From left: Jared Shea, Gabriella Croft, Mike DeWine Governor of Ohio, Brady Shea, and Cheyanne Pack pose for the picture during Saturday’s Allen County Fair.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — Gov. Mike DeWine’s campaign message is a simple one: Ohio is doing well under current leadership.
The governor visited the Allen County Fair Saturday, part of a statewide tour as his re-election campaign against former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley ramps up.
“We’re creating more jobs in Ohio today than we have workers,” DeWine told The Lima News on Saturday.
He touted the Intel plant that will bring 3,000 permanent, high-paying jobs to New Albany and his administration’s efforts to improve job training through Tech Cred, which provides grants to employers so their workers can earn industry recognized credentials. He touted the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which mails books to children from birth through age 5.
And he defended the CHIPS Act, major federal legislation intended to boost domestic production of computer chips and semiconductors.
“It’s good for Ohio, but it’s also good for our country,” DeWine said, noting that computer chip production is subsidized in other countries. “One of the things that I think has dawned on people, as we’ve gone through this pandemic and we’ve seen the problems of getting everything from N95 masks to surgical masks to other things out of China, is that we have to make more things in the U.S. Having chips made here is really, really a question of national security. So many of the products that we use today require chips.”
Phase 1 of the Intel project alone is a $20 billion investment, DeWine said. He added: “I’m very optimistic about what’s going to happen with Intel.”
On the question of corruption and DeWine’s ties to the First Energy scandal, which the Whaley campaign has emphasized since its early days, DeWine said his policy position has always been that Ohio needs nuclear energy.
“We were about to lose all our nuclear energy,” he said. “So that, I still believe, is in the best interest of the state. Now what other people did or what happened after this bill passed, that will get worked out in court, trials that are going to take place. But my position didn’t change. This is the right thing to do. Look, I’ve had over 40 years in public office, so I think people have a pretty good feel for me, as far as my honesty and my integrity.”
On if there’s an enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats, who appear motivated to turn out for the midterm elections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, DeWine said he doesn’t see one.
“I think we have a compelling message that Ohio is doing very well,” he said. “We know the areas where we have to improve. We have to improve in regard to education. We have to improve regarding job training, but we’re certainly making a major effort in those areas. And we’re better off than we were, but we still have a ways to go.”
