consultants to or out there that are good.

It shouldn't be a broad swath against everybody.

But when you look at the Democratic message, clearly they're listening to people and paying people a lot of money that are giving them really bad advice.

But but you do think that there is a way to bring in the, the of the message that you're trying to talk about working class voters, the economy, along with some more progressive ideals.

You've got people in the Democratic Party who want the party to lean more into progressive ideas.

Well, look, I mean, I think where I kind of have where I get, I think I have some concerns is that it can't just be about we're going to tax rich people and we're going to spend more money.

Like, we already spend a ton of money two and a half times more than any other industrialized country on health care and get worse results.

That's a reform problem.

You know, we still spend a lot of money on education and we don't get the results that we want.

Now, how is that a unique thing?

Now with the voucher issue of giving rich people free, free private schools, that's a problem.

But we spend a lot of money on that.

We spend a lot of money on health care, we spend a lot of money on things and we're just not getting the results.

So for Democrats just to say, oh, just tax the rich people more and spend more, that again, I think that moves you away from where the average lunch bucket Democrat is saying, wait, you don't need more money because you start talking about tax.

And then next thing you know, you're gonna start talking about taxing me.

And I already pay enough and I don't get enough.

And I, you know, I'm already struggling.

So like, it's gotta be about reform.

And here's where I think the opportunity is really going to be.

And I think you can bet your bottom dollar on this one, too.

Trump is going to betray in many ways, the working class folks.

I think there's a good chance that he passes a major tax cut again, that cuts taxes primarily for the top one and 5% of the people in the country, just like he did the first time.

And you didn't even hear that in Kamala Harris's campaign.

Like, to me, if I was running against Trump and Vance, the only thing I would have talked about is his only signature achievement was a tax cut for Elon Musk and all these oligarchs that are on the stage with them.

And you look at all of the billionaires and his inauguration.

I mean, what do you think he's going to do?

And look, I've been very like all my Trump friends.

I don't say anything.

It's like he's in charge.

Republicans are in charge of everything and charge everything in Ohio.

Let Trump fix it, and we'll see where we are in a year or two.

And I think there's a good chance that Musk is going to get a tax cut marks that Musk is going to now put the government in a position where they're funding his companies and his projects.

And I think there's going to be a rub there with those working class people.

So we'll see what happens.

But if that if that does happen and someone can bring bring that economic, argument that he betrayed those folks, then there's a real opening for Democrats.

But you can't come with the same old base of redistribution and just more money and no reforms.

And, you know, and the social issues, that's not going to be it.

It's got to be a reform, economic minded argument that's going to be for small and mid-sized businesses, too, that these big oligarchs and monopolies have kind of eaten up, eaten up.

And the last thing, while I'm on a rant here, we've got to get into the rural areas, you know, I mean, like, I think Democrats it's to me, it's tragic that we have not gotten into rural Ohio, rural Pennsylvania, some of these rural, like, we've forgotten them.

Like, not only is that immoral, are they American citizens?

Who cares if they voted, consistently conservative?

You know why?

Because we lost the economic argument in rural areas, we've given up, on, on rural areas.

And just imagine the economic struggle, you know, that they have there and, and so and they think again, we're talking Democrats are only talking about, you know, issues that make them very uncomfortable, instead of talking about their pension, protecting their Social Security, making health care more affordable, making their prescription drugs cheaper.

And if you go there and you talk about these economic issues, they see you as a human being who actually wants to help them, you know, and they don't care.

Maybe you may maybe have different positions on some of these other issues.

And that's, you know, Sherrod Brown made a living out of that.

And I and I did pretty well, too, in the Mahoning Valley and Akron, in those areas I ran in.

But the National Party brand at some point becomes too big of an anchor right in your neck.

Let me ask you.

Finally, there are some progressives who don't like the work you're doing right now with cryptocurrency and, the fossil fuel industry, specifically natural gas.

What do you say to them?

Tell me how we're going to power.

I tell me how we're going to power the industrialization of chip manufacturing and batteries and electric vehicles on wind and solar, for wind and solar, 1,000%.

I voted for the IRA when I was in Congress.

