2024 OH Legislative Scorecard
The following scorecard lists several key votes in the Ohio General Assembly in 2024 and ranks state representatives and senators based on their fidelity to (U.S.) constitutional and limited-government principles.
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HB161 eliminates the spousal exception for rape as a criminal sex offense, allowing a person to be convicted of rape involving their spouse, regardless of whether their spouse lives with them.
The Senate passed HB161 on April 24, 2024, by a vote of 32 to 0. We have assigned minuses to the yeas because rape and other criminal acts of sexual immorality (e.g., incest and sodomy), by definition, can only occur apart from the martial covenant. Rather than attempt to criminalize sexual relations between spouses and undermine the family, Ohio should perform its constitutional duty to affirm and support the institution of marriage, whereby a husband and wife may enjoy their conjugal rights as part of a life-long commitment and one-flesh union. God—not the State—ordained marriage as the foundation of family government. Under the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment, heads of households retain their natural and lawful authority to regulate self-governing behavior in the home.
SR296 urges Congress to pass legislation to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from implementing its April 2024 “Final Rule” limiting carbon emissions for coal and natural gas-fired power plants.
The Senate adopted SR296 on May 8, 2024, by a vote of 27 to 4. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the federal government has no authority under Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution to engage in energy or environmental policy. Not only should the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency be abolished, but Americans should reject the hoax of “climate change,” which seeks to codify extreme provisions of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 into law. Its “green” agenda for a “decarbonized economy” is nothing other than a fanatical attempt by globalist elites to expand their taxing power and authority, encroaching on the property rights of Americans enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment. Ohio must protect its access to natural resources and energy reliability by saving new and existing power plants from the unconstitutional war on fossil fuels.
HB1 bans all foreign nationals, including permanent U.S. resident “green card” holders, from making contributions or expenditures regarding ballot issues or candidates.
The Senate passed HB1 on May 31, 2024, by a vote of 24 to 7. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because U.S. citizens should determine U.S. elections—not foreign money or influence. The “right of Representation in the Legislature” belongs to the American people alone, who owe true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and are not subject to any foreign power. Lawmakers in Ohio should exercise their authority under Article I, Section 4, of the Constitution, as well as the 14th and 26th Amendments, to protect American elections from foreign interference and ensure equal protection of “the right of citizens of the United States to vote.”
SB54 makes various appropriations, reappropriations, transfers, and redirects of funds for FY 2025-26, while expanding eligibility for sport site selection grants.
The Senate passed SB54 on December 18, 2024, by a vote of 29 to 1. We have assigned minuses to the yeas because funding education, health care, or social welfare services, let alone sporting events, is not the role of government. The State of Ohio has absolutely no business coercing taxpayers into furnishing proliferate amounts of money to spend on “pork-barrel” projects that exist entirely outside the limited purpose and scope of government. Significantly, this bill relies on the use of immoral and anti-constitutional forms of taxation (e.g., income taxes) that take from citizens the wages they have rightfully earned, thereby violating the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment. The General Assembly should instead act to end all reckless “tax-and-spend” bills.
HB8 enacts the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” requiring public schools to ensure parental involvement and notification about sexuality content and health care services and adopt a policy authorizing students to attend a released time course in religious instruction.
The Senate passed HB8 on December 18, 2024, by a vote of 24 to 7. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the upbringing, education, care, and control of children belongs to—and is a fundamental right of—parents, not the government. The State of Ohio has a duty to uphold the right of parents to protect their children from obscene, indecent, or profane activity. Parental rights are retained under the 9th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
SB58 forbids financial institutions from using a merchant category code to identify firearms retailers, prevents government entities from keeping any list of privately owned firearms or firearms owners, and bars firearm liability insurance requirements or fees.
The Senate passed SB58 on December 18, 2024, by a vote of 25 to 6. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because this bill prohibits the unlawful use of credit card payment information to track firearms purchases as well as “no-fault” firearms liability insurance mandates. Recent adoption of a new merchant category code for “gun and ammunition shops” by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)—a globalist collaborative linked to the United Nations—aids unconstitutional efforts by the federal government to conduct mass surveillance, which, in part, is intended to create a national gun-owner database and confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens. Moreover, no person should have to pay a government-imposed fee for the possession of a firearm. States should interpose between and nullify the actions of private or public entities that frustrate, if not blatantly violate, the Second and Fourth Amendment-protected rights of the American people.
