In Ohio gubernatorial race, Amy Acton outraises Vivek Ramaswamy in 2026; death penalty divides governor and attorney general
Ohio politics news and insights from the State Signals newsletter. Plus, where Ohio’s Secretary of State candidates stand on new voter ID measures.
LATEST NEWS FROM SIGNAL STATEWIDE
Election 2026
Ohio will again send all voters absentee ballot applications as mail voting continues to plunge
A state spending panel voted Monday to approve spending $2.5 million on the universal absentee ballot application mailing, which Ohio has done in every even-year, general election since 2012.
Ohio property tax abolition campaign drops 2026 ballot bid
A leader with the Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes said they’re instead targeting the November 2027 election after falling short of their signature gathering goals.
Sherrod Brown reprises an anti-war message in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race
The Democratic former senator is tying the war in Iran to rising gas and fertilizer prices as he challenges Republican Sen. Jon Husted in November. The tack resembles Brown’s approach in 2006, when he spoke against the then-war in Iraq and won a seat in the U. S. Senate.
GOVERNMENT
Ohio Republicans back off effort to kill a beefy tax credit for data centers
Lawmakers around 10 p.m. Wednesday nixed a vote on a data center package, aborting efforts to eliminate or lower a tax break that saved Big Tech $2 billion last year.
EDUCATION
It’s been nearly a year since Senate Bill 1 became law. Tell us if it’s changed your college experience in Ohio
The law, passed in June 2025, overhauled how public higher education works in the state.
HEALTH
‘I trust Gov. DeWine’: Dr. Oz visits Ohio amid GOP pressure on Medicaid fraud
Oz praised DeWine’s moves to crack down on home health care fraud and met with GOP nominee for governor Vivek Ramaswamy.
STATE SIGNALS NEWSLETTER
Voter ID heads to the November ballot; Ohio data center fight stalls
Ohio politics news and insights from the State Signals newsletter. Plus, Sen. Jon Husted breaks with President Donald Trump amid a rocky political environment.
PUBLIC SAFETY
Ohio sheriff to deploy helicopters for illegal marijuana grows with fresh $70,000 grant
The Ohio Controlling Board released money for the Ohio Attorney General’s office to contract with the Butler County Sheriff Office’s aviation unit to look for illegal marijuana grows.
NEWS FROM NOTUS
Senate Democrats Think They Have Leverage on SNAP Funding
The farm bill can’t pass without Democrats, and they have one major demand.
Local Newsrooms
Signal Ohio is a nonprofit statewide network of local newsrooms.
Why Local News
Local news is in crisis. Across the country, including here in Ohio, the commercial news industry has been on the decline, leading to the loss of nearly three-quarters of journalism jobs since 2005, leading to less accountability, more polarization, and more government waste. With the volume of original reporting in Ohio communities reduced to a small fraction of what it once was, nonprofit news offers a path forward