GOP 32nd State Senate contenders trade barbs
publican primary features a matchup between two officeholders: incumbent Sandra O’Brien, who is seeking her second four-year term in the Ohio Senate, and her challenger, state Rep. Mike Loychik.
Loychik, R-Bazetta, said he challenged O’Brien, R-Lenox, because he was tired of “seeing a lack of representation in the 32nd” Ohio Senate District.
O’Brien said Loychik “has been a failure as a state representative while I’ve been a success as a state senator.”
While both are Republicans, O’Brien and Loychik exchanged criticisms about each other.
O’Brien received the Ohio Republican Party’s endorsement Jan. 27. The party typically backs incumbents. On top of that, the party censured Loychik in January 2023 for being among 22 House Republicans who voted for state Rep. Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, against the House GOP majority’s choice for speaker.
“I was endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party and my opponent was censured,” O’Brien said. “That is huge. My opponent turned his back on Republicans and voted with the Democrats in the Ohio House to choose the Democrats’ choice for speaker of the House. House Republicans no longer trust him and you can’t get that trust back.”
Loychik, who is serving his second two-year term in the state House, said he’s “not concerned with the ORP’s endorsement. Most of the voters don’t even know who the ORP is. I gain my endorsements when I’m on people’s doorsteps knocking on their door asking for their vote. There’s a lot of inner fighting going on with the ORP. I’m focused on doing this right for the district and fighting for the will of the people.”
Loychik added: “I have many friends in the state Senate and plan on working well with them when I’m elected as a state senator.”
The Senate district includes all of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties and most of Geauga County. It is considered a safe Republican district, favoring that party by about 10.5%, according to partisan statewide voting trends during the past decade.
The winner of the primary will face Democrat Michael Shrodek of Warren in the Nov. 5 general election.
O’Brien has the backing of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, which is airing commercials contending Loychik turned his back on veterans. Loychik served in the U.S. Air Force for eight years and is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
O’Brien said Loychik hasn’t passed one bill to help veterans and when she was seeking help in the House to pass her Veterans Information Act — which requires health care workers and caseworkers to inform veterans about the available health care benefits — Loychik didn’t provide any.
“The veterans I worked with were turning to him and he didn’t do anything,” O’Brien said.
Loychik said: “I find the ads that Sandra O’Brien is running questioning my service in the Air Force to the country and my constituents, and as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, to be disturbing and disrespectful to all veterans. The fact of the matter is she polled the race and found her support among my fellow veterans was abysmal.”
Loychik added: “This is a sad political maneuver in an attempt to chip away at my support among my brothers and sisters in the armed services community. I know politics is a dirty business, but this is a new low for Sandra O’Brien.”
O’BRIEN PRIORITIES
O’Brien said if reelected, she would continue to focus on bringing tax dollars to the district and on restructuring Ohio’s educational system.
O’Brien was able to convince her fellow Republican state senators to restore $3 million to the state budget last year to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport that is being used to leverage greater federal dollars for needed improvements.
O’Brien also got the Ohio Department of Transportation to permit the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office to use 5,000 tons of recycled asphalt grindings to resurface the county fairgrounds, and secured money from the state capital budget to help Trumbull County.
“I absolutely expect to get more money for the district,” she said.
O’Brien also sponsored a bill to provide state funding to students at any public, community or charter school.
“My proudest accomplishment is now tax dollars follow the student,” said O’Brien, a former public school teacher. “I’m a huge proponent of children and parents.”
O’Brien next wants to require teachers to stick to the basics of educating children on reading, writing and arithmetic.
“I don’t believe in the indoctrinations that are going on in some public schools,” she said.
O’Brien also wants to eliminate Ohio’s income tax in either the next legislative session or the one to follow. Republicans introduced legislation in January to eliminate the income and commercial activity tax by 2030. They bring in $13 billion annually.
“We’ve been taking steps to reduce the tax brackets and we’ve been doing fine,” she said. “We have a brain drain in Ohio. People leave here for Texas and that state doesn’t have an income tax. If we got rid of the income tax more people would move to Ohio. If you attract more people, they spend more.”
LOYCHIK PRIORITIES
Loychik said he is focused on lowering property taxes, protecting and preserving people’s Second Amendment rights, securing the nation’s southern border and helping Ohio children’s mental health, school safety, education and home life.
Loychik introduced legislation to provide a temporary expansion for the homestead exemption, index school districts’ 20-mill floor to inflation and stabilize the Current Agricultural Use Value program.
The proposal aims to help homeowners and farmers, he said. By limiting the increase of the 20-mill floor of school districts to the rate of inflation, it would prevent districts from receiving windfalls of unvoted funds when home values rise.
The House Government Oversight Committee in November passed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, with Loychik as the lead sponsor, that would prohibit local and state law enforcement from enforcing federal firearms laws or regulations. It awaits a vote in the House.
It also adds protections for “law-abiding citizens” to the right to bear arms and affirms the power of state rights over the federal government under the 10th Amendment.
Loychik also wants to keep the nation’s southern “border safe,” as well as stop the “illegal hiring of illegal immigrants in the state of Ohio, keeping Ohioans employed (and) Ohio jobs for Ohioans.”
Loychik is a cosponsor on a bill that would require certain contractors and companies with at least 75 employees in the state to verify immigration status of workers.
Loychik was also the lead sponsor on a bill passed last year making Ohio the only state in the nation requiring K-12 coaches, he said, “to take mental health training to identify when a student athlete is having trouble mentally.”
Republican Primary
32nd Ohio Senate District
Sandra O’Brien
AGE: 72
OCCUPATION: State senator
PREVIOUS ELECTED EXPERIENCE: Serving first four-year term as state senator, former Ashtabula County auditor for 12 years
GOALS: To continue to bring tax dollars to the district, to continue to restructure Ohio’s educational system and eliminate the state income tax
Mike Loychik
AGE: 34
OCCUPATION: Ohio House representative and owner of Atlantic Pressure Washing Solutions LLC
PREVIOUS ELECTED EXPERIENCE: Serving his second two-year term in the Ohio House.
GOALS: Lowering property taxes, protecting and preserving the Second Amendment, keeping our borders safe and focusing on Ohio children’s mental health, school safety, education and home life