Dave Yost | |
---|---|
51st Attorney General of Ohio | |
Assumed office January 14, 2019 | |
Governor | Mike DeWine |
Preceded by | Mike DeWine |
32nd Auditor of Ohio | |
In office January 10,2011 –January 12,2019 | |
Governor | John Kasich |
Preceded by | Mary Taylor |
Succeeded by | Keith Faber |
Personal details | |
Born | David Anthony Yost December 22,1956 |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Darlene |
Children | 3 |
Education | Ohio State University (BA) Capital University (JD) |
Signature | |
David Anthony Yost (born December 22,1956) is an American politician and lawyer who currently serves as the 51st Attorney General of Ohio. A member of the Republican Party,Yost previously served as Ohio State Auditor.
During his tenure as Attorney General,he supported attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election,which was won by Joe Biden. He has played a key role in defending an Ohio abortion law that prohibits abortion six weeks into a pregnancy (before many women know they are pregnant) without exceptions for rape or incest. [1] In 2022,he was involved in a public controversy over a 10-year-old rape victim who had to flee Ohio for Indiana to get an abortion to avoid carrying her rapist's child. [2]
Yost graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. He earned a Juris Doctor from the Capital University Law School. [3] After earning his bachelor's degree,Yost became a journalist with the Columbus Citizen-Journal. [4]
Yost later served in senior positions within the administration of Columbus mayor Buck Rinehart and governor George Voinovich. [5] Yost was appointed Delaware County Auditor in 1999. [6] In 2003,he became the Delaware County Prosecutor. [7] He was elected Ohio's 32nd state auditor in November 2010,after earlier vying for the Republican nomination for Ohio attorney general against Mike DeWine. [8] In January 2017,Yost announced he was running for Ohio Attorney General in 2018. [9]
Yost defeated his Democratic opponent Steve Dettelbach,who previously served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Ohio,in the 2018 Ohio Attorney General election. [10] In the 2022 election,Yost was re-elected to his position over Democratic candidate Jeffrey Crossman,a member of the Ohio House from Parma. [10] [11]
Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade,Yost filed a successful motion to dissolve the injunction on Ohio's six-week abortion ban. [12] On June 24,2022,Yost tweeted that "The Heartbeat Bill is now the law." He released a video statement on YouTube the same day in which he said,"This decision returns abortion policy to the place it has always belonged:to the elected policies branches of the governments." [13]
Yost's son and daughter-in-law publicly criticized his actions in messages on Facebook on June 24 and 25,the former saying,"[T]he lack of pro choice is blatantly against what this country says it is on its banners and documents. The land of the free doesn't seem so free right now." [14]
On June 30,2022,shortly after the ban became effective,a 10-year-old rape victim who was "six weeks and three days" pregnant traveled from the Columbus area to Indianapolis,Indiana,to get an abortion to avoid carrying her rapist's child. [15] [16] [17] The incident was widely reported,beginning with an article in the Indianapolis Star newspaper on July 1,and was mentioned by President Joe Biden on July 8 in comments at the White House. [18] On July 11,Yost disputed the report,saying that neither his office or the state crime lab had any information on the matter,and that his staff had heard "not a whisper" about it;in an interview on July 12,Yost said it was "more likely that this is a fabrication". [19] That day,the report was confirmed by the Columbus Division of Police and a rape suspect was arrested. [20]
On July 14,Yost's office shared a backgrounder with media and on Twitter [21] which listed specific exceptions contained in Ohio's "Heartbeat Law",and suggested,as had Yost in interviews on July 11,that the 10-year-old girl would have been able to obtain a legal abortion under those exceptions. The Ohio Legislative Commission said that nothing in the language of the law explicitly includes the age of the person seeking an abortion as a qualification for exception,and that it was unclear whether the girl would have qualified for a legal abortion. [2] [22] The following week,Yost rejected calls from the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party and others for his resignation. [23]
After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election,Yost filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief in support of the Trump campaign's attempt to invalidate ballots cast in Pennsylvania. [24] [25] However,in December 2020,Yost opposed a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton which sought to subvert the presidential election results and prevent Biden from being certified as the winner. [26]
