Welcome to the Wednesday, March 6, Brew.
By: Mercedes Yanora
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- In Ohio House elections, censured incumbents face primary challenges 3x more than non-censured incumbents
- Joe Biden to give State of the Union address tomorrow
- Financial institutions pull $14 trillion from ESG initiative
In Ohio House elections, censured incumbents face primary challenges 3x more than non-censured incumbents
Click here to catch up on Super Tuesday results. We’ll be back tomorrow with more details.
In the meantime, let’s head to Ohio, where elections for the state House are taking place against the backdrop of a conflict within the House Republican caucus over the election of house speaker. The elections are on March 19.
After Republicans won a 67-32 margin in the 2022 elections, 22 Republicans joined with all 32 Democrats to elect Jason Stephens (R) speaker over the winner of the Republican caucus’ internal vote, Derek Merrin (R). The Ohio Republican Party’s central committee voted to censure all 22 House Republicans who voted for Stephens.
Seventeen of the censured Republicans are running for re-election, 12 of whom face primary challengers. We’ve included all 12 of these contested primaries in our list of 14 battleground elections in the Ohio House. Click here for more details on battleground primaries.
Censured incumbents are facing primary challenges at a rate more than three times that of non-censured incumbents. Twelve of the 17 censured incumbents (70.6%) are facing primary challengers compared to seven of the 34 non-censured incumbents (20.6%).
Looking beyond the censured Republicans, there are 29 contested Republican primaries this year, the most since 2018.
Nineteen incumbents — more than one-third of those seeking re-election — face primary challengers compared to 12 in 2018. This is the highest rate at which incumbent Ohio House Republicans have faced primary challenges since at least 2012.
In the five elections between 2014 and 2022, 13.7% of incumbent House Republicans facing contested primaries were defeated. The highest rate of incumbent defeats was 16.7% in 2020 and 2016, while the lowest was 8.3% in 2018.
Fifteen of the 66 incumbent House Republicans did run for re-election, nine of whom faced term limits. Setting aside the term-limited incumbents, five of the 44 non-censured Republican incumbents (11.4%) did not run for re-election. Two of the 19 censured Republican incumbents (10.5%) did not run for re-election.
Looking at endorsements, we’ve identified six organizations that issued endorsements in 12 or more contested Republican House primaries.
The Buckeye Firearms Association, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and Ohio Right to Life each issued 50% or more of their endorsements to incumbents. Americans for Prosperity–Ohio, Ohio Citizens PAC, and Ohio Value Voters each issued 50% or more of their endorsements to non-incumbents. All six organizations issued endorsements in primaries involving censured incumbents.
The Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohio Right to Life did not endorse any challengers to censured incumbents. Americans for Prosperity–Ohio, Ohio Citizens PAC, and Ohio Value Voters did not endorse any censured incumbents. Only the Ohio Chamber of Commerce endorsed at least one censured incumbent and at least one challenger to a censured incumbent.
Ohio is one of 23 states with a Republican trifecta. A state government trifecta is a term used to describe a single-party government where one political party holds the governor’s office and a majority in both chambers of the state legislature.
Joe Biden to give State of the Union address tomorrow
Tomorrow, March 7, President Joe Biden will address Congress in the annual State of the Union speech. It will be Biden’s third State of the Union. Although Biden addressed Congress on April 28, 2021, the speech was not considered a State of the Union address, in keeping with the tradition that presidents do not give State of the Union addresses only a few weeks into office.
Presidents usually give the State of the Union in January or February. The address is authorized via Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution: “[The president] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient…”
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) will deliver the Republican response.
The president and members of Congress have the opportunity to invite guests to attend the State of the Union. Biden and First Lady Jill Biden invited Kate Cox, a Texas woman who sued the state for the right to terminate a nonviable pregnancy. Cox left Texas during the lawsuit to receive an abortion.
Below are some facts detailing the State of the Union’s evolution, according to UC Santa Barbara’s The American Presidency Project:
- Between Thomas Jefferson’s first State of the Union (1801) and William Howard Taft’s final message (1912), the State of the Union was a written report sent to Congress at the start of a new session.
- Harry Truman delivered the first televised State of the Union in 1947.
- The State of the Union moved to a prime time evening slot in 1965 with Lyndon Johnson.
- Opposing political parties began delivering their responses to the State of the Union in 1966.
If you’d like to read more about the history of the State of the Union address, click the link below.
Financial institutions pull $14 trillion from ESG initiative
One of our policy coverage areas is ESG, which is an investment or corporate governance approach that involves how corporations conform to certain standards on environmental, social, and corporate governance issues (such as net carbon emission or corporate board diversity goals). Ballotpedia tracks public responses to private ESG activities and private responses to public ESG regulations and investigations.
Our Economy and Society newsletter covers developments in the world of ESG and hits inboxes every Tuesday. Our ESG hub can be found here, while our tracking of opposition to ESG is here and areas of disagreement and inquiry here.
Some of our recent coverage is below:
On Feb. 15, J.P. Morgan Chase and State Street Global Advisors — two of the largest asset managers in the world — withdrew from Climate Action 100+, an asset manager initiative aimed at making companies reduce their carbon emissions through ESG investing. BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, announced it would reduce its involvement in the initiative, leaving only its subsidiary — BlackRock International — committed to the coalition and pulling about $6.6 trillion in American assets.
The three companies removed roughly $14 trillion in funds from the initiative.
A State Street representative said the commitments required under the initiative reduced the company’s ability to act independently. BlackRock said its Climate Action 100+ commitments raised potential legal problems under U.S. law.
Republican state attorneys general have pushed back against the involvement of financial institutions in ESG coalitions, arguing that participation could violate the fiduciary duties of asset managers or violate anti-trust laws.