SPOTLIGHT: A Conversation with Thomas Hach of Ohio Freedom Action Network

BY NICK ROGERS

Ohio Freedom Action Network defines itself as a "team of teams," seeking to reestablish liberty in the heartland. The groups founder, Thomas Hach, has offered to speak about the experience of starting the organization and the lessons learned since its inception.

TOR: My guest today is Thomas Hach of Ohio Freedom Action Network; aka OhioFAN (and also of this publication). Tom, thank you for taking the time to speak with me.

Tom: No problem. Happy to do it.

TOR: So, Tom…how and why did OhioFAN come to be?

Tom: In 2020, I co-founded a group called Free Ohio Now which was focused on fighting the COVID lockdowns, mask mandates, and similar things. By the end of 2021, the Liberty Movement, which is how I describe our movement – one focused on increasing self-governance and individual liberty in Ohio and beyond – needed to evolve to be more effective. As such, OhioFAN was created to be a team of teams with the leaders of various liberty groups around the state becoming members of OhioFAN; the goal being to help those leaders work together in common cause to move the needle in Ohio toward self-governance and individual liberty.

TOR: Please explain the events that led to OhioFAN’s birthing of The Ohio Register (formerly The Ohio Roundtable).

Tom: While there was some initial success in helping leaders work together, what OhioFAN truly excelled at was creating single issue working groups. The Ohio Register (formerly The Ohio Roundtable) was among these groups (although, as our readers know, the online publication actually spans many topics by this point). Other groups included Ohio Election Integrity Network, Ohio School Board Constitutional Coalition, and Ohio Precinct Strategy. These working groups have helped to make Ohio elections more free and fair, helped elect good, constitutionally-minded school board members, helped increase the grassroots presence on many county central committees, and helped spread the word on important issues every Ohioan should know about.

TOR: “Liberty” and “Patriot” – along with so many other positive terms these days – have been twisted by the establishment for propagandistic purposes. You said you consider OhioFAN to be part of the Liberty Movement. What does the term “Liberty” mean to you?

Tom: Liberty is about self-governance. Those who oppose this principle have a completely different view of the future of America. People in the Liberty Movement want to maintain America as a bottom-up governance model where We the People are ultimately supreme. Those who oppose this founding principle believe that the government is supreme and rules over the people without limit.

TOR: “Conservative” and “Liberal” are also terms that seem not to mean what they originally did. As far as the current iteration of those terms in relation to the political realm, OhioFan openly declares itself a conservative organization, yes? 

Tom: OhioFAN is, indeed, a conservative organization, and we want to conserve the founding principles of self-governance.

TOR: I see what you did there, and I like it. Does the organization work to reach “across the aisle,” or are the issues of concern and core values of conservatism/liberalism too divisive to attempt such a meeting of minds?

Tom: We recognize that it will take a coalition with other people who also want to be free – but with whom we may have some disagreements – in order to make a winning majority. Obviously, there are people who like the prospect of a top-down-all-knowing-and-all-controlling government with whom there will be little opportunity to work with, but there are opportunities to work with less extreme people.

TOR: Based on what you have told me – and based on the group’s name – I would imagine that you consider OhioFAN to be an activism-centric organization.

Tom: Yes. I feel that the key words of our name are “Action Network.” We are action-oriented, and we constantly look for ways to push liberty forward in Ohio in the short-term as well as in the long-term.

TOR: You said that election integrity is one of the key focuses of OhioFAN. Does the group openly stand behind individual candidates or does it simply work toward the goal of free and fair elections in general?

Tom: As election cycles come and go, we do indeed get behind or oppose certain candidates and issues. In the longer term, the Liberty Movement needs to become even more organized in this regard and develop enduring capabilities which will lead to more enduring successes in this arena. There is much work to be done.

TOR: How can those interested get involved with OhioFAN?

Tom: They are welcome to contact us at info@ohiofan.com.

TOR: Thank you for taking the time to speak with The Ohio Register, Tom.

Tom: My pleasure. Thank you.