Mike DeWine was born into a Republican family— from Springfield! He was born there in 1947. He was elected Greene County prosecutor in 1976 and served until being elected to the state Senate in 1980. In 1982 Bud Brown retired from OH-07, a safe red district that stretched from his home in Springfield to the Columbus suburbs and DeWine ran and won. In 1990 he ran for Lt Go2 years later took on incumbent John Glenn, who beat him by over 8 points. In 1994 he did win an open U.S. Senate seat, which he held onto until 2006 when he was trounced by Sherrod Brown. He next ran, successfully, for Attorney General, narrowly beating incumbent Richard Cordray. 8 years later he and Cordray competed again, this time for governor and DeWine won and has held the set ever since. He’s a relatively mainstream conservative, although pretty extreme on abortion.
He hasn’t been terribly thrilled about how Trump and Vance have been demonizing his hometown and Friday the NY Times published anOpEd by him saying so: I’m the Republican Governor of Ohio. Here Is the Truth About Springfield. First a disclaimed/spoiler. While reading the excerpts, keep in mind that when asked if anything could get him to change his mind about his pledge to vote for Trump, he said no.
“Springfield,” he wrote, “has a rich history of providing refuge for the oppressed and being a place of opportunity. As a stop on the Underground Railroad, the Gammon House, which still stands, was a safe haven for escaped slaves seeking freedom. And, as a stop on the Old National Road, America’s first east/west federal highway, Springfield attracted many settlers both before and after the Civil War. Immigrants from Ireland, Greece, Germany, Italy and other countries helped build the city into what it is today. For a long time, commerce and manufacturing flourished in Springfield, which earned the title ‘Champion City’ after the founding there of the agriculture implement giant Champion Machine Company. But the city hit tough times in the 1980s and 1990s, falling into serious economic decline as manufacturing, rail commerce and good-paying jobs dwindled. Now, however, Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past three years to fill jobs.”
They are there legally. They are there to work.
It is disappointing to me that Springfield has become the epicenter of vitriol over America’s immigration policy, because it has long been a community of great diversity. Fran [his wife] and I were reminded of this when we attended Mass at St. Raphael this past Sunday and stopped at the nearby Groceryland on our way home. We talked with community members from many backgrounds who are understandably concerned about the negative things being said about their city in news reports and on social media.
Bomb threats— all hoaxes— continue and temporarily closed at least two schools, put the hospital on lockdown and shuttered City Hall. The two local colleges have gone remote. I have posted Ohio Highway Patrol troopers in each school building in Springfield so the schools can remain open, teachers and children can feel safe and students can continue to learn. On the troopers’ first day in the schools, Fran and I visited Simon Kenton Elementary, where reassured teachers told us: “Yesterday was rough. Today was a good day.”
As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.
…[T]heir verbal attacks against these Haitians— who are legally present in the United States— dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border.
The Springfield I know is not the one you hear about in social media rumors. It is a city made up of good, decent, welcoming people. They are hard workers— both those who were born in this country and those who settled here because, back in their birthplace, Haiti, innocent people can be killed just for cheering on the wrong team in a soccer match.
Only about a two-hour flight from U.S. shores, Haiti is one of the poorest, most dangerous places on earth. The government is in shambles, with machete-wielding, machine-gun-toting gang members taking over 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Fran and I first traveled to Haiti almost 30 years ago as part of a congressional delegation when I was serving on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. We have since been there over 20 times and have supported a Catholic priest who runs a tuition-free school in a slum in Port-au-Prince.
We have always been amazed when, even in the poorest areas of Haiti, we see children coming out of homes made of rusting corrugated metal and cardboard with shoes shined and clothes neat and pressed. We know that the Haitian people want the same things we all want— a good job, the chance to get a quality education and the ability to raise a family in a safe and secure environment. Haitian migrants have gone to Springfield because of the jobs and chance for a better life there.
On Monday, I met with Springfield manufacturing business owners who employ Haitians. As one of them told me, his business would not have been able to stay open after the pandemic but for the Haitians who filled the jobs.
There have been language barriers and cultural differences, but these Haitians come to work every day, are fitting in with co-workers and have become valuable employees. As a teenager working in my parents’ seed company, I worked with the guys loading seed bags onto trucks and boxcars. Their acceptance of a co-worker depended on if they thought the person was pulling his own weight. What is happening today in these companies in Springfield with the Haitian employees is no different.
At the same time, the sudden surge in population has created challenges that no city could anticipate or prepare for. The health care system, housing market and school classrooms have been strained. There is a desperate need for more Haitian Creole translators. And ensuring that Haitians learn how to drive safely and understand our driving customs and traffic laws remains a top priority.
These are the real challenges. Mayor Rob Rue; the City Council; the county commission president, Melanie Flax Wilt; and others have been working tirelessly on these issues, and we are assisting them at the state level.
Fran and I have met with so many other dedicated people in Springfield, many of them teachers or volunteers from nonprofits and the faith-based community, who are doing the Lord’s work each day, teaching English to children who speak only Creole or Spanish or helping those who need health care, whether a new Haitian immigrant or someone whose family has been in Springfield for generations.
Their work will continue long after this fall’s election is over and the national spotlight turns away from Springfield. But in the meantime, our people and our history deserve better than to be falsely portrayed.
This isn’t just personal for a lot of us; it’s about our pride in America. When one of the nation’s biggest railroads built the Big Four Train Depot in Springfield, the city became a hub for passenger and express rail, with an average of 3,000 freight cars and 40 passenger trains speeding through the city daily in the mid-1920s. Located downtown, the Depot became the perfect campaign whistle stop for politicians. In 1960, when I was 13 years old, my parents and I went to see the Republican candidate for president, Richard Nixon, when his train came through Springfield, and four years later to see Barry Goldwater as his train also stopped in the middle of Springfield as he traveled across the Midwest. They both talked about the prospects for the future.
Springfield today has a very bright future. The people who live there love their families, value education, work hard, care about one another and tackle the challenges they face head-on, just as they have done for over 200 years.
I am proud of this community, and America should be, too.
DeWine hasn’t taken personal credit for bringing the Haitians to Ohio, but given the context of his deep personal ties to Haiti and his involvement in supporting Haitian communities through religious channels (such as the Catholic priest's school in Port-au-Prince he referred to in the OpEd), it seems more than plausible that he worked with religious or nonprofit organizations to help bring Haitian migrants to Springfield. His long-standing connection to Haiti, including over 20 trips and support for humanitarian efforts there, suggests a network of relationships that could facilitate such efforts. And Springfield, his hometown, was collapsing economically and he certainly wanted to turn that around. There are a dozen small cities like in Ohio and Haitians could have settled in any of them, but Springfield was the one. DeWine almost definitely saw the migration as a solution to both the economic challenges of his hometown and the needs of the Haitian migrants seeking better opportunities. Religious organizations often play a crucial role in refugee resettlement and immigrant support, making it likely that DeWine leveraged these networks to help Haitian migrants find work and stability in Springfield.
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