DeWine Opposes Effort by Group of Congressional Republicans to Overturn Biden's Win

Ohio’s Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman says he opposes objections to certification of the electoral college results on Wednesday, though it’s expected at least five Ohio Congressmen will object, along with many other Republicans.

Gov. Mike DeWine – a fellow Republican and supporter of President Trump – is now saying he also will not support the unprecedented effort to overturn the election, which will not happen.

In an interview for this coming weekend's "The State of Ohio", DeWine said states run elections and all 50 have certified their results, and therefore he opposes this effort.

“So unless somebody has some new shocking revelation or evidence, we need to move forward, not only have the state certify their elections, but there's been ample opportunity for anyone who saw a problem to go into court," DeWine said. "Our courts function. The people have had the opportunity in many cases have gone into court and none of this has been overturned.”

This is something of a departure for DeWine, who on CNN's "State of the Union with Jake Tapper" avoided criticizing the objection plan.

Trump won Ohio by just over eight points, about the same as his margin of victory in 2016. The Ohio vote has not been contested, though Ohio does use Dominion voting machines, which Trump has criticized in states that Biden won.

On Monday, Portman tweeted out a statement saying he'd taken an oath "swearing to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I plan on honoring that oath by supporting the state certifications and the will of the people."

Portman, along with DeWine and Ohio's 12 Republican members of Congress, served as an honorary co-chair for Trump's Ohio re-election campaign.

DeWine didn't criticize the Republicans who have announced they'll join in the objection, a group which is likely to include those who were among the 126 House Republicans who joined a Texas lawsuit to toss out the results of the votes in four states Biden won. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the case. Those Ohio Congressmen are Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH 4), Bill Johnson (R-OH 6), Brad Wenstrup (R-OH 2), Bob Latta (R-OH 5) and Bob Gibbs (R-OH 7).

And DeWine didn’t address the question of whether voters’ faith has been eroded because of misinformation by President Trump and others, but he says the system worked. And DeWine said while no election is perfect, there’s no evidence that the results should be changed. 

DeWine also said he supports a bipartisan commission suggested by Portman to look into election related problems, though he said "that is not in relationship to this election, but in relationship to how do we gain people's confidence in our election system."

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