The Room Where It Happened

An Eyewitness Account of the Far Right’s Issue 1 Plan

On May 9, an event in Cincinnati generated some media attention because former Vice President Mike Pence came and spoke.

And that was how it was covered.

But in hindsight, the importance of that event—a gala dinner—was far bigger than a brief speech by someone whose presidential race will go nowhere.

The far bigger story, which the press didn’t pick up on, was that it was at that gala that the Ohio group driving so much of Ohio’s descent into far-right extremism openly shared their plans.

But…there was one reporter there who did pay attention to the entire meeting.

Because he was there to learn more about the gala host, Ohio’s Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), generally, as part of a broader story he was writing. And this reporter had full access, paid close attention, and took detailed notes.

Perhaps because he is an international correspondent, not simply consumed with the presidential politics that occupies most Americans (including media), he listened attentively to what others (beyond Pence) had to say.

And he wrote a story about it all:

Of course, since Bas Blokker is a reporter for NRC, Holland’s paper of record, and wrote his story in Dutch, few Americans would have read the story

But when he called me for my perspective (we’d talked a year before about the curse of gerrymandering in Ohio and elsewhere), he filled me in on all he’d heard, stated in the wide open.

And for the sake of transparency of an important political story, Bas was willing to share his notes.

Here is what happened, per his notes (italics and bold are mine):

“Ruth Edmonds, CCV-director of Christian Engagement, opened the event and told us…’God has plans for this bell weather state.’ Having children is replenishing the world with soldiers doing God’s work.”

Pence spoke next.

“‘The radical left has descended on the Buckeye State,’ Mike Pence said, ‘collecting signatures.’”

Next appeared the leader of CCV, named Aaron Baer—at this point a true power broker in GOP politics:

After an opening prayer, he told the crowd: “‘We got work to do. There is serious wickedness going on on our watch.’”

“He told the audience about the CCV-initiated school, Westside, and how he wants to get the State House to approve the Backpack Bill. With that bill, vouchers would be provided to parents, in order to spend public, taxpayers’ money on CCV’s private Christian school….’'There are now 34 children on Westside, torn from the clutches of the enemy’ — obviously Baer meant public education here.”

“‘Everybody get your phone out. Go to backpackbill.com. Scroll to yellow button to find your lawmaker. Fill in his or her name. Don’t worry about the address, we will do that for you.’ Then he said: ‘We got eight weeks to get this done. Our lawmakers don’t hear often from their constituents. We did it last week in Columbus. We’re gonna flood their postboxes.’

[DP note: his lobbying worked; this bill passed as part of the state budget]

“Then Baer talked about the special election on the constitutional amendment. [DP note: later named Issue 1]. The day after the gala, the State House would vote on a proposal to raise the necessary majority to 60 percent.”

“‘We look at the Speaker…’ Here a couple of boos were heard in the audience. ‘We will see tomorrow if he has some backbone or if he sells out.’”

[note: the Speaker did sell out, supporting Issue 1 as it passed]

“Baer then explained that six states have had abortion on the ballot since Roe v Wade was rescinded. It is 6-0 for those who are pro-abortion. He said the pro-life vote had no chance because ‘outside groups’ were organizing votes to preserve the right to choose abortion in Ohio. The pro-choice vote would get the majority, but not a majority of 60 percent, Baer said.”

“‘We have to stop it here. If we stop it here, it will be stopped everywhere. If not, we cannot stop it anywhere. We have to protect the women of Ohio. To protect the women of America.’”

Then he addressed organizing for the anticipated campaign: “‘As Center for Christian Virtue we’re gonna play an important role. We have the largest church network. We need to engage the church. It all starts with prayer. Every day at 8.15, we pray together in a Zoom conference.’

“Baer tells of the plan to appoint 88 county captains to gather votes…’ We’ve got 220 churches. The churches need to stop this. We see suffering of children in school. We see the suffering from abortion. We can’t allow this to happen.’”

“Applause around the tables: ‘I’m excited about how God calls us if he needs us.’”

That’s the end of the notes.

By the way, both Secretary of State LaRose and Attorney General Yost were in attendance. They heard all this.

Let’s go over that again:

1) Pence knew of and talked about the signature-gathering;

2) Baer admits they are losing everywhere;

3) Baer admits they will lose if the threshold is 50%, but thinks they’ll win if it’s 60%;

4) Baer says: “If we stop it here, it will be stopped everywhere.”

5) Baer vocalizes the real drive for the voucher bills—get money and kids to his school and “tear” those kids out of “the clutches of the enemy” (public schools).

Folks, this is their battle.

They know they are losing.

They know they WILL lose if they don’t rig the rules. In this case, rules of Ohio’s democracy that have been in place for more than a century.

They say it in the wide open.

Official like LaRose & Yost know.

Issue 1 is their plan to do this in Ohio.

But for them, it’s national: “We have to stop it here. If we stop it here, it will be stopped everywhere.”

That’s why billionaire Dick Uhlein kicked in $4M from Illinois . That’s why these same folks kicked in $5M into TV yesterday for the final week.

This is a battle to subvert Ohio’s democracy, and its majority. With abortion as its main driver, but with obviously much broader and longer-lasting consequences.

But it’s also part of a much bigger national battle against core American rights, which a majority supports, vs. right-wing extremism locking in its views despite that majority.

They see is this way.

We need to see it this way.

And we need to fight back accordingly.

Oh, and for those of you who read Dutch, here’s the link to Bas’s story about this meeting and, as he put it to me, “the outsized influence of conservative religious groups on American politics.”

But if you don’t read Dutch, my hope is that even notes from one dinner in Cincinnati motivate you to help defeat Issue 1 here, and stop efforts like it elsewhere:

“If we stop it here, it will be stopped everywhere.”

Indeed.

If you want to give to one last push to help get the “No on Issue 1” message out, please do so here.

If you want to volunteer to help turn out the vote in this final week, please do so here.

6 days.

We can not afford to lose.

Thank you.

David