Author

OCJ Editor-in-Chief and Columnist David DeWitt has been covering government, politics, and policy in Ohio since 2007, including education, health care, crime and courts, poverty, state and local government, business, labor, energy, environment, and social issues. He has worked for the National Journal, The New York Observer, The Athens NEWS, and Plunderbund.com. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and is a board member of the E.W. Scripps Society of Alumni and Friends. He can be found on Twitter @DC_DeWitt
Gerrymandered Ohio Republican lawmakers are already scheming to attack voters over election results
By: David DeWitt - November 8, 2023
Ohio voters just took firm positions on abortion and reproductive rights and adult-use recreational marijuana Tuesday, but gerrymandered Ohio lawmakers are already planning to flout, ignore, challenge, and abuse the voters’ wishes. This is what gerrymandering brings. This is why it’s a fundamental poison in the lifeblood of our republic. Mere hours after Ohio voters […]
Ohio Issue 1 and Issue 2 carry massive significance for younger voters
By: David DeWitt - October 26, 2023
For Gen Z and millennial Ohio voters, Issue 1 and Issue 2 are critically important. Whether we vote and how we vote will shape what kind of rights and freedoms we have for ourselves and our loved ones well into the future. Issue 1 would establish a state constitutional right to “make and carry out […]
Rejecting Issue 1 would bring back Ohio’s 6-week abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest
By: David DeWitt - October 19, 2023
For 82 days last year, the impacts of Ohio Republicans’ six-week abortion ban threw our state’s medical community and patients into chaos, confusion, and nightmare scenarios that made international headlines. Ohio’s abortion ban law that includes no exceptions for rape or incest was held up in court after being signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in […]
We live in a dangerous world, and America needs serious leaders, not a chaotic clown show
By: David DeWitt - October 12, 2023
We received a tragic and sobering wake-up call this weekend that the world indeed remains a very dangerous place; peace and security are never guaranteed; and forces of violence, war, and terrorism will continue to target stability around the globe. As Robert Gates, the former U.S. Secretary of Defense for George W. Bush and Barack […]
Tecumseh and the war for the Northwest Territory
By: David DeWitt - October 5, 2023
October 5 is the anniversary of the killing in battle in 1813 of Ohio Shawnee chief Tecumseh, born near Chillicothe in 1768. His efforts to build a permanent territory for a confederacy of Indigenous American tribes, bordered by the Great Lakes in the north, the Ohio River in the east and south, and the Mississippi […]
Ohio politicians used redistricting for gerrymandered horse-trading. Kick them out of the process
By: David DeWitt - September 27, 2023
It should be abundantly clear to all fair-minded Ohioans at this point that politicians have no business being involved in the redistricting process after lawmakers used the latest round of Ohio House and Senate district mapmaking to strike a bipartisan deal that amounts to little more than gerrymandered horse-trading. Fittingly under the cover of darkness […]
We are facing a sustained, historic assault on democracy in Ohio and across America
By: David DeWitt - September 15, 2023
The textbook definition of democratic decline includes the weakening of democratic institutions like the peaceful transition of power or free and fair elections, and the violation of rights that underpin democracy. Ohio is in the middle of a sustained, historic assault perpetuating just such a decline, and so is America. Due to events that have […]
Ohio Redistricting Commission descends into chaos and dysfunction on first day back
By: David DeWitt - September 13, 2023
If Ohio politicians planned to show exactly why they deserve to be kicked out of the redistricting process entirely, they couldn’t have done a better job than the shameful display they put on Wednesday morning: They immediately descended into chaos and dysfunction after waiting more than 16 months to begin the process of drawing new […]
Ohio voters can expect to get hosed again by gerrymandering in upcoming redistricting charade
By: David DeWitt - September 7, 2023
As Ohio gears up for another round of Statehouse redistricting, Republican politicians’ gerrymandering games never really ended — they were just intentionally paused to run out the clock on a full, fair, transparent, and good faith process. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called for the Ohio Redistricting Commission to reconvene on Wednesday, Sept. 13. Ohio […]
Misrepresentative lawmaking will continue in Ohio until voters have fair maps
By: David DeWitt - August 17, 2023
Ohio has a new round of redistricting coming up this fall. With a new right-wing majority on the Ohio Supreme Court and power-mad Ohio Republicans controlling both chambers of the legislature and the Ohio Redistricting Commission, prospects aren’t looking good for fair maps. What would representative and fair maps look like? About a 55% to […]
What happened in Ohio Tuesday? Voters refused to be suckered, and stood up for themselves
By: David DeWitt - August 9, 2023
Ohioans, I’m so proud of you. You stood up for yourselves. You refused to let corrupt politicians and lobbyists steal your power. You paid homage to generations before us who won us these rights, and you protected them for future generations. You won a noble and historic victory for democracy in Ohio, and you should […]
The Ohio Constitution declares all power inherent in the people. Issue 1 seeks to rob that from us
By: David DeWitt - August 3, 2023
The Ohio Constitution Bill of Rights declares all power is inherent in the people. Now it’s time for Ohio voters to show all of America how seriously we take that, or if we’ve abandoned our own birthright — this timeless, defining principle of democracy. With Issue 1 on August 8, Ohio lobbyists and politicians demand […]