Ohio’s 2026 primary election day is May 5 (Getty photos)
Candidates vying for Ohio attorney general are focusing their early campaigns on their legal experience, as two Democrats head into the May primary and the sole Republican candidate eyes the November general election.
The three people vying for the job see the state law director as a bastion of law enforcement in the state and say politics should take a backseat to ensuring the justice system serves all Ohioans equally.
John Kulewicz
Attorney and Upper Arlington City Council member John Kulewicz has the endorsement of the Ohio Democratic Party in the race. He said more than four decades as a lawyer showed him what the attorney general’s office needed.
“The attorney general is the chief legal officer of the state of Ohio,” Kulewicz told the Capital Journal. “The attorney general is often called upon to make split-second decisions of great importance to Ohioans, and experience is of paramount importance when serving in this role.”
A native of Colombia, Kulewicz returned to the city after graduating from law school and working as a federal judge’s clerk, ending up working in private practice. He said he appreciated the value of public service, which led to two successful campaigns for the Upper Arlington City Council.
As part of this larger statewide campaign, the attorney spent the better part of a year visiting all 88 counties in Ohio and receiving feedback from Ohioans about what they would like to see in the state.
“It has become clear to me that at this point in our history in Ohio, we need a lawyer, not a politician, to serve as attorney general,” Kulewicz said.
He plans to focus on “pricing monopolies that drive up the prices we pay for necessities” and has singled out the Ohio Public Utilities Commission as a group that should be held accountable if elected.
The regulatory agency has been in the news for several years after a public corruption scandal that led to the convictions of House Speaker Larry Householder and other GOP staffers and a criminal case against the delayed former PUCO chairman Sam Randazzo. Members of the utility FirstEnergy participated in a trial related to this month’s scandal, which ended March 31 with a hung jury.
“As Ohio’s chief law officer, I would do everything in my power to uphold the rule of law so that Ohio’s economy works for everyone in Ohio, and I would work to root out corruption in Columbus and other parts of the state,” Kulewicz said.
Elliot Forhan
Athens native Elliot Forhan is a lawyer living in the Cleveland area, but voters may know him better as a former state legislator. As a 2023-2024 legislator, Forhan said he is trying to hold everyone’s feet to the fire, both inside and outside the Ohio Democratic Party. So much so that he sued his party’s legislators in a defamation suit that is still pending as he seeks the position of Attorney General.
“To be clear, defeating Republicans is my number one priority, but I believe the responsibility rests with everyone,” Forhan said. “We Democrats also need to keep our house clean.”
He also still stands by statements he made early in his campaign for attorney general in which he said he would “kill” President Donald Trump by prosecuting him and obtaining a conviction that would result in the death penalty.
“I don’t think I said I wanted it, I think I said I would do it,” Forhan told the Capital Journal when asked if he still stood by those comments, then confirmed he stood by them.
The comments are accompanied by his stance on how the state’s attorney general should run the office and a phrase he said he heard from voters during his campaign: “Fight.”
“I believe that if laws don’t apply equally to everyone, including the rich and powerful, including the president of the United States, if that’s not true, then our laws mean nothing at all,” Forhan said.
In addition to convicting the president, Forhan said the first lawsuit he wants to file if elected to office is to “enforce the Ohio Constitution’s guarantees of full and equal funding of public schools.”
Keith Faber
Current Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber is unopposed in the Republican primary. Through spokesman Matt Dole, Faber declined to be interviewed for this story, and Dole said the campaign plans to “let the Democratic primary play out before we engage in interview profiles about the race.” Dole told the Capital Journal that the campaign “will vary greatly depending on the outcome.”
In written comments, Faber said he was running for state attorney general to “hold criminals accountable and put the safety of law-abiding citizens over criminals.”
“I intend to support our law enforcement and bring to justice those who prey on vulnerable Ohioans – whether through online fraud, human trafficking or other illegal means,” Faber said in a statement.
Faber has been state auditor since 2019. He was a private attorney in Celina before coming to the Statehouse, where he served as a state representative from 2001-2006 and 2016-2018. He has been a state senator since 2007 and served as Senate president from 2013–2017.
According to Faber, his focus as an auditor was “detecting waste, fraud and abuse in a completely bipartisan manner.”
“In the same way, as attorney general, I will enforce the law and hold criminals accountable regardless of their policies,” Faber said in a statement to the Capital Journal. “Being the state’s top law enforcement officer requires the same ability to work in a neutral perspective to maintain order and the safety of our communities.”
Ohioans can register to vote until April 6, and mail-in and in-person voting for the May 5 primary election will begin on April 7.
Voting in the military and abroad began on March 20.
The deadline to register to vote in the November 3 general election is October 5, and absentee or early in-person voting for this election begins on October 6.
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