In mid-March 2023,about five weeks after the train derailment in East Palestine,Ohio,Yost announced a 58-count civil damages lawsuit against Norfolk Southern for its "glaring negligence" and prioritizing profits over communities' safety. [27] [28]
In September 2019,Yost was one out of nine state attorneys general that launched an antitrust investigation into Facebook and Google,to investigate whether or not they were stifling competition in their respective fields. [29] [30]
Yost was sued by a coalition of civil rights groups,including the A. Philip Randolph Institute,the state NAACP chapter,and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative,in February 2024 after his second rejection of a petition for a proposed constitutional amendment,entitled the Ohio Voters Bill of Rights,that would appear on the ballot in the 2024 elections. The amendment would introduce the automatic registration of voters,discard recent additions to voter identification requirements,and increase ballot drop boxes. After rejecting the first petition in December 2023,Yost's office rejected it for a second time the following month,finding that the amendment's title was "highly misleading and misrepresentative" of its content. [31] [32]
In 2024,Yost refused to grant provisional approval for placing Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee on Ohio ballots for the 2024 presidential election. Ohio is one of few states in the United States that has a ballot certification deadline prior to the Democratic National Convention. In 2020,both the Republican and Democratic national conventions were after the ballot certification deadline,but lawmakers provided provisional approval for the candidates to be on the ballot. [33]
Yost and his wife Darlene live in Franklin County,Ohio. They have three children and four grandchildren. [34]
Yost and Republican lawmaker Kevin D. Miller were the targets of swatting phone calls in December 2023 after false reports of shootings at their homes were made to the police. [35]
Ohio Auditor Republican Primary Election,2010 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Dave Yost | 457,820 | 64.88 |
Republican | Seth Morgan | 247,848 | 35.12 |
Ohio Auditor Election,2010 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Dave Yost | 1,882,010 | 50.22 |
Democratic | David Pepper | 1,683,330 | 44.91 |
Libertarian | Michael Howard | 182,534 | 4.87 |
Ohio Auditor Election,2014 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Dave Yost (inc.) | 1,711,927 | 56.98 |
Democratic | John Patrick Carney | 1,149,305 | 38.25 |
Libertarian | Bob Bridges | 143,363 | 4.77 |
Ohio Attorney General Election,2018 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Dave Yost | 2,272,440 | 52.16 |
Democratic | Steve Dettelbach | 2,084,593 | 47.84 |
Ohio Attorney General Election,2022 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
Republican | Dave Yost | 2,484,753 | 60.1 |
Democratic | Jeffrey Crossman | 1,647,644 | 39.9 |
Richard Michael DeWine is an American politician and attorney serving since 2019 as the 70th governor of Ohio. A member of the Republican Party,he served as the 50th Attorney General of Ohio from 2011 to 2019,in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1991,and in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007.
Teresa Fedor is an American politician from Ohio. She was a member of the Ohio Senate,representing the 11th district from 2019 until her resignation in 2022. A member of the Ohio General Assembly since 2001,Fedor previously represented the same seat in the Senate from 2003 to 2010,and was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives for five nonconsecutive terms,serving from 2001 to 2002,and again from 2011 to 2018. A Democrat,Fedor represented Toledo and the surrounding areas.
Theodore Edward Rokita is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 44th and current Attorney General of Indiana. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party,he served two terms as Secretary of State of Indiana from 2002 to 2010. When Rokita was elected to office in 2002 at age 32,he became the youngest secretary of state in the United States at the time.
The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly,depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction,although there is no uniform federal law. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy,with few exceptions;others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy,while some allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal,several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist,such as parental consent or notification laws,requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion,mandatory waiting periods,and counseling requirements.
John Patrick Carney is an American attorney and former Democratic member of the Ohio House of Representatives,representing the 22nd District from 2009 to 2014. In September 2013,Carney announced his intention to run for Auditor of the State of Ohio in the 2014 election,he lost the general election on November 4 to incumbent Dave Yost.
