Richard Michael DeWine ( ; born January 5, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 70th governor of Ohio since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, as a United States senator from Ohio from 1995 to 2007, and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1991.
A native of Yellow Springs, Ohio, DeWine graduated from Miami University in 1969 and Ohio Northern University College of Law in 1972. He was an assistant prosecutor in Greene County, Ohio, and served one term as county prosecutor from 1977 to 1981. He continued his political career in the Ohio Senate from 1981 to 1982, and then served four terms as a U.S. representative from 1983 until 1991. He subsequently served as the 59th lieutenant governor of Ohio from 1991 to 1994, under George Voinovich.
DeWine was elected to the U.S. Senate in a landslide during the 1994 Republican Revolution, and sat on the Senate Appropriations; Judiciary; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP); and Select Intelligence committees. He was reelected in 2000 and defeated in 2006 by Democrat Sherrod Brown. DeWine returned to politics four years later as the 50th attorney general of Ohio, during which he challenged the Affordable Care Act and opioid epidemic. He was elected governor in 2018 and reelected in 2022.
During DeWine's tenure as governor, the 2019 Dayton shooting prompted him to urge the Ohio legislature to enact new gun control measures, such as expanding background checks and harsher penalties for those in possession of unregistered firearms. In early 2020, DeWine received national attention for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ordering the closing of dine-in restaurant service and sporting events and delegating additional resources to elderly care facilities.
Early life, education, and career
thumb|left|Congressman DeWine (far-right) and his family with President [[Ronald Reagan in 1985]]
DeWine was born in Springfield, Ohio, on January 5, 1947, and grew up in nearby Yellow Springs. He is the son of Jean Ruth ( Liddle) and Richard Lee DeWine. He was raised and identifies as a Roman Catholic. DeWine earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Miami University in 1969 and a Juris Doctor from Ohio Northern University College of Law in 1972.
At age 25, DeWine started working as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Greene County, Ohio, and in 1976 was elected County Prosecutor, serving for four years.
In 1980, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate and served one two-year term.
thumb|DeWine as U.S. representative with President [[George H. W. Bush in 1990]]
In 1982, U.S. representative Bud Brown of Ohio's 7th congressional district retired after 18 years in Congress; his father, Clarence Brown, Sr., had held the seat for 26 years before that. DeWine won the Republican nomination, assuring his election in November. He was reelected three more times from this district, which stretches from his home in Springfield to the Columbus suburbs. He ran unopposed in 1986 in what was regarded as a bad year for Republicans nationally.
In 1986, DeWine was one of the House impeachment managers who prosecuted the case in the impeachment trial of Judge Harry E. Claiborne. Claiborne was found guilty by the United States Senate and removed from his federal judgeship.
DeWine did not seek reelection to the House of Representatives in 1990, and briefly ran for governor, but withdrew before the primaries and instead ran for lieutenant governor as George Voinovich's running mate in that year's Ohio gubernatorial election. The Voinovich–DeWine ticket was easily elected.
U.S. Senate (1995–2007)
thumb|Senator DeWine (second from right) attending the signing of the Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Foster Children Act by President [[George W. Bush in 2006]]
In 1992, DeWine unsuccessfully ran for United States Senate against former astronaut and three-term incumbent John Glenn. His campaign used the phrase "What on earth has John Glenn done?", echoing Jeff Bingaman's slogan "What on Earth has he done for you lately?" against former astronaut Harrison Schmitt in the 1982 United States Senate election in New Mexico.
In 1994, DeWine ran to succeed Senator Howard Metzenbaum, who was retiring. He defeated prominent attorney Joel Hyatt, Metzenbaum's son-in-law, by a 14-point margin. DeWine was reelected in 2000, defeating businessman Ted Celeste (brother of former Ohio governor Dick Celeste) by 24 percentage points. Seeking a third term, he was defeated in 2006 by Congressman Sherrod Brown by over 12 percentage points. Before the election, DeWine's approval rating stood at 38%, making him the second-most unpopular senator in the country behind fellow Republican Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who also lost reelection that year. He received 905,644 fewer votes in 2006 than he received in 2000.
