Optimistic Bobby

First of all, I want to sincerely thank the voters of the 93rd District (Jackson, Gallia, & Lawrence) for your overwhelming support (70%). The outpouring of support is humbling. In fact, Tuesday’s results were the largest margin of victory in a general election in my career. Thank you! Secondly, it unfortunately appears that many of my republican colleagues and candidates in republican held seats (possibly up to 12) will not be returning to Columbus in January. Yes, it was a difficult cycle, but these losses in individual districts are not good. It didn’t have to be this bad. So how is it, in my district, I overperformed our ticket significantly, while other members also in relatively “safe” districts lost? Here are my thoughts: As most of you know, I faced a primary in the spring of 2026 because I vocally opposed house leadership on unpopular issues that I knew were against the interest of my district and unpopular with the people of Ohio. So, the establishment targeted me with unprecedented spending and a very noisy primary. It was to no avail because I won that race by a nearly 2-1 margin. A lot people in my district were confused and some really mad about the primary. They often asked why did this happen, so I told them: 1 -The Ohio House refused to pass the third phase of the bipartisan Cupp-Patterson School Funding Plan which had been agreed to by both parties in past years. 2-The Ohio House didn’t reign in the property tax abatements for Data Centers, yet leadership insisted that the caucus vote to hand out $600 million of other people’s money for a sports stadium by shoving the provision into the states 2-year operating budget. 3-The Ohio House passed a marijuana bill that catered to big business interests and flew in the face of the voter passed legislation legalizing marijuana in 2023. The reasons for both my overperformance but yet the republican underperformance in so many districts across Ohio boil down to those three major very unpopular positions (and few smaller ones) that leadership insisted members vote for. I opposed leadership on these very unpopular positions, and I paid the price by being primaried; however, those members who (begrudgingly) went along with these policies didn’t get a primary, but they sure heard the voters’ displeasure loud and clear this past Tuesday. Finally, the question for the republicans are left in the Ohio House now is “are we going to keep doing what we have been doing, or are we going to actually listen to the people of Ohio and govern in their interest?” Again, I want to thank the voters of the 93rd District for your steadfast support. I do my best to listen to you and stand up for you. I look forward to continuing to represent you in the next General Assembly.