Jim Jordan’s Challenger Tells Kari Lake to Stay Out of Ohio

Tamie Wilson, an Ohio Democrat challenging for Representative Jim Jordan’s congressional seat in November 2024, bashed Kari Lake for insinuating that the Ohio special election was impacted by ballot scanning issues.

Ohio voters rejected a ballot measure backed by Republicans on Tuesday to make it more difficult to amend the state constitution. According to the Associated Press, with 95 percent of the votes counted Tuesday night, 56.6 percent of Ohioans voted “no” on State Issue 1, which would have raised the threshold to enact a proposed constitutional amendment from a simple majority of voters to 60 percent.

The special election results precede a vote in November to amend the Ohio Constitution to protect the right to an abortion.

Kari Lake is shown on June 27, 2023, in New York City. A Democrat running for Congress in Ohio on Tuesday called out Lake over social media after voters rejected a GOP-backed proposal to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution. Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

On Tuesday morning, however, ballot scanners shut down at one polling location in Cuyahoga Falls, a suburb in northeast Ohio. A board of elections official in Summit County told the Akron Beacon Journal that the issue was due to human error, and that, “At no point was voting halted.”

Lake, a former GOP gubernatorial candidate in Arizona who lost to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, compared the machine hiccups to the issues experienced in Maricopa County in November, when a ballot printer issue caused some mishaps for voters on Election Day. Despite numerous failed lawsuits and a lack of legal evidence, Lake maintains that the 2022 election was stolen from her and has yet to concede to Hobbs, who took the reins in January.

“Sound familiar?? Looks like they took a page out of the Maricopa County ‘selections’ playbook,” Lake wrote in a post on X, the platform formally known as Twitter. “Today is Election Day in Ohio and the machines don’t work. The swampy never-Trumper Ohio Secretary of State was too busy running for another office to do his job making sure Election Day runs smoothly. Reminds me of the jacka**** who run Maricopa County officials when they sabotaged Election Day to stop the will of We the People.”

Lake’s criticism was directed at Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican running for Senate in 2024. But Wilson, who is running for Ohio’s 4th Congressional District in the 2024 election, shot back at Lake’s post after Tuesday’s election results had been called.

“Kari Lake: Girl, for once, take off your tin foil hat and just accept your MAGA cult just got CRUSHED!” Wilson wrote on X, which included a screenshot of Lake’s post from earlier in the day.

“It’s no conspiracy to say 2/3 of Ohio destroyed Issue 1 because 1) You came to our state and promoted it 2) Ohio is NOT a red state. 3) They rejected your disgusting fascism and hypocrisy, and instead embraced democracy and women’s rights,” she added.

State Issue 1 was originally called with about 40 percent of the votes counted on Tuesday. At that time, 60 percent of voters rejected the proposal, while 40 percent backed it.

“Ohioans showed up and showed out today to fight to protect our voice and our vote … just like they did in Arizona. Remember?” Wilson continued.

“Admit it: This win for democracy in Ohio is just a preview of things to come,” she added. “If you hate this victory, just wait until November to when we protect abortion. And then we TAKE DOWN Jim Jordan!

“A final word of advice: Maybe just stay out of Ohio, and focus on governing your own state,” the post continued. “Oh, wait.”

Jordan, a Republican and chair of the House Oversight Committee, appeared beside Lake at an event in Union County, Ohio, on Sunday to rally support for State Issue 1. The event was hosted by the anti-abortion group Protect Women Ohio.

The Republican congressman did not speak publicly about State Issue 1 as of Tuesday night. Newsweek emailed his press team for comment.