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Before I became a member of the United States Navy and a SEAL, I swore an oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Today, I'm asking you to help defend the Ohio Constitution by voting 'Yes' on State Issue 1.
Voting 'Yes' simply raises the bar to pass an amendment to our state's founding document from a simple majority to 60%.
The Constitution rises above Ohio Revised Code, and should never be viewed as an easy target for wealthy special interest groups that don't mind spending millions of dollars for a chance to buy themselves a special set of rights reserved only for them in Ohio's Constitution.
When establishing the Republic, the nation's founding fathers recognized the threat our remarkable Constitution would be under without significant protections.
To amend it, 2/3rds of both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate must approve the amendment but it doesn't end there. It then requires 75% of the states to ratify the amendment.
Imagine for a moment if the United States Constitution could be changed with a simple majority vote.
What would happen to your First Amendment right to freedom of speech? How about your Second Amendment right to bear arms? What happens when your speech is banned, or our right to own a firearm disappears?
Would our Republic that provides our freedoms through such a remarkable balance of power even exist without these protections?
Fortunately, you can make a difference and protect our founding document from those who want to tell you how to think, how to live and what to say. All you have to do is vote 'Yes' on Aug. 8.
You will hear the angry left talk about taking away voter's rights. What you won't hear them say, is that the petition efforts rarely come from your neighbor who has an idea that he wants to put in front of millions of voters. It really comes from special interests who have millions of dollars to fund a petition drive and the advertising to sell voters on their profitable idea. That's profits for them. Not for us.
I'm sure you are well aware of the liberal nature of Ohio's metropolitan areas. These are the focal points of special interest petition drives. This makes it far easier on them to gather the signatures necessary to place a constitutional amendment on your ballot. Issue 1 would require signatures to come from all 88 counties.
That means voters in our 30th Senate District would have a chance to scrutinize what the petition says, instead of the majority of signatures that place it on your Washington County ballot coming from voters in Cleveland, Columbus or Cincinnati.
Remember the Constitution takes precedence over Ohio Revised Code. Revised code is passed by a simple majority of the Legislative Branch, which is the Ohio General Assembly, and then signed into law by the Executive Branch, the Governor. The Constitution should require a higher threshold for passage, and 60% is more than reasonable.
Voting for Issue 1 protects all of us. It protects our Constitution and our neighborhoods from those who could care less about your happiness and safety and instead look at our state's foundational document as a business contract instead of the Constitution of the State of Ohio.
Supporting Issue 1 follows the logic and common sense of our country's founding fathers.
The same brilliant leaders who commissioned the Ohio Company that established Marietta as the First Settlement of the Northwest Territory in 1787.
Join me in voting 'Yes' on Aug. 8.