“STRONG JUDGES” AD FROM THE REPUBLICAN STATE LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE’S JUDICIAL FAIRNESS INITIATIVE
View the ad:
Ad Text: “President Trump needs strong judges to get America back on track. “Wide open borders, petty theft, violent crime; don’t you wish someone would just enforce the law? That’s why we need Conservative Republicans Deters, Hawkins, and Shanahan on the Ohio Supreme Court. They’re tough on crime, care about victims, and will enforce the laws on the books. Conservative Republicans Deters, Hawkins, and Shanahan for Ohio Supreme Court.”
Who's responsible for this ad?
Ohio Republican State Leadership Committee’s “Judicial Fairness Initiative.” In 2014, RSLC created its Judicial Fairness Initiative (JFI) to support the election of conservative judges to state courts. Since then, Ohio has routinely been one of RSLC-JFI’s target states. The group claims it has spent $29 million in state supreme court races across the country, and reporting shows upwards of $3 million of that has been in Ohio, including a $2 million ad buy in the 2022 Ohio Supreme Court races.
As 527 PACs, the Republican State Leadership Committee and RSLC-JFI can accept unlimited contributions from corporations, dark money groups, and billionaires, but they must disclose their donors in federal filings. RSLC-JFI itself is fully funded via RSLC, so it is impossible to know for certain who is underwriting RSLC’s judicial ads, but there are indications as to some of the funders.
RSLC’s largest donor in recent years is the Concord Fund (also known as JCN or Judicial Crisis Network), a 501(c)(4) tied to the right-wing judicial activist who helms a $1.6 billion trust, Leonard Leo. An investigation in 2022 found that nonprofits connected to Leo spent over $31 million targeting judicial seats in 42 states between 2010 and 2022. The Concord Fund provided an additional $1 million to RSLC on September 11, 2024.
RSLC frequently transfers large sums to RSLC-JFI shortly after receiving similarly sized contributions from the Concord Fund. RSLC-JFI then typically reserves ad time and creates ads about a month before the general election. In some cases, the group has launched an ad campaign just days before voters head to the polls, scorching opponents of RSLC-JFI’s who cannot themselves raise enough money—and have little time—to counter such last-minute attacks designed to aid the group’s preferred candidates. Such big spending in a short period often exceeds what the judicial candidates themselves raise during their entire election campaigns.
Other notable RSLC funders include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Charles Koch’s Koch Industries. Of RSLC’s many corporate donors, a handful are based in Ohio. Marathon Petroleum appears to have given more to RSLC than any other Ohioan entity, having given RSLC more than $1 million since 2022, and more than $2.2 million since 2016. Elevance Health, formerly Anthem Inc., has given RSLC more than $600,000 since 2022. American Electric Power Service Corp., which continues to benefit from the corrupt nuclear bailout legislation, HB 6, has given RSLC $215,000 since 2019. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, which was originally created by and maintains a partnership with the Ohio Farm Bureau, a group that has spent some of its own funds backing right-wing judicial candidates, has given RSLC at least $335,000 since 2016. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce also gave RSLC a one-time donation of $200,000 in 2016. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Farm Bureau, and other entities have endorsed all three Republican candidates this cycle. A business affiliate tied to the Ohio Chamber, Ohioans for a Healthy Economy, is running similar ads in the race.
Discussion and Analysis
Analysis by Billy Corriher, State Courts Manager, People’s Parity Project
While this ad showcases a familiar “tough on crime” political ad tactic, using fear to motivate viewers to vote for the donors’ preferred candidates, the reason for the ad is something entirely different. The Republican State Leadership Committee’s (RSLC) donors include powerful national organizations, backed by secretive donations from billionaires, and big corporations whose bottom lines are impacted by Ohio Supreme Court rulings. Billionaires and corporations want to keep the court’s current majority in place, because it’s good for business.
The Republican State Leadership Committee gets funding from groups tied to Leonard Leo, the former leader of the Federalist Society, who helped former President Donald Trump take over federal courts. And the group has worked behind-the-scenes to reshape state courts. A 2023 expose showed that Leo had pressured a former Missouri governor to politicize the state’s nonpartisan judicial appointment system. In 2020, a lawyer for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that adherence to Federalist Society ideology was the governor’s “litmus test” for judicial appointments. Two years ago, Leo’s nonprofit Marble Freedom Trust became the beneficiary of the largest political donation in history, $1.6 billion from a single billionaire. The Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), the dark money conduit that Leo helped establish for billionaires, indirectly funds the RSLC, which has spent tens of millions of dollars in judicial elections across America. In 2018, an Arkansas judge ordered one of its ads pulled down, because it was false and libelous. In 2022, the head of JCN wrote a blog post with glaring, obvious lies about spending in judicial elections, downplaying its money and misrepresenting its opponents’ funding.
Beyond the Judicial Crisis Network, the corporations that fund the Republican State Leadership Committee have a big stake in how the Ohio Supreme Court rules. Some of the RSLC’s biggest donors in 2022 were oil and fossil fuel companies, and the justices could play a big role in energy transition issues in coming years. The group also gets large contributions from Big Tobacco, and Ohio is currently working on new regulations for flavored tobacco vapes, which could be challenged in court. The RSLC receives big money from insurance companies like Blue Cross, which had a $30 million verdict against it affirmed by the Ohio Supreme Court two decades ago.
The Republican State Leadership Committee wants judges on the bench who will put corporations over people. The concern about people expressed in their “tough on crime” ads rings hollow.