Jon Allen Husted (born August 25, 1967) is an American politician serving as the 66th lieutenant governor of Ohio, since 2019. He was previously the 53rd Ohio Secretary of State. A member of the Republican Party, he previously represented the 6th District of the Ohio Senate (a portion of Montgomery County) from 2009 to 2011 and was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009. From 2005 to 2009, Husted served as Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and remains the 7th youngest person to ever become Ohio House Speaker. Husted was elected Ohio Secretary of State in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. He was a candidate in the Republican Party primary for Governor of Ohio in the 2018 election but later announced that he would instead run for lieutenant governor of Ohio as Attorney General Mike DeWine's running mate.
Personal life
Husted was born in the Detroit area in 1967 and was immediately placed for adoption. He has stated that his biological father did not want him and his biological mother was unable to care for him. He was adopted by Jim and Judy Husted and raised in the Northwest Ohio Community of Montpelier, Ohio as the oldest of three children. His father was a machine operator. Husted cites his experience having been adopted as a child as the foundation for his staunch opposition to abortion.
Education
Husted graduated from Montpelier High School in 1985.
He later received both a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Dayton where he played on the Dayton Flyers Football team. His senior year, the team won the 1989 NCAA Division III National Championship Game in Phoenix City, Alabama.
Career
While completing his master's degree at the University of Dayton, Husted was offered a job on the football coaching staff at the University of Toledo, but instead chose to work on a local political campaign. He then stayed in the Dayton area and worked for Montgomery County Commissioner Don Lucas and was eventually named Vice-President of Business and Economic Development at the Dayton-Area Chamber of Commerce, a position he held until seeking public office as State Representative in 2000.
Family
Jon Husted married his wife, Tina, in 2006. He is the father of three children. The Husted family lives in the Columbus-area suburb of Upper Arlington.
Political career
After working for the Dayton-Area Chamber of Commerce and turning down an opportunity to coach football at the University of Toledo, Husted ran for office in 2000 in a five-way race for state representative, defeating his closest opponent by over 12 percent of the vote. He went on to serve as Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, State Senator and Ohio Secretary of State.
Ohio Secretary of State
Husted was first elected Ohio Secretary of State in 2010 after defeating Democratic challenger Maryellen O'Shaughnessy by nearly a half-million votes. In this role, Husted served as the swing state's chief elections official. The office also serves as the filing location for new businesses in Ohio.
He was re-elected in 2014 against the Democratic challenger, then-State Senator Nina Turner by over 700,000 votes.
Financial management
A fiscal conservative, Husted cut his office's budget by $14.5 million during his first term and reduced the size of his staff by one-third. After running a surplus for the first six years of his two terms as Secretary of State, he made the unprecedented request to have 100% of his office's taxpayer funding cut for the remainder of his term, opting instead to spend down his office's savings.
Voting issues
As the top election official in the swing state of Ohio, Husted, like his recent predecessors, was at the center of a number of voting rights controversies including those over the days and hours of early voting and the rules for filling out absentee and provisional ballots.
While voting rights groups contended his term was mired with voter-suppression tactics, Husted responded consistently with his mantra that Ohio should be a place where it is "both easy to vote and hard to cheat."