(Photo by Matthew Perschall/Louisiana Illuminator)
According to the candidates, the race for the position of Ohio’s newest treasurer comes down to financial experience and expanding the state’s coffers through wise investments.
Two Republicans will fight for the party’s nomination in the May 4 primary elections, one endorsed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and the other endorsed by Republican Vice President J.D. Vance. Their Democratic opponent continues to campaign for the November general election.
Both Republicans have experience as legislators, while the Democratic candidate has local experience but is fresh to state politics.
The candidates are also fully aware of the controversy surrounding the unclaimed funds account that Republican lawmakers pledged to fund a fresh stadium for the Cleveland Browns as part of a provision in the state’s latest operating budget.
Judge of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas he blocked the effort for nowbut the topic is still a gigantic issue for the candidates in the race and for Ohio voters.
The case became more complicated when facility owners across Ohio came forward asking the state to support their efforts.
Krystyna Roegner
Republican State Senator Kristina Roegner has announced her intention to serve as treasurer during her second term in the Ohio Senate serving the 27th District, where she represents residents of Portage, Summit and Geauga counties.
Prior to her Senate seat, Roegner served in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2018 and served on the Hudson City Council for five years before moving to the Legislature.
With a degree in mechanical engineering and business administration, she worked as a management consultant and project manager for an energy company.
“It was a combination of my legislative experience, work in the private sector and education that led me to decide that state treasurer was the right role for me,” Roegner told the Capital Journal.
According to Roegner, her work at the State House and the Hudson City Council showed her what she should really focus on.
“Through this experience, I learned that I absolutely love public service and I love making a difference,” she said.
Although her work in the Legislature brings up a different public policy topic by the minute, she said she looks forward to making the state’s financial health her primary focus.
“The treasurer’s office itself does not make policy decisions,” Roegner said. “The most important role is that we are the chief financial stewards, the chief investment officers of the state’s resources.”
Roegner said she plans to maintain the goals of previous treasurers, focusing on “financial discipline” and “a nice, strong conservative approach to managing state funds.”
As for the unclaimed funds account, Roegner first wants it moved from the state Department of Commerce to the treasurer’s office. She then promised to be “very active” in the process of returning money from the fund to the Ohioans who own it.
Roegner was not a supporter of using the funds in the way that other legislators in her party supported. She voted to support the Democratic amendment that would have removed this provision from the budget.
“I love our football teams, I certainly love the Browns and the Bengals, they’re amazing, but I don’t think public money should be used to fund stadium projects,” Roegner said.
Seth Walsh
Democratic candidate Seth Walsh has spent the last seven years working as a community organizer in Cincinnati’s College Hill neighborhood. He initiated redevelopment projects in College Hill and worked to boost community investment in the area, even during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Walsh’s interest in the area began in 2002, when the business district feared eternal decline after longtime businesses closed.
“The decline was due to the reasons why we’re seeing a decline in so many things in Ohio,” Walsh said. “These are just third- and fourth-generation families who don’t want to continue their small business, but it all came together at the same time.”
Walsh said the fear of losing the business district gave him the opportunity to “be aggressive and creative” to aid save the community even before the pandemic caused shutdowns and the need for even more creativity.
“I think we often think about community development in terms of bricks and mortar and the most important thing is the people,” Walsh told the Capital Journal.
In behind schedule 2022, Walsh joined the Cincinnati City Council, filling the seat vacated by current Democratic U.S. Representative from Ohio, Greg Landsman. Switching from the Community Development Program budget to the City of Cincinnati budget was already a gigantic leap, but Walsh realizes that overseeing the state treasurer’s $280 billion is an even bigger responsibility.
“That $280 billion has a lot of, I would say, impact, but I think it has bigger opportunities,” he said.
His experience in Cincinnati gave him ideas he found he could easily implement within the structure of a statewide office, including a fresh way of thinking about investments. One way he thinks the state can utilize their aid is to bring banks to the table to limit their investments in the communities where they live and work.
“When you think about $280 billion and how you invest it, investing it in banks that think this way and want to do this with communities will go a lot further for Ohioans than investing in anyone for (return on investment),” Walsh said.
Walsh said Ohioans shouldn’t expect to hear from elected officials like the treasurer when things are going well, but when they’re not, officials should speak up. This includes using unclaimed funds for sports purposes.
“The state treasurer’s office has a fiduciary duty to come to this lawsuit and say absolutely not,” Walsh said.
Jay Edwards
Edwards is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives who served in the 94th District covering parts of Athens, Meigs and Washington counties from 2017 until leaving office under term limits in 2025.
The Ohio Capital Journal made repeated attempts over several weeks to interview Edwards for this story, but Edwards did not come forward.
Edwards did speak about the race in comments after the Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee declined to endorse the race.
Edwards said he asked the committee not to express an endorsement because he would prefer the decision be made by Ohio Republicans outside the committee, although he also touted the endorsements of Vice President J.D. Vance and Ohio GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno.
He told reporters at the event that his election would bring “young energy” to the office and prevent the Republican Party itself from returning to pre-Trump ideals.
“I am a strong supporter of the new school Republican Party and the Trump Republican Party, and I will make sure that Ohio continues that legacy, and truly across America, that we remain the party of the working middle class and continue to advocate for voters,” Edwards said.
He said his conservative past will serve him well as state treasurer, an office with “unique tools” that can aid with issues such as property taxes and the difficulties juvenile adults face in purchasing homes. Another of his goals focuses on “keeping taxpayer dollars in Ohio.”
“We give a lot of money to national banks and things like that right now,” Edwards said. “I have no intention of pulling the rug out from under this, but I want to make sure that the money we give to these banks is invested in the state.”
He also doesn’t think stadium funding should be a state priority, saying he thinks the money “could have been spent in a better way,” especially as Ohioans in rural parts of the state, like his native southeastern Ohio, focus on raising property taxes and utility bills.
“I am not against economic development,” he said. “I love football, I’m all for this type of thing if we can afford it and if we’ve checked all the other boxes.”
The deadline to register to vote in Ohio is April 6, and mail-in voting begins on April 7.
In the May 5 primary election pitting Edwards and Roegner, military and overseas mail-in voting begins March 20, and early in-person voting begins April 7. Local election boards must receive mail-in ballots by April 28.
The deadline to register to vote in the November 3 general election is October 5, and military and overseas mail-in voting begins on September 18. Postal voting begins on October 6, and early in-person voting also begins on the same day.
Absentee ballots not returned by mail must be returned by Election Day.
Morgan Trau of WEWS contributed to this article.
