A ‘HER’STORIC day for Ohio! A proposed amendment to the state constitution would give Ohioans an individual right to reproductive health care modeled after a successful ballot initiative that last year enshrined reproductive rights into Michigan’s state constitution.
Delegates of the Democratic National Committee overwhelmingly approved the party’s presidential nominating calendar, reordering what states will vote first in the 2024 primaries. This has upended a century of political tradition. President Joe Biden and his advisers elevated South Carolina to the first-place position in the primary calendar.
On Friday, January 27, 2023, 128 of the 222 House Republicans – including 25 Republican lawmakers on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce – signed onto an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to block student-debt relief. It came alongside a separate brief filed by 43 GOP senators opposing the relief. They all argued that POTUS Biden doesn’t have the authority to cancel student debt using the HEROES Act of 2003.
New Ohio Statehouse and U.S. Congressional maps are due this year, just like they were last year. But political scientists in the state aren’t holding out hope that major changes are coming. “It really is the ultimate political Groundhog Day without the redeeming learning that Bill Murray had,” said David Niven, political science associate professor with the University of Cincinnati.
DeWine signed HB458 into law triggering a major overhaul of state election laws that will require voters to present a photo ID at the polls. Under the new law, voters must present a photo ID when they cast their ballot in person, although the ID doesn’t need to have their current address on it. Qualifying IDs include an Ohio driver’s license, state ID, U.S. passport, passport card, military ID or interim identification issued by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Voters could previously use alternative forms of identification at the polls, such as utility bills or bank statements that included their new address.
