Gov. Mike DeWine –  and others – are still talking about his New York Times op-ed from last week that called out fellow Republicans for false statements about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. 

DeWine on Thursday told Signal Ohio he felt compelled to write the op-ed, titled “I’m the Republican Governor of Ohio. Here Is the Truth About Springfield,” because of his “unique position” as the governor of the state who also happened to be a lifelong resident of the Springfield area.

“I think it was important as the governor of the State of Ohio to tell the truth about what is going on in Springfield and to describe this community as I have known it for my entire life,” DeWine said.

The op-ed notably criticized by name this year’s Republican presidential ticket – former president Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Cincinnati – saying the pair’s false rhetoric involving Haitian immigrants and pets in Springfield “hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.” For that reason, the column hasn’t gone over well with some state Republicans, although DeWine did write that he politically supports the GOP ticket.

DeWine fielded questions about his op-ed after announcing a state-funded mobile health clinic in Springfield that’s meant to help alleviate community healthcare congestion resulting from the influx of Haitian immigrants. He said he’s gotten mostly positive feedback, including when he and Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine visited the city earlier in the week. 

“I was surprised at how many people would get The New York Times or have access to [it],” DeWine said. “And a lot of people were very, very positive.”

🗳️For more on this year’s November election, visit our Election Signals 2024 page.

The episode illustrates the distance between DeWine, a holdover from a previous political era, and the current Republican Party. It also makes sense in context. He spent years performing charitable work in Haiti and sympathizes with the country’s grave condition. He’s dealt with security issues stemming from the false bomb threats, which state officials said Thursday mostly have dissipated, although the state Highway Patrol plans to keep watch towers used for surveillance in Springfield for the time being. And he’s nearing the end of his political career, since state term limits bar him from running for reelection.

“​​I’ve been doing this a long time. There are probably people who didn’t like it,” he said.

Among the fans of the op-ed is Tom Perez, a senior advisor to Democratic President Joe Biden who praised the Republican governor’s words while visiting Cleveland on Thursday. 

“I appreciate Gov. DeWine’s leadership in Springfield,” Perez told workers at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. “He has not lost sight of the fact that we are almost all sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, of immigrants.” 

In an interview with Signal Cleveland, Perez said the governor’s op-ed “did not go unnoticed by the American people.” A former staffer for the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, he recalled working with then-Sen. DeWine on an immigration legislative package in the late 1990s. 

“I applaud the fact that Gov. DeWine has indeed spoken up,” he said. “And it is regrettable that there’s an appalling silence from so many others – and, frankly, for some people, silence would be an improvement.”