On Tuesday, that Ohio special election that Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli massively underperformed in, was partially financed by the anti-MAGA SuperPAC Defending Main Street. They spent $104,000 to make sure Rulli would beat MAGAt Reggie Stoltzfus in the primary, which he did. On Tuesday night, after the votes were counted, Rulli told a reporter that his role models in Congress are two mainstream conservatives, Mike Carey and David Joyce. And yesterday, Joyce was the only Republican to break ranks and vote against holding Merrick Garland in contempt. The resolution passed 216-207. Every single Democrat voted against the resolution. It’s worth recalling that in 2021, the contempt of Congress resolution against Steven Bannon passed 229-202, all Dems voting aye, along with 9 Republicans, only 2 of whom are still in Congress, Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Nancy Mace version 1.0 (R-SC).
The only Republican to vote against holding Garland in contempt was David Joyce (OH) who represents a swingy district (R+9) east of Cleveland with an R+9 PVI. Although Trump won the district comfortably enough in 2020 (15 points over Biden), something changed drastically. Last year OH-14 supported Measure One, establishing a constitutional right to an abortion and Measure Two, legalizing possession and sale of marijuana, both opposed by Joyce and every other Republican official in Ohio.
The district consists of all of Ashtabula, Lake, Trumbull and Geauga counties and most of Portage. They all voted in favor of measure One and, albeit by slightly smaller numbers, measure Two. In fact, a bigger percentage of people in the district voted for legalized abortion than who voted for Trump!
Lake Co- 56.0% for Trump, 60% for abortion
Trumbull Co- 54.6% for Trump, 57% for abortion
Geauga Co- 60.9% for Trump 55% for abortion
Portage Co- 55.4% for Trump, 61% for abortion
Ashtabula Co- 60.8% for Trump, 54% for abortion
Joyce didn’t only vote against the ridiculous resolution that was only even voted on to placate Trump, he released a scathing statement putting the House GOP conference itself in context: “As a former prosecutor, I cannot in good conscience support a resolution that would further politicize our judicial system to score political points. The American people expect Congress to work for them, solve policy problems, and prioritize good governance. Enough is enough.”
Had the Democrats chosen to contest OH-14, Joyce would be running scared. The Ohio Democratic Party is dead as door nail outside of half a dozen cities— Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron and Dayton. The rest of the state, the party just leaves to GOP predation, including OH-14. Nor has the DCCC shown any interest. So Joyce has just token opposition from a laughing stock candidate Brian Kenderes who hasn’t raised the $5,000 that would require him to file an FEC report. Nor does he appear to have an active campaign of any kind.
Maybe the Democrats will find a candidate in 2026 or 2028, though not with the kind of leadership the state party currently has, a party that literally discourages candidates to run in districts like OH-14, apparently unaware that if Sherrod Brown is going to be reelected, he needs Democrats everywhere in the state working on turn-out, not just in the big cities.
Not that it would change anything, but there are 213 democraps in the house. So not all of them even voted.