51st Attorney General of Ohio
David Anthony Yost (born December 22, 1956) is an American politician and lawyer who currently serves as the 51st Attorney General of Ohio. A member of the Republican Party, Yost previously served as Ohio State Auditor.
Political career
Yost later served in senior positions within the administration of Columbus mayor Buck Rinehart and governor George Voinovich.[3] Yost was appointed Delaware County Auditor in 1999.[4] In 2003, he became the Delaware County Prosecutor.[5] He was elected Ohio's 32nd state auditor in November 2010, after earlier vying for the Republican nomination for Ohio attorney general against Mike DeWine.[6] In January 2017, Yost announced he was running for Ohio Attorney General in 2018.[7]
Ohio Attorney General (2017–present)
Yost defeated his Democratic opponent Steve Dettelbach, who previously served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, in the 2018 Ohio Attorney General election.[8] In the 2022 election, Yost was re-elected to his position over Democratic candidate Jeffrey Crossman, a member of the Ohio House from Parma.[8][9]
Abortion ban
Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, Yost filed a successful motion to dissolve the injunction on Ohio's six-week abortion ban.[10] On June 24, 2022, Yost tweeted that "The Heartbeat Bill is now the law." He released a video statement on YouTube the same day in which he said, "This decision returns abortion policy to the place it has always belonged: to the elected policies branches of the governments."[11]
Yost's son and daughter-in-law publicly criticized his actions in messages on Facebook on June 24 and 25, the former saying, "[T]he lack of pro choice is blatantly against what this country says it is on its banners and documents. The land of the free doesn't seem so free right now."[12]
On June 30, 2022, shortly after the ban became effective, a 10-year-old rape victim who was "six weeks and three days" pregnant traveled from the Columbus area to Indianapolis, Indiana, to get an abortion to avoid carrying her rapist's child.[13][14][15] The incident was widely reported, beginning with an article in the Indianapolis Star newspaper on July 1, and was mentioned by President Joe Biden on July 8 in comments at the White House.[16] On July 11, Yost disputed the report, saying that neither his office or the state crime lab had any information on the matter, and that his staff had heard "not a whisper" about it; in an interview on July 12, Yost said it was "more likely that this is a fabrication".[17] That day, the report was confirmed by the Columbus Division of Police and a rape suspect was arrested.[18]
On July 14, Yost's office shared a backgrounder with media and on Twitter[19] which listed specific exceptions contained in Ohio's "Heartbeat Law", and suggested, as had Yost in interviews on July 11, that the 10-year-old girl would have been able to obtain a legal abortion under those exceptions. The Ohio Legislative Commission said that nothing in the language of the law explicitly includes the age of the person seeking an abortion as a qualification for exception, and that it was unclear whether the girl would have qualified for a legal abortion.[20][21] The following week, Yost rejected calls from the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party and others for his resignation.[22]
Attempt to invalidate 2020 presidential election results
After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Yost filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief in support of the Trump campaign's attempt to invalidate ballots cast in Pennsylvania.[23][24] However, in December 2020, Yost opposed a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton which sought to subvert the presidential election results and prevent Biden from being certified as the winner.[25]
2023 East Palestine train derailment
In mid-March 2023, about five weeks after the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Yost announced a 58-count civil damages lawsuit against Norfolk Southern for its "glaring negligence" and prioritizing profits over communities' safety.[26][27]
Social media antitrust investigation
In September 2019, Yost was one out of nine state attorneys general that launched an antitrust investigation into Facebook and Google, to investigate whether or not they were stifling competition in their respective fields.[28][29]
Voting laws
Yost was sued by a coalition of civil rights groups, including the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the state NAACP chapter, and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, in February 2024 after his second rejection of a petition for a proposed constitutional amendment, entitled the Ohio Voters Bill of Rights, that would appear on the ballot in the 2024 elections. The amendment would introduce the automatic registration of voters, discard recent additions to voter identification requirements, and increase ballot drop boxes. After rejecting the first petition in December 2023, Yost's office rejected it for a second time the following month, finding that the amendment's title was "highly misleading and misrepresentative" of its content.[30][31]
Personal life
Yost and his wife Darlene live in Franklin County, Ohio. They have three children and four grandchildren.[32]
Yost and Republican lawmaker Kevin D. Miller were the targets of swatting phone calls in December 2023 after false reports of shootings at their homes were made to the police.[33]
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