Mike DeWine
Richard Michael DeWine is an American politician and attorney serving as the 70th governor of Ohio since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1991, and in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007.
DeWine is a native of Yellow Springs, Ohio. He graduated from Miami University with a bachelor's degree in 1969 and earned a Juris Doctor from Ohio Northern University College of Law in 1972. After graduation, DeWine worked as an assistant prosecutor for Greene County and was elected county prosecutor, serving one term. He continued his political career in the Ohio Senate in 1980. He served as a U.S. representative from 1983 until 1991. In 1991, he was sworn in as the 59th lieutenant governor of Ohio, under George Voinovich.
DeWine was elected to the United States Senate in a landslide in the 1994 Republican Revolution. He served in the Senate until his defeat by Sherrod Brown in 2006. DeWine returned to politics four years later and became the 50th attorney general of Ohio, serving from 2011 to 2019. He was elected governor in 2018. During DeWine's first term as governor, a shooting in Dayton prompted him to urge the Ohio legislature to enact new gun control measures, such as expanding background checks and harsher penalties for those in possession of unregistered firearms.
In early 2020, DeWine received national attention for his COVID-19 response, ordering the closing of dine-in restaurant service and sporting events and delegating additional resources to elderly care facilities. He was reelected by a landslide 25% margin against Democratic nominee Nan Whaley, the former mayor of Dayton, in 2022.
Early life and education
DeWine was born in Springfield, Ohio, on January 5, 1947, and grew up in nearby Yellow Springs. He is the son of Jean Ruth and Richard Lee DeWine. He was raised and identifies as a Roman Catholic. DeWine earned his Bachelor of Science degree in education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1969 and a Juris Doctor from the Pettit College of Law at Ohio Northern University in 1972.Early political career
At age 25, DeWine started working as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Greene County, Ohio, and in 1976 was elected County Prosecutor, serving for four years. In 1980, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate and served one two-year term.U.S. House of Representatives
In 1982, U.S. representative Bud Brown of Ohio's 7th congressional district retired after 18 years in Congress; his father, Clarence Brown, Sr., had held the seat for 26 years before that. DeWine won the Republican nomination, assuring his election in November. He was reelected three more times from this district, which stretches from his home in Springfield to the Columbus suburbs. He ran unopposed in 1986 in what was regarded as a bad year for Republicans nationally.In 1986, DeWine was one of the House impeachment managers who prosecuted the case in the impeachment trial of Judge Harry E. Claiborne. Claiborne was found guilty by the United States Senate and removed from his federal judgeship.
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate
DeWine did not seek reelection to the House of Representatives in 1990, and briefly ran for governor, but withdrew before the primaries and instead ran for lieutenant governor as George Voinovich's running mate in that year's Ohio gubernatorial election. The Voinovich-DeWine ticket was easily elected.In 1992, DeWine unsuccessfully ran for United States Senate against the former astronaut and incumbent senator John Glenn. His campaign used the phrase, "What on earth has John Glenn done?", echoing Jeff Bingaman's slogan "What on Earth has he done for you lately?" against former astronaut Harrison Schmitt in their 1982 Senate race.
U.S. Senate
In 1994, DeWine ran again for Senate, defeating prominent attorney Joel Hyatt by a 14-point margin. DeWine was reelected in 2000, defeating gunshow promoter Ronald Dickson and former U.S. representative Frank Cremeans in the primary and Ted Celeste in the general election. DeWine sat on the Senate Judiciary and Select Intelligence committees. He was the initial sponsor of the Drug-Free Century Act in 1999 and was a member of the Gang of 14, a bipartisan group of senators that in 2005 made a compromise on judicial nominees. He voted in favor of the 2002 Iraq Resolution authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein.In the 2006 United States Senate election in Ohio, DeWine ran for reelection but lost to U.S. representative and former Ohio secretary of state Sherrod Brown by 496,332 votes. He received 905,644 fewer votes in 2006 than he received in 2000.
Out of government (2007–2011)
DeWine accepted positions teaching government courses at Cedarville University, Ohio Northern University and Miami University. In 2007, he joined the law firm Keating Muething & Klekamp as corporate investigations group co-chair. He also advised the Ohio campaign of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.Attorney General of Ohio
On July 21, 2009, DeWine announced his candidacy for attorney general of the State of Ohio. On November 2, 2010, he was elected attorney general, defeating incumbent Richard Cordray, 48% to 46%. As attorney general of Ohio, DeWine sent letters to drugstore chains encouraging them to discontinue the sale of tobacco products.In the 2012 Republican presidential primary, DeWine endorsed Tim Pawlenty, then endorsed Mitt Romney after Pawlenty dropped out of the race. On February 17, 2012, DeWine announced he was retracting his endorsement of Romney and endorsed Rick Santorum. DeWine said, "To be elected president, you have to do more than tear down your opponents. You have to give the American people a reason to vote for you, a reason to hope, a reason to believe that under your leadership, America will be better. Rick Santorum has done that. Sadly, Governor Romney has not."
On November 4, 2014, DeWine was reelected as attorney general, defeating challenger David A. Pepper. He carried 83 of Ohio's 88 counties.
Legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act
In 2015, DeWine filed a lawsuit in federal court in Ohio against a part of the Affordable Care Act. In the suit, he alleged that the ACA's Transitional Reinsurance Program was unconstitutional as applied to state and local governments. When he filed the suit, DeWine claimed that the fee was "an unprecedented attempt to destroy the balance of authority between the federal government and the states".In January 2016, the federal court dismissed DeWine's suit, with U.S. district judge Algenon L. Marbley holding that the Transitional Reinsurance Program did not violate the Constitution. DeWine appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed Marbley's dismissal of the suit.
Criminal justice
DeWine's stated goal has been "Protecting Ohio Families". To that effect, he made it a priority to significantly reduce DNA testing turnaround times in connection with open criminal investigations. Under his predecessor, DNA testing at the Ohio attorney general's Bureau of Criminal Investigation took approximately four months in cases such as murders, rapes, and assaults. Under the DeWine administration, DNA test results are now returned to local law enforcement in less than a month, leading to faster apprehension of dangerous suspects.Upon taking office in 2011, DeWine launched a special sexual assault kit testing initiative after learning that hundreds of police departments across Ohio had thousands of untested rape kits on their evidence room shelves. DeWine invested resources to test the 13,931 previously untested rape kits over the course of his administration, which led to more than 5,000 DNA hits in the Combined DNA Index System. These DNA matches led to the indictments of approximately 700 alleged rapists, many of whom were serial attackers, connected to cases that would never have been solved if not for the DeWine initiative.
DeWine also launched the Crimes Against Children Initiative, which paired BCI criminal investigators with seasoned prosecuting attorneys to investigate and prosecute child predators. The Crimes Against Children Initiative focuses on holding accountable those who sexually and physically abuse children, those who share and view child pornography, and those who target children online. DeWine's office also developed several task forces for the investigation and prosecutions of human trafficking throughout the state.