DeWine sat at various points on the Senate Judiciary; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP); and Select Intelligence committees, and was the first Ohio senator in nearly six decades to serve on the Appropriations Committee. He led the Joint House-Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry into U.S. intelligence failures before and after the September 11 attacks. He voted in favor of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein.
After leaving the senate, DeWine accepted positions teaching government courses at Cedarville University, Ohio Northern University and Miami University. In 2007, he joined the law firm Keating Muething & Klekamp as corporate investigations group co-chair. He also advised the Ohio campaign of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.
Attorney General of Ohio (2011–2019)
thumb|DeWine delivers remarks at the Department of Justice in 2018
On July 21, 2009, DeWine announced his candidacy for Ohio attorney general in the upcoming 2010 election. He defeated Democratic incumbent Richard Cordray, 48% to 46%. DeWine was reelected as attorney general in 2014, defeating challenger David A. Pepper. He carried 83 of Ohio's 88 counties. DeWine's stated goal as attorney general was "protecting Ohio families".
In the 2012 Republican presidential primary, DeWine first endorsed Tim Pawlenty, then endorsed Mitt Romney after Pawlenty dropped out of the race. On February 17, 2012, DeWine announced he was retracting his endorsement of Romney and endorsed former senate colleague Rick Santorum. DeWine said, "To be elected president, you have to do more than tear down your opponents. You have to give the American people a reason to vote for you, a reason to hope, a reason to believe that under your leadership, America will be better. Rick Santorum has done that. Sadly, Governor Romney has not."
In 2015, DeWine filed a federal lawsuit against a part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In the suit, he alleged that the ACA's Transitional Reinsurance Program (which imposed a fee "paid by all employers who provide group health insurance in the workplace", which in 2014 was $63 per covered person and in 2015 was $44 per covered person) was unconstitutional as applied to state and local governments. When he filed the suit, DeWine claimed that the fee was "an unprecedented attempt to destroy the balance of authority between the federal government and the states".
As attorney general, DeWine prioritized reducing DNA testing turnaround times at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, cutting processing times for major criminal investigations from several months to less than one month. He also launched a statewide initiative to test nearly 14,000 previously untested sexual assault kit, leading to thousands of DNA matches in the Combined DNA Index System and hundreds of indictments. DeWine additionally created the Crimes Against Children Initiative, which combined investigators and prosecutors to pursue child exploitation and abuse cases, and supported task forces targeting human trafficking.
DeWine sent letters to drugstore chains encouraging them to discontinue the sale of tobacco products. He targeted prescription drug "pill mills" in Ohio that fueled the opioid epidemic and pursued disciplinary action against doctors and pharmacists accused of improper prescribing practices. In 2013, he established a Heroin Unit to coordinate law enforcement and outreach efforts statewide. In 2017, he announced a broad anti-opioid strategy focused on enforcement, treatment, and prevention. DeWine also sued opioid manufacturers and distributors over their alleged role in the crisis.
In 2018, DeWine sued Major League Soccer and Columbus Crew SC owner Anthony Precourt after Precourt explored relocating the team out of the state. After the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore in the late 1990s, the Ohio General Assembly passed a law requiring professional sports teams that had accepted taxpayer assistance to provide an opportunity for local owners to purchase the team before initiating a move. Later that year, an investor group led by Dee Haslam and Jimmy Haslam, owners of the Cleveland Browns, and the Edwards family reached an agreement to keep the Crew in Columbus.
Governor of Ohio (2019–present)
Elections
thumb|DeWine greeting President [[Donald Trump in 2019]]
DeWine announced his candidacy for governor on May 26, 2016, becoming the first major Republican to enter the race to succeed term-limited incumbent John Kasich. He launched his campaign at his annual ice-cream social in Cedarville, Ohio, on June 25, 2017. DeWine selected Ohio secretary of state Jon Husted, who was initially running for the governorship, as his running mate for lieutenant governor on December 1, 2017. The move that unified much of the state Republican establishment behind the ticket.
