Shakeup in Ohio House Speaker Race: Jason Stephens Withdraws, Tim Barhorst Enters
BY MATT URBAS
STATEWIDE - Current Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) announced to the Capitol Square press corps in Columbus on Monday that he was withdrawing from consideration for the Speaker’s gavel when the term of the next General Assembly begins in January 2025.
"While I will attend, I will not have my name placed in nomination as a candidate for speaker during the Wednesday caucus," Stephens told reporters.
The Speaker of the House in the Ohio Legislature is elected by the entire body, shortly after they are sworn in to begin the term. The majority party typically holds a private, nonbinding caucus vote among the incoming members of their party ahead of full vote. The winner of that caucus vote becomes the presumptive Speaker, although the majority party members must hold together and agree to vote in accordance with caucus vote.
That has not been a given in recent years for the Republican party in the House. Stephens became known as the “Blue 22” when he and twenty-one Republican members of the House ignored the caucus vote and got the support of all thirty-two Democrats in the House to win the job. Former Speaker Larry Householder, who was convicted for racketeering in connection with a bribery scandal with First Energy, also won the role with Democrat support, though his rival Ryan Smith also earned some votes from Democrats in the floor vote.
Four of Stephens’ supporters lost their seats to challengers in the March primary election, and statehouse observers largely believed that he would have an uphill battle to retain the role, with multi-term legislator Matt Huffman (R-Lima), currently the Senate President, maneuvering to ensure he could re-enter the House after being term limited out of the House. Huffman, a long-time member of the GOP establishment, has deep pockets and key allies throughout the state. The choice between Stephens and Huffman left conservatives in Ohio wondering if a third option would come forward.
The “third option” emerged on Monday as well, in the form of Representative Tim Barhorst (R-Fort Loramie), who publicly threw his hat into the ring shortly after Stephens made his announcement. Sources said that both Barhorst and Representative Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) had been exploring runs over the past few months, although after Barhorst announced his candidacy, Ferguson said he would not seek the nomination.
As Barhorst’s candidacy emerged, and in the aftermath of Stephens’ withdrawal, advocacy groups and elected officials began to voice support for either Barhorst or Huffman. No group was more vocal in their support of Barhorst than Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom. While most conservatives in Ohio considered Stephens a turncoat for betraying the caucus to obtain the power that comes with the role of Speaker, OAMF sees a far bigger enemy in Huffman.
“We’re in a bad situation, and we can’t make excuses for Huffman just because people don’t like Stephens,” OAMF president Stephanie Stock told Joe Miller on the Ohio Political News podcast.
Stock cites a number of bills that she believes have been blocked or watered down in the Senate under Huffman’s leadership.
“There are multiple bills with massive support that Republicans and conservatives want, like HB-8 the Parental Bill of Rights. It passed with 65 votes. Ron Ferguson and Tim Barhorst’s hospital transparency bill passed in June of 2024 with 90 votes. But the Senate rewrote it, sent it back a year later, and it was so bad, it got 93 no votes.”
Chris Dorr and Rob Knisley of Ohio Gun Owners posted a video discussing the matchup between Huffman and Barhorst. “Barhorst pledged 100% pro-gun support, said he’d vote for SAPA1, real constitutional carry, ‘stand your ground’, all the good pro-gun stuff,” Knisley said.
“Matt Huffman does not take his responsibility to advocate and fight for the Second Amendment with any kind of sincerity whatsoever. To him, Republican gun voters are simply a poker chip to be played when it’s convenient for him.” Dorr said.
Huffman, with nearly two decades in the General Assembly and the political connections and fundraising that come with them, has built-in advantages when it comes to collecting the 33 votes he needs to win a majority of the 65-member House Republican caucus.
“With the Blue 22 situation, he was in a wonderful position to put money behind these people to uproot the 22; he backed them, had fundraisers for them, and now we have all these incoming freshman, who committed to Huffman, and now…he’s killing all these conservative bills, and they’re going to have to make a decision on Wednesday,” Stock told podcaster Tom Renz. “Are they going to represent the people that put them in because they’re pro medical freedom, pro gun, pro all these things? Or are they putting their name in a hat for an establishment Speaker that’s going to continue to kill the bills he’s already been killing?”
Incumbent GOP Representatives Gary Click and Adam Bird wasted little time in posting screenshots of a letter from Congressman Jim Jordan that supported the current Senate President to their social media. “Know that you have my full support to become speaker of the house,” the letter from Jordan’s office said. Click's signature legislation banning transgender surgeries passed earlier in the term and Huffman also expedited passage of Adam Bird's single-sex bathroom bill just a week ago.
“Regarding Jim Jordan's interjection now into the Ohio House Speaker's race, [he] should be focused on doing his job and delivering for gun owners in DC rather than trying to help elect an establishment hack to the Ohio Speaker's office.” Dorr said.
Barhorst, a restaurant owner and financial planner, will be entering his second term in the Ohio House in January, having defeating Democrat Victoria Maddox with over 80% of the votes in his district, which encompasses Shelby, Champaign and southern Logan counties in western Ohio.
“We have a unique opportunity,” Barhorst told Renz. “The Ohio House has 65 Republicans, 34 Democrats, and some of those Democrats are actually changing their mind and have a lot of pressure in their districts to support a Trump agenda as well, because we saw that minority vote shift in the positive direction for us. So this political environment is changing fast, and I’m not confident that the current leader in the Senate that wants to come over to the House will take it as aggressive and serious as I think we need to do.”
“This is not what I ran to do, to be Ohio Speaker. But when you realize that you’re needed and have ideas to bring folks together…it doesn’t matter what we do if we’re not united. I feel like I can really bring our caucus together…we can unite behind a Donald Trump agenda. Let’s get Ohio moving forward.”
The Second Amendment Preservation Act, which prohibits Ohio police officers or public employees from enforcing federal laws regarding firearms.