For it.

But you can't realistically power that without natural gas and natural gas here in Ohio and employees, union workers.

I think we should expand it.

And here's the thing that people can't defend on the left around natural gas is that we have cut carbon emissions in Ohio by 50% because natural gas came online.

And what did it displace it displace coal.

And that has been the same.

America has led carbon reduction around the world from 2005 to 19.

Because natural gas was displacing coal in the United States.

Why wouldn't we do that around the world?

China's putting on a coal fired power plant one a week.

Germany, because they went so far to the left on energy, they're putting on a another, coal fired power plant in Germany to meet their energy demand.

And so all I'm saying is pragmatic strategy, natural gas coupled with renewables let that industry build out.

Let's continue to work on methane.

The companies I work with, or if not, change their policy at all.

Since Trump has come in, to make sure they meet their climate goals.

And the same with cryptocurrency.

It's not just currency, it's the blockchain.

It's the technology behind it.

And Bitcoin and stablecoin.

It's not about the Trump meme.

You know, that's that's a very unsophisticated way to look at it.

And so again, this is the problem.

Like Biden, this is a perfect example.

Can Biden put a liquid natural gas suspension on exporting it?

Right.

We got a war in Ukraine.

We're trying to help them against Russia and all the rest put a suspension on it.

I wrote publicly terrible idea.

One, it's horrible for the climate because that's going to force people to use coal and oil and also what the what this is going to do is it's going to hurt you in Pennsylvania, Western PA, which it did.

They got that stuck to them, Trump said.

I told you they were going to ban fracking.

I told you they were going to do it.

And then Kamala Harris lost Pennsylvania.

And so the worst environmental policy you could possibly have is that Donald Trump is president.

So I say to all my friends who we agree with climate change, bend in the curve, renewables.

What I say to them is we've got to have a pragmatic plan to get there.

We have a 200 year supply of natural gas, and you got to win elections or you're not going to be able to do anything.

And we went so far to the left to appeal a really extreme group of environmentalists that at the end of the day, we lost Pennsylvania, we lost Michigan and Wisconsin and obviously Ohio, because working class people in the energy sector said no.

And those folks need to be on our side.

We need natural gas.

We need renewables.

We need that made with American steel and union labor.

And that's an arsenal of energy that we can move forward with.

So I happily, have that conversa How do you get those folks though on with crypto because a lot of them see it as a scam.

Yeah.

Well, you know, I think a lot of people who don't fully appreciate and understand it, you know, I don't see it that way, but I will I will say to them, one of the major issues that we see, it's remittances.

It's people who work in America and send money back, say to Mexico, to their family, Western Union, these other they, they charge exorbitant fees.

With crypto, you can just send that back without any fees.

So you're cutting out the Western unions.

You could do the same with credit cards.

Now cryptos coming online in the blockchain.

So you can have an account with your crypto dollars.

And you could go to a coffee shop and there it's this is when it's implemented.

It's saving small business owners like it coffee shops.

The 4% credit card fees that they would have.

So this is a boom for, the small business people.

And you look at people who don't have bank accounts, you look at, again, the credit card companies, you're cutting out those.

So if you're for if you're a real radical and you want to reform the system and you think that that that immigrants and, and people in the black community and other, you know, kind of marginalized communities, this is an important technology for them.

And I would ask them to just look at those benefits and look at the technical ag, 60% of crypto owners are black.

No one knew that.

I didn't know that until I started to really get involved.

So this is something that is helping the minority community puts more money in those minority small business pockets we should be for.

And I just say take another look at it.

Same with the natural gas.

Just take a look and see, like how are you going to power stuff that we want?

I and these other things without natural gas.

Right.

How are we going to displace coal without natural gas.

And it's about having these real pragmatic solutions.

And I think if we get the Democratic Party in here, we're the party in the future that And that is it for this week.

My colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State news.org or find us online by searching.

State of Ohio show.

You can also hear more from the Bureau on our podcast, The Ohio State House scoop.

Look for it every Monday morning wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for watching and please join us again next time for the State of Ohio.

Just.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at porterwright.com.

Porter Wright inspired Every day in Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.