Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) brushed off “absurd” accusations made against Republicans by fellow Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL).
Pritzker recently accused Republicans of regressing freedom within the United States and has started a new organization aimed at promoting pro-choice policies across multiple states, including Ohio, while combating “the right-wing extremists who want to take us backwards.”
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In response to Pritzker’s funding efforts and extremism accusations, DeWine told Fox News Sunday they were “absurd.”
“Well, that’s just absurd, and he knows that’s absurd; he knows me,” DeWine said. “That is not what we’re trying to do at all. It is interesting; the pro side in this has spent about $35 million to try to mislead the voters of the state of Ohio. It is interesting to me that a governor of Illinois would come in with a half a million dollars contribution. If you look at all the other people who are doing this, these are the same people who want to get outside their own state and control what is going on in other states.”
Pritzker’s nonprofit organization, Think Big America, was launched in October and will champion abortion ballot measures in Ohio, Nevada, and Arizona, which are all battleground states.
Voters in Ohio will vote on Tuesday on the state’s abortion and reproductive rights amendment, specifically Ohio Issue 1, which would enshrine the right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.” Additionally, the amendment would prevent the state from acting “directly or indirectly [to] burden penalize or interfere with or discriminate against” a citizen’s reproductive choices, which anti-abortion advocates argue would nullify extant state laws regarding parental consent for abortion performed on minors and eliminate safety standards for abortion facilities.
The topic of abortion has been a major focus of lawmakers in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. Earlier this year, Ohio voters vetoed an initiative related to the abortion debate, which would have required a 60% vote threshold rather than the simple majority standard to pass state constitutional amendments.
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Aside from Think Big America, other nonprofits groups have focused on abortion in United States elections, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which recently invested $1 million into Virginia ahead of the commonwealth’s elections on Tuesday. Republicans are seeking to keep hold of the state House while flipping the state Senate, with Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) seeking a governing trifecta to put in place a 15-week abortion restriction.
Asked if the subject of abortion would “cost” him and his party going into Tuesday, Youngkin stated he believed that a 15-week abortion ban would be a “reasonable” middle ground for state voters.
