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Ohio’s House GOP elects its next likely speaker unanimously but unofficially

By: Sarah Donaldson | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Monday, November 25, 2024

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Incoming and returning members of the Ohio House GOP caucus on Wednesday unanimously nominated outgoing Senate President and Rep.-elect Matt Huffman (R-Lima) to be its next speaker next legislative session.

The longtime lawmaker has already served eight-year terms in both the House and Senate, the last four of them as president. Term-limited in the Senate, Huffman ran for and won his seat in the House earlier this month—meaning he could lead the chamber for as long as eight years.

“There is a lot of work to do,” Huffman, 64, said. “There’s extraordinary challenges coming. We have a new federal government, which I think will allow some great opportunities. We have huge energy challenges.”

It was set to be at least a two-way race going into Wednesday evening. Rep. Tim Barhorst (R-Fort Loramie) was planning on running against Huffman, but nobody nominated him. Barhorst said in a statement after the vote that was because of confusion around the process to do so.

“I have congratulated (Senate) President/Speaker-elect Huffman. Clearly this is not the outcome I was hoping for,” Barhorst said over text.

House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill), the incumbent, said Monday he would not run for his present post, clearing the candidate field.

Numerous GOP lawmakers, including Huffman, and conservative advocacy circles have been outwardly critical of how Stephens took the gavel in January 2023—with the votes of some Republicans and more Democrats, rather than a majority of Republicans.

That vote gave way to two years of infighting, from litigation over incumbent election coffers to contentious primaries. Some lawmakers emerged from the closed-door meeting saying they wanted to move on.

“Abraham Lincoln said, and it’s still true, that in politics you have to have a short statute of limitations,” Huffman said.

Huffman doesn’t take the gavel until the full floor vote confirming him, which comes in January. Some of his biggest priorities, he said, are extending school choice and voucher offerings and overhauling higher education and taxes.

Between new and returning members, 65 of them were eligible to participate in the vote. Some hung around in the lobby of the Riffe Center afterwards to congratulate Huffman and shake his hand.

In the other chamber, Sen. Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) was elected earlier in the day to take the president’s position come January 2025.