Democratic attorney general candidate Jeff Crossman knows he has a challenge in beating incumbent Republican Dave Yost in the November general delection but sees a chance to win.
Crossman tallied 427,024 votes in the Democratic primary on Tuesday. Yost had about twice as many votes in the Republic primary, with 861,082 votes cast for him, according to unofficial results posted by the Secretary of State’s Office.
“We're clear-eyed. We know we have a challenge on our hands. But I've never shied away from a challenge in the past,” Crossman told the Mount Vernon News.
State officials haven't worked for the people, Crossman said.
“The real effort is about pointing out their record and how poor it's been, and how Ohioans keep getting fleeced by their own state government,” he said.
Accountability is his top priority.
“We have the largest public corruption scandal in the state's history, $61 million in bribes to secure a billion-dollar bailout for First Energy, and no one yet has gone to prison for this,” he said. “And the Attorney General's Office hasn't done a damn thing about investigating or prosecuting anybody under state law.”
The state needs to grow jobs and fix the economy to put money in people’s pockets, he said.
“We can't solve things like the opioid crisis, or child sex trafficking, if we can’t have faith that the government's actually working for the people of Ohio,” Crossman said. “We can’t fix the problem of having our college-educated students and children leave the state at an alarming clip unless we grow opportunity in the state.”
That can’t happen until Ohio has accountability in its government and it fixes its broken redistricting process, he said. If the state doesn’t have competitive districts, it’s just crafting districts that put career politicians into office and keep them there.
Public safety is No. 1 on people’s minds, he said.
“The attorney general could bring people together and find a way to police communities in a way that the police feel safe and secure doing their jobs,” Crossman said, “and the communities feel safe and secure when the police are in their communities.”
