COLUMBUS, Ohio — As Gov. Mike DeWine wraps up his first year in office, he joined 3News' Jay Crawford for a one-on-one interview on Tuesday.
DeWine spoke about the ups and downs of his opening year, saying his biggest success in 2019 was passing a two-year budget.
"I think out biggest success is that we passed a bipartisan budget, Democrats and Republicans voted for and it really makes an investment in our future" said DeWine. "One of the things I said to the general assembly in my state of the state speech was, 'We’re going to ask you to invest in Ohio, we’re going to be asking you to do things where you’re not going to see the immediate results, and I think for someone in public office that’s always the toughest thing to do."
DeWine's budget includes hundreds of millions in funding for children's health initiatives.
"When we invest in kids, we start at a very early age, and get them ready for kindergarten, the dividends are going to pay off in the years ahead," says DeWine. "It’s a futuristic budget that invests in people, invests in job training. I think our biggest challenge in Ohio is making sure Ohioans, no matter what their age, live up to their god given potential."
When asked why these initiatives were such a priority for the administration, the governor says he wants to provide the same opportunities to all of Ohio's children that he'd want for his own family.
"[My wife] Fran and I have eight children and 24 grandchildren, we focus a lot each day on children. What I want for kids in Ohio is what I want for my own kids and grand kids, is for them to be healthy, for them to be able to live their dream, what ever that dream is, to find something they really have a passion to do, and then help them get there. Health is so very very important because if you don’t have your health you can’t accomplish all of your dreams, and all the things you want to accomplish."
The governor says he is alarmed at the number of teens in Ohio who use tobacco products like electronic cigarettes, saying "When you look at young kids we now have about a third of our kids that are vaping and getting addicted to nicotine, is a very, very scary thing because we know how addictive nicotine is, how hard it is to quit. We had gotten down in this county to just a small number of kids who were smoking, just 4 percent, but now we’re looking at a whole new generation of kids who are addicted because of the vaping it’s a huge, huge problem."
On the opposite side DeWine says he has faced challenges. DeWine says he's been asked if anything about the governor's office has surprised him. He says nothing has surprised him but one thing he learned quickly was how fast things come at you and how quick some decisions need to be made.
At the end of his first year the governor says he has unfinished business, and while the General Assembly has passed a budget and a transportation bill it has yet to pass his STRONG Ohio plan, aimed at reducing gun violence in the wake of the August 4th shooting that left 10 people dead in Dayton.
"I think our number one unfinished [issue] is STRONG Ohio,our reaction to not only the horrible tragedy in Dayton, but the fact we’re losing so many people in our cities. said DeWine. "We’ve come up with a holistic approach and we’ve come up that we know will save a lot of lives."
DeWine says he is confident the state house and senate will pass the measure next year.
Before being elected in 2018 DeWine as attorney general made the fight against the opioid epidemic a priority, something he has continued during his first year in office.
With several lawsuits against drug makers being settled with million or billion dollar payouts, DeWine says the state needs to protect that money and use it to focus on treatment and recovery efforts, in stark contrast to settlements from lawsuits against tobacco companies in the past.
"The money we’re going to get, both at the local and state level needs to go to addiction." said DeWine. "We should not take this and spend it on something else, we made a mistake in regard to the tobacco settlement a couple decades ago when it was decided to take that money and go spend it and not to spend it on smoking cessation."
DeWine says he's also working to protect the innocent victims of the epidemic, like children in foster care.
"These kids who are in foster care, many are there because one or both parents are addicts, many are the collateral damage of this drug epidemic, we saw that and I doubled the amount of money going to local children’s services," said DeWine.
The governor says the state's foster care system needs reform to account for kids who "age out" of the system after they turn 18, who aren't adopted and may have no one to turn to. He says he has created a task force that will travel around the state and hear from caregivers, children in the system and others on how the state can help make positive impacts.
When asked about the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, DeWine did not offer an opinion, instead saying his loyalty and duty was to focus on Ohio.
"I took an oath to be the governor of the state of Ohio, we have problems we are focused on every singe day," said DeWine. "I don’t think the people of the state of Ohio elected me to opine, and to be on talk shows every night, and talk about what my opinion is of the impeachment of the President of the United States. I haven’t studied it, I know no more than the average Ohioan knows, I need to focus on what I’m doing every single day."
Recalling his time as a U.S. senator during the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, DeWine reiterated his stance from then that he did not decide his vote on that cause until he hear all of the facts as was his sworn duty, however as governor, his priorities have changed.
"When I was in the Senate, I was there for 12 years, I was there for the impeachment of President Clinton, when the House impeached the president and sent it over for trial in the United States Senate, what I said at that time was that I would not make a decision until I heard all of the evidence, until all of the evidence was in, and the trial took place, I focused on that every day because that was my obligation, I’m not focused on this everyday."
Despite DeWine's unwillingness to comment on the impeachment investigation, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper tells 3News that the governor is still closely tied to President Trump. “No matter what excuses he makes up, Mike DeWine is serving as an Honorary Chair of Trump’s campaign -- he supports Donald Trump's actions enough to work hard for his re-election."
DeWine says he believes lawmakers in Washington, D.C. need to come together to help the country, adding they could learn from lawmakers in Columbus. Citing his budget provision for 650 million dollars in wrap-around and other services for school students as an example.
The division we seeing Washington, the American people don’t like," he said. We fix that like we’ve done in Ohio, [where] we’ve passed a budget, we’ve passes several budgets, we’ve passed several other legislation in a bi-partisan fashion, we have pulled Democrats and Republicans together, we’re doing things in Ohio we’ve never done before."
DeWine says the main issue is a lack of personal relationships between federal lawmakers he feels is leading to many issues, sating that he and his wife have hosted practically every state lawmaker for a meal at their house and while they may disagree on some issues, he finds that when lawmakers get to know each other the can find common ground.
DeWine says he plans to be in Arizona for Ohio State's Fiesta Bowl match-up against Clemson, saying he plans to make a bet with South Carolina governor Henry McMaster. He says he plans to ask McMaster for Carolina barbecue and says he looks forward to eating because he's confident Ohio State will win.
WATCH | See the entire conversation between Gov. DeWine and Jay Crawford in the player below: