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Tim Fulton 0:00
Tim, welcome to the confluence cast presented by Columbus underground. We are a weekly Columbus centric podcast focusing on the civics lifestyle, entertainment and people of our city. I’m your host, Tim Fulton, this week with petitions filed for the 2026 statewide race is now officially underway. A lot of the attention is on the governor’s race, and that is understandably so. But there’s a primary happening further down the ballot that deserves a real look, the Democratic primary for Ohio Secretary of State. This is an office that most voters don’t spend a lot of time thinking about, but it touches on some of the most consequential questions in Ohio politics right now, who draws the maps, how the elections are run? Who gets to vote and who oversees campaign finance? For the past seven years, the office has been held by a Republican Secretary of State who drew significant criticism for his handling of ballot language, his role in redistricting fights and his decision to pull Ohio out of the Eric voter data sharing system. Democrats now have a real opportunity to win this seat and two very different candidates are making the case for why they should be the one to do it. I sat down with both of them today. I’ll give a high level overview of the candidates as a preview for their interviews. Enjoy the episode. The first candidate that you’ll be hearing from is Dr Brian Hambly. He is a leukemia physician at the University of Cincinnati and a political newcomer. He grew up on a small family farm, got deeply involved in the 2024 anti gerrymandering campaign, and launched his candidacy about eight months before his opponent entered the race, he’s running on a grassroots model, no corporate PAC money, over 320 house parties and events across the state, and nearly a million dollars raised, which he says is more than any down ballot Democrat has raised for this office at this Point, his central argument is that gerrymandering is the upstream problem in Ohio politics, that it’s what allows legislators to vote against Medicaid expansion, against rural hospital funding, against their own constituents interests, and that the Secretary of State’s office is where you start to fix it. He wants to push for an independent redistricting commission that would take map drawing out of the hands of politicians entirely, including his own. He’s also the only candidate in the race, Democrat or Republican who has pledged not to take corporate PAC money. He frames that as essential for an office that oversees campaign finance investigations. Next up will be state representative Allison Russo, who brings a very different profile. She’s been in the Ohio House since 2019 when she flipped a Republican held suburban seat in that post 2016 wave of first time female candidates. She went on to serve as House Minority Leader, the top Democrat in the chamber, for three and a half years, before stepping down last June to run statewide. Her background is in public health policy. She grew up in rural Mississippi, raised by a single mother who went from a GED to a carpenter’s apprenticeship with a local union. Russo’s pitch centers on experience and the ability to navigate a hostile legislature. She argues that the Secretary of State doesn’t operate in a vacuum, that the Office has to work with the rules the legislature sets, and that having someone who already knows how to build coalitions slow down bad bills and apply outside pressure from day one is critical. She also sees a real opportunity for the business services
Tim Fulton 4:09
side of the office, proposing to turn the secretary of state into a connector, a warm handoff between new business registering with the state and the state resources that already exist to help them survive their first year where the two candidates diverge most sharply is on the question of who is best positioned to take on gerrymandering. Hambly points to a 2023, vote in which Russo voted with Republicans in favor of maps that were later found to be unconstitutionally gerrymandered, a vote he calls disqualifying. Russo, for her part, emphasizes the practical realities of legislating in a super majority and the strategic choices that requires. I sat down with both of them in the episodes this week. You’ll hear those full conversations. What. Motivates them, how they think about the office where they agree and where they don’t. If you care about how elections are administered in Ohio, how redistricting actually gets resolved, and what kind of Democrat can win a statewide race in 2026 I believe that both interviews are worth your time. You will hear Dr Brian Hambly is interview tomorrow and Representative Allison Russo’s episode on Friday.
Tim Fulton 5:38
Thank you for listening to the confluence cast presented by Columbus underground. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at the confluence cast.com Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of The confluence cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite podcast host. If you’re interested in sponsoring the confluence cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info at the confluence cast, calm. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I’m your host. Tim Fulton, we’ll talk to you tomorrow. You