Frank LaRose is an American politician who has served as the 51st Secretary of State of Ohio since January 2019. He was a Republican member of the Ohio State Senate for two terms,from January 2011 to January 2019. He was a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in the 2024 election,challenging incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown. He lost to Bernie Moreno in the primary.
A six-week abortion ban,also called a "fetal heartbeat bill" by proponents,is a law in the United States which makes abortion illegal as early as six weeks gestational age,which is when proponents claim that a "fetal heartbeat" can be detected. Medical and reproductive health experts,including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,say that the reference to a fetal heartbeat is medically inaccurate and misleading,for a conceptus is not called a fetus until eight weeks after fertilization,as well as that at four weeks after fertilization,the embryo has no heart,only a group of cells which will become a heart. Medical professionals advise that a true fetal heartbeat cannot be detected until around 17 to 20 weeks of gestation when the chambers of the heart have become sufficiently developed.
Jason Stuart Miyares is an American attorney and politician serving as the 48th Attorney General of Virginia since 2022. A Republican,he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2015,from the 82nd district in northeastern Virginia Beach,and served three terms from 2016 to 2022. He was elected Attorney General of Virginia in 2021. The son of a refugee,he is the first Hispanic elected statewide in Virginia.
The Ohio general elections,2018,were held on November 6,2018,throughout Ohio.
The 2024 United States elections are scheduled to be held on Tuesday,November 5,2024. During this presidential election year,the president and vice president will be elected. In addition,all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate will be contested to determine the membership of the 119th United States Congress. Thirteen state and territorial governorships and numerous other state and local elections will also be contested.
A special election for Ohio's 12th congressional district was held August 7,2018,following the resignation of Republican U.S. Representative Pat Tiberi. The Republican Party nominated State Senator Troy Balderson for the seat while the Democratic Party nominated Franklin County Recorder Danny O'Connor. Balderson led O'Connor in preliminary results;however,the race was not officially called on election night. Counting of outstanding ballots began on August 18 and was completed on August 24. The outstanding ballots did not change the margin enough to trigger an automatic recount,so Balderson was declared the winner on August 24.
Abortion in Ohio is legal up to the point of fetal viability as a result of abortion rights being placed into the Ohio State Constitution by November 2023 Ohio Issue 1.
The 2018 Ohio Attorney General election took place on November 6,2018,to elect the attorney general of Ohio.
The 2022 Ohio general elections took place on November 8,2022,throughout the US state of Ohio.
On June 30,2022,a ten-year-old girl from Columbus,Ohio,United States,traveled to Indiana to get an abortion because abortion law in Ohio did not provide an exception for minor children who became pregnant because of rape. Her case drew national attention and commentary from public figures,due in part to its proximity to the June 24,2022,decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization,which overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states,including Ohio,to impose substantial limitations on abortion.
Andrew Bailey is an American attorney and politician. A Republican,he has served as Missouri Attorney General since appointment by Governor Mike Parson in January 2023.
Elliot Forhan is an attorney and non-profit executive who has served in the Ohio House of Representatives since 2023. He represents the 21st district in Cuyahoga County.
A special election was held in the U.S. state of Ohio on August 8,2023,on a referendum to make it substantially harder for voter-led initiatives intending to amend the Ohio State Constitution to be proposed and approved.
The 2023 Ohio reproductive rights initiative,officially titled "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety" and listed on the ballot as Issue 1,was a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment adopted on November 7,2023,by a majority (56.8%) of voters. It codified reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution,including contraception,fertility treatment,miscarriage care,and abortion up to the point of fetal viability,restoring Roe v. Wade-era access to abortion in Ohio.
In December 2023,there was widespread swatting of prominent figures in American politics,as well as bomb scares and other violent threats made against government buildings. The series of swattings extended into January 2024. As of December 2023,the motivations,and whether they are the product of one or multiple individuals,are unknown.