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Dave Yost faces challenger Jeff Crossman in Ohio attorney general race

Jeff Crossman (left) and Dave Yost are running for Ohio attorney general in 2022. The Columbus Dispatch

The Ohio attorney general runs the largest public interest law firm in the state but Democrat Jeff Crossman says incumbent Republican Dave Yost uses the office for political fights, rather than to serve all Ohioans.

“I think one of the real unfortunate or, quite frankly, reprehensible things that Yost has done in that office is use that office for political purposes,” said Crossman, a state lawmaker from Parma who is running against Yost in the general election. “I completely and fundamentally disagree that that office should be used to file lawsuits based on political philosophy because as the attorney general, you’re supposed to represent all the people in the state, not just the ones that agree with you politically.”

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.  Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch

Yost noted that Ohio led or joined 23 lawsuits against the federal government but skipped joining 16 other cases during his tenure as attorney general which started in 2019. Yost said he is joining lawsuits that seek to push back against inappropriate use of presidential executive power to usurp Congress.

“The idea that because Congress is divided, like the country is divided, that the president should just step in and become a monarch is to disassemble the American governance system. I’m against that,” Yost said.

During Yost’s term as attorney general, Ohio joined:

  • a lawsuit that challenged vaccine mandates for federal contractors.
  • two lawsuits seeking to block the Biden administration from enforcing rules against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
  • a lawsuit to overturn the federal ban on bump stocks, a mechanism for converting firearms into machine gun-like weapons.

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