Andy Wilson

Gov. Mike DeWine decided on a placeholder, saying he’s appointing Andy Wilson, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, as the state’s next attorney general, to replace Dave Yost, who is resigning, effective June 7.

DeWine, a Republican, said Wilson will serve the final seven months of Yost’s unexpired term. Yost announced Thursday he was resigning June 7. His term ends Jan. 11, 2027.

DeWine, who served eight years as attorney general, said Monday: “When I looked at going forward for the next seven months, I wanted someone who has high energy, someone who has real experience in the criminal justice area, so Andy Wilson is clearly, in my mind, the right person, although we had other very good people to pick from.”

DeWine said he thought of appointing state Auditor Keith Faber, the Republican nominee for attorney general. But because that would have almost certainly required appointing three other Republicans who won last week’s Republican primary for statewide office, DeWine said “that just seemed not the right thing to do.”

DeWine said he supports Faber in the general election, but the move to select him “just didn’t seem right to me” because of the other appointments of statewide officeholders he’d have to make.

Faber said, “Andy Wilson is a solid pick by the governor as interim attorney general. I’m looking forward to spending the next six months continuing my conversation with Ohioans about the kind of leadership I’ll bring to the office if I’m elected in November.”

John Kulewicz, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, said: “My sincere hope for interim Attorney General Wilson is that he will take his (seven) months as AG to focus on the fundamentals of the office. Ohio is up against it right now and needs an AG who is going to stand up for the people of Ohio.”

Wilson said, “During the seven months that I’m in that office, I will wake up every morning fully dedicated to serving the people of Ohio. The people who deserve an attorney general who fights crime, who seeks justice and, again, who wakes up every morning with the focus on keeping them safe.”

Wilson said, “I will bring energy and passion to this job every single day. I’m coming to the office and for the seven months that I’m there, we’re going to go 100 miles an hour and we’re going to lead with energy and passion.”

DeWine appointed Wilson as public safety director in December 2022. Before that, Wilson was DeWine’s senior adviser for criminal justice policy since January 2019, helping the governor with violent crime reduction initiatives, first responder wellness and law enforcement training.

DeWine also assigned Wilson, a former Clark County prosecutor, in 2020 as an assistant prosecutor to help the Pike County Prosecutor’s Office in a case involving the 2016 murders of eight people by four defendants.

Wilson said, “My philosophy has always been you just go in, you do the best job you can in the position that you’re in. Don’t look for what’s next, and by doing so, doors will open.”

YOST RESIGNATION

Yost, a Republican, announced his resignation Thursday to become vice president of strategic research and innovation for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal advocacy group.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the ADF focuses on cultural issues such as religious liberty, private school vouchers, restricting abortion access as well as opposing LGBTQ+ rights and same-sex marriages. The ADF played a central role in the landmark 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson case in the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade. In the Dobbs decision, the court ruled the U.S. Constitution does not give women the right to abortions.

Yost said he’s “been honored to serve Ohio and will continue to fight for freedom” in his new position.

Yost is serving his second and final term as attorney general, which expires in early January.

Yost said, “Gov. DeWine’s appointment of Andy Wilson is a wise selection to ensure that the mission of the office and the great progress we’ve made in the past seven-plus years remain in steady hands.”

DeWine didn’t waste any time in choosing Wilson to replace Yost, announcing his selection of Wilson on Monday, only four days after the outgoing attorney general said he was leaving. DeWine said he made his decision late Sunday afternoon.

DeWine said, “It was very important for me to make this decision quickly. The new attorney general, frankly, has to start conversations today with the men and women in the AG’s office and certainly with the AG. There’s a lot (that) goes on in that office and time was moving fast.”

DeWine and Wilson both said they support Faber for attorney general.

But DeWine said while he considered naming Faber as attorney general, “the idea of appointing one or maybe all of the statewide officeholders, which was certainly a distinct possibility and certainly was an option, just didn’t seem right to me. We have an election coming. We’re only six months away from the election. For me to step in as governor and literally appoint every single statewide officeholder, it just didn’t look right to me. It didn’t seem right to me, didn’t seem like something that I should do.”

If DeWine had appointed Faber, it would have created a vacancy for the state auditor position he’s held for more than seven years. Secretary of State Frank LaRose is the Republican nominee for auditor on the Nov. 3 ballot. If DeWine appointed LaRose, Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, would have been appointed to succeed him. That would have resulted in the treasurer seat being open and DeWine then naming former state Rep. Jay Edwards, who won Tuesday’s GOP primary for that position.

That would have made those four Republican nominees the incumbents during the Nov. 3 general election.

It would have also meant that DeWine would be the only statewide executive branch official actually elected to his seat by voters in the 2022 election.

Had the Yost resignation not occurred, DeWine said he planned Monday to discuss his stance on the death penalty in Ohio.

DeWine is widely expected to state his opposition to the death penalty — something that’s been expected for several months but keeps getting pushed back by him.

DeWine has postponed every capital punishment execution since he began serving as governor in January 2019 because of the state’s inability to use safe drugs for lethal injections.