Who's this legislative dipshit? Meet State Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova Township)
The 36-year-old is a landlord who loves lead paint.
Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) appears to be leaving his office without being under the cloud of a federal investigation, unlike most swamp creatures to have sat their flabby pink asses on the Lincoln Chair.
The race for the next Speakership was thought to be between Phil Plummer (R-Dayton) and Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill):
Well, Republicans don’t pick their leaders for their good looks and charm. But while Plummer and Stephens were the favorites, a third candidate lurked… 36-year-old State Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova Township).
Merrin might have used the same stratagem Warren G. Harding used to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1920. Harding was nobody’s No. 1 choice. But he was everybody else’s second or third.
In some way, it’s refreshing to have a Republican overlord who was born after 1960. Unfortunately, one Statehouse source called Merrin “the worst possible outcome” since, despite the young face, he’s just as odious as every other loser to come out on top of the criminal conspiracy known as the Ohio House Republican Caucus. Legislative Democrats call him “Dick Merrin” for a reason.
Where in the Hell is Monclova Township?
Good question. Monclova Township sits southwest of Toledo and has a population of 12,500.
Merrin rose to power in Waterville, a village of 6,000 residents just south of Monclova Township. He served two years on the city council before becoming the youngest mayor in Ohio at age 21.
He quickly went to work shining the boots of ambitious members party like