DeWine’s Failed Leadership Costs Columbus Taxpayers $5.75 MILLION in Payments to Rioters

Ohio taxpayers are continuing to foot the bill for DeWine’s failed leadership—this time to the tune of nearly $6 million paid directly by the city of Columbus to anti-police rioters in a legal settlement stemming from the 2020 riots. According to one officer involved, "People were walking up to us with bottles and opening them and throwing, like, unknown liquids on us, yelling in our face."

Imagine what priorities that money - taken directly from Columbus' General Fund - could've been spent on if DeWine had done his job and secured Ohio's cities in the first place and prosecuted those responsible.

DeWine even failed to protect the Ohio Statehouse, where rioters inflicted over $150,000 in damages. Meanwhile, DeWine applauded the protests as "very appropriate" while cities across the country burned and law enforcement was put in harm's way. Even today, Ohio's murder rate is the highest it's been in decades, hitting cities like Columbus especially hard.

Now, DeWine is hoping voters forget his irredeemable failures by recklessly spending U.S. taxpayer money from Biden and the Democrats in a desperate attempt to dupe voters into thinking he actually did his job in the first place.

DeWine's failed leadership has cost Ohio dearly--through damaged businesses, a crippled economy, and now via a multi-million dollar settlement being paid for by taxpayers. It's time to fire Mike DeWine and elect a real conservative like Jim Renacci who will stand with law enforcement and Ohio’s taxpayers.