In the Republican primary on May 8, 2018, DeWine defeated incumbent Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor, 59.8% to 40.2%. He faced Democratic nominee and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray in the November 6 general election, a rematch of their 2010 attorney general race. DeWine defeated Cordray 50.4% to 46.7%, a difference of about 166,000 votes. DeWine was inaugurated as Ohio's 70th governor on January 14, 2019, alongside Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted.
Eligible for a second term, DeWine was challenged for the 2022 Republican nomination due to backlash against his strict COVID-19 restrictions. He defeated former Congressman Jim Renacci and farmer Joe Blystone in the primary, and went on to win the 2022 general election against Dayton mayor Nan Whaley in a landslide, with 62.4% of the vote.
Tenure
DeWine's governorship has been characterized by a pragmatic, sometimes bipartisan approach that has occasionally put him at odds with the Ohio Republican Party's more conservative wing. Themes have included public-health preparedness, economic recovery after COVID-19, major infrastructure investment, children's issues (especially foster care and lead poisoning), environmental initiatives like the H2Ohio water-quality program, opioid and human trafficking prevention, education reform, workforce development, and a cautious approach to social issues.
First term (2019–2023)
thumb|Governor DeWine discussing the [[COVID-19 response with President Joe Biden in 2021]]
DeWine was inaugurated on January 14, 2019. On his first day in office, he signed six executive orders establishing priorities: the Governor's Children's Initiative (foster care and infant mortality), disability inclusion, mental health prevention, anti-discrimination in state employment (including LGBTQ protections), and the RecoveryOhio Initiative to combat the opioid crisis through prevention, treatment, and recovery. In February, President Donald Trump appointed DeWine to the bipartisan Council of Governors. In March, DeWine delivered his first State of the State address, proposing a gas tax increase for infrastructure and investments in children's services, mental health, and water quality.
In April 2019, he signed the "Heartbeat Bill", prohibiting abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. In July, he signed the biennial budget (gas tax increase, school choice expansion) and House Bill 6, a controversial energy bill subsidizing nuclear and coal plants, later linked to a major bribery scandal involving FirstEnergy. In August, after the Dayton mass shooting, DeWine proposed a 17-point gun safety plan including red-flag laws. In November, he launched H2Ohio for water quality improvement. In December, he supported local plastic bag bans and lead exposure initiatives.
DeWine's early, aggressive response to the COVID-19 pandemic drew national praise and backlash. In January and February 2020, DeWine began monitoring emerging cases. In March, he limited the Arnold Sports Festival, banned large gatherings, closed schools statewide, closed dine-in services, postponed a primary election, and issued a stay-at-home order. Gradual reopening began in May, as DeWine had daily briefings with Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton, who resigned in June amid threats. In July, DeWine imposed a statewide mask mandate, and briefly banned hydroxychloroquine for COVID treatment before reversing the ban. In May 2021, DeWine's "Vax-a-Million" lottery boosted COVID vaccination uptake. In July, he signed a biennial budget with broadband, Appalachian, and water investments. Also in 2021, he signed criminal justice reforms, including ending cash bail for misdemeanors.
In 2022, DeWine signed a stand-your-ground law. Redistricting was contentious: multiple maps were struck down for gerrymandering, and DeWine supported gerrymandered maps despite criticism. In January 2022, Intel announced a major semiconductor campus. DeWine awarded grants for human trafficking prevention and survivor services.
Second term (2023–present)
On inauguration day 2023, DeWine signed executive orders including anti-discrimination and skills-based hiring. In February, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine; DeWine activated the National Guard and supported rail safety. Also in 2023, DeWine signed the "Backpack Bill" expanding vouchers. In December, he vetoed House Bill 68, which allowed gender-affirming care for minors; his veto was overridden in January 2024.
DeWine issued executive orders banning gender-affirming surgery for minors and restricting care. In 2024, ground was broken on the Intel campus and H2Ohio expanded. Amid an influx of Haitian migrants, DeWine deployed state troopers and funding to Springfield.
In 2025, DeWine formed the Property Tax Working Group and issued an executive order that state employees return to work in person. In July, he signed a $60 billion budget. In August, he deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. In December, he announced $65.6 million for Welcome Home Ohio housing. In January 2026, he announced that he intended to make a statement on the death penalty, on which Ohio has had a de facto moratorium since 2019, but he has not yet done so. In April 2026, DeWine announced he would make an official statement about his personal feelings about the death penalty during the week after Ohio's gubernatorial primaries, which take place on May 5.
Political positions
Abortion
thumb|President [[George W. Bush congratulates Senator Mike DeWine on the passing of the Pediatric Equity Research Act of 2003]]
In April 2019, DeWine signed House Bill 493, known as the Ohio "Heartbeat Bill", into law, prohibiting abortion after a heartbeat is detected in a fetus, with no exceptions for cases of rape and incest, imposing one of the nation's most extensive abortion restrictions. DeWine opposes abortion. In the Senate, he was the lead sponsor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and voted for the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003. In December 2020, DeWine signed a bill that said "fetal remains from surgical abortions in Ohio must be cremated or buried"; failure to do so would be a misdemeanor of the first degree.
November 2023 Ohio Issue 1 overturned Ohio's abortion ban.
Capital punishment
A leader of Ohio's ACLU chapter, which opposes capital punishment, has called the death penalty "a legacy issue" for DeWine. Although Catholic, DeWine has not joined the Pope and Catholic bishops in openly opposing the death penalty; as governor, he has not said whether he supports capital punishment.
No executions have been conducted in Ohio since DeWine took office, and he has delayed all executions due to "ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC)", saying he is postponing executions in the interest of ensuring non-condemned Ohioans can use state-run programs to access the same drugs as those in Ohio's lethal injection cocktail. DeWine proposed that if his successors want to reinstate Ohio's death penalty, they should consider passing a "shield law" to keep pharmaceutical suppliers from finding out that the DRC used their drugs for executions. Ohio has thus had a de facto death penalty moratorium since 2019.
In late 2025, DeWine announced that he would use part of his final State of the State address to give his personal position on capital punishment; he said he would write his statement over Christmas and would have something to say the next month. But in January 2026, a spokesman said that DeWine had "no new public statements beyond his previous comments." Reporters previously speculated that DeWine would use the address to announce that he did not support the death penalty. His March 2026 State of the State address did not mention the subject. In late May 2026, DeWine endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to be his successor; Ramaswamy supports the application of capital punishment in limited cases, while his opponent, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, stated she would continue DeWine's moratorium on capital punishment if elected governor. In a May 2026 forum discussing his endorsement of Ramaswamy and other issues pertaining to his governorship in Ohio, DeWine clarified that he found the response to his upcoming statement to be overblown, although he also confirmed he would deliver his remarks soon: "I don't want to build this up because I'm going to do it shortly, and I think there's been a lot of hype about this, but there really shouldn't be. It'll simply be Mike DeWine reflecting on the death penalty."
In 2025 and 2026, fellow Republican lawmakers in Ohio, including Attorney General Dave Yost and House Speaker Matt Huffman, expressed concern that DeWine might commute all death sentences before he leaves office in 2027. Yost and Huffman also confirmed that the predominantly Republican Ohio state legislature largely supports the death penalty and would not cooperate with any legislative efforts to abolish it. Death penalty abolitionists have said they want DeWine to commute all the state's death sentences to life without parole, which would allow him to circumvent legislative resistance to ending capital punishment. Previously, in December 2019, DeWine said he believed the future of capital punishment should be up to citizen voters and legislators. Death penalty supporters have criticized DeWine's moratorium for being expensive to uphold and withholding finality from victims' families, while death penalty opponents have encouraged DeWine to abolish capital punishment due to issues regarding racial discrimination, innocence cases, and geographical arbitrariness. , 108 inmates reside on Ohio's death row, and many of them have received reprieves from DeWine.
Gun control
thumb|Ohio governor Mike DeWine leaves the stage after speaking, and the crowd shouts "Do something!" in reaction to the [[2019 Dayton shooting]]
In Congress, DeWine was known for his support for gun control measures. In 2004, he cosponsored an amendment to renew the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. He has repeatedly received an "F" rating from the National Rifle Association. The National Rifle Association endorsed him for governor. DeWine was one of only two Republican senators to vote against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which banned lawsuits against gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers for criminal misuse of their products. In the 2006 election cycle, DeWine was the first senatorial candidate to be endorsed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; he displayed the endorsement on his campaign webpage. In 2019, DeWine proposed a red flag law for Ohio that would allow courts to take guns from people seen as a threats to others or themselves. In January 2021, he signed into law a bill that removed the requirement to attempt to retreat before shooting in self-defense, and in March 2022 he signed a bill into law removing the requirement to possess a license to carry a concealed handgun in public.
Highway safety
As U.S. senator, DeWine joined a bipartisan effort to lower the national maximum blood-alcohol limit from .1% to .08% and to require reporting of vehicle-related deaths on private property like parking lots and driveways. He sponsored legislation on determining when aging tires become unsafe.
LGBTQ+ rights
DeWine opposes same-sex marriage and as a U.S. senator voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage and allows states to refuse to recognize such marriages performed in other states, and sponsored the Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would have banned same-sex marriage. He argued in the Supreme Court in favor of bans on same-sex marriage, saying that such bans infringe on "no fundamental right" and that states should not have to recognize same-sex couples who married in other states. DeWine was the attorney general against Jim Obergefell in the case Obergefell v. Hodges. The Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling against DeWine and other defendants, finding same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional.
In 2021, DeWine opposed a bill that would have banned transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that do not match their sex at birth, saying, "This issue is best addressed outside of government, through individual sports leagues and athletic associations, including the Ohio High School Athletic Association, who can tailor policies to meet the needs of their member athletes and member institutions." In December 2023, he vetoed a bill that would have banned minors from receiving gender-affirming care in Ohio and transgender youth from playing on sports teams that did not match their sex assigned at birth. He said that if the bill became law, "Ohio would be saying that the state—that the government knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most, their parents." In January 2024, the Republican-dominated legislature overrode DeWine's veto of the gender-affirming care ban. Also in January 2024, DeWine signed an executive order that restricted gender-affirming surgery for youth while also proposing new administrative rules focused on transgender youth and adults. In February 2024, after backlash from trans people and healthcare providers, DeWine's administration dropped all the proposed rules to restrict treatment for transgender adults. In November 2024, DeWine signed into law a bill prohibiting students in public schools from using restrooms other than those for the gender they were assigned at birth.
Marijuana
In 2019, DeWine said: "it would really be a mistake for Ohio, by legislation, to say that marijuana for adults is just OK." In February 2020, NORML, a group advocating the legalization of marijuana, gave DeWine an "F" rating in relation to his policies. He opposed 2023 Ohio Issue 2, the "Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol initiative". In 2024, DeWine requested lawmakers take action against Delta 8.
Hamas-Israel war campus protests
After the April 25, 2024, Ohio State University Gaza Solidarity Encampment resulted in at least 36 arrests of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including 16 Ohio State University students, DeWine said, "I think that Ohio State did well", "what we don't want is any kind of hate", and that he opposes protests "right outside the door of a classroom". The demonstrators at the encampment were on the South Oval, which is not in the vicinity of any classrooms. DeWine also said he supported the arrests at Ohio State in the form of Ohio State Highway Patrol, which included an officer who aimed a rifle at protesters during the encampment's dispersal. He said that he supports Ohio and the U.S. "backing the country of Israel". The same year, DeWine's compensation was 17th among state governors, at $159,189, compared to a maximum of $225,000 for the governor of New York and a minimum of $70,000 for the governor of Maine. The Ohio Checkbook shows that 92 employees of the Ohio state teachers retirement system, including director William Neville, equal or exceed the governor's salary.
Personal life
DeWine lives in the Whitelaw Reid House. He married Frances Struewing on June 3, 1967, and they have had eight children together. Their daughter Rebecca died at the age of 22 on August 4, 1993, in a car accident. One of their sons, Pat DeWine, is an Ohio Supreme Court Justice. Another son, Brian, is the president of the Minor League Baseball team the Asheville Tourists; the DeWine family purchased the team in 2010. DeWine's second cousin, Kevin DeWine, is the former Ohio Republican Party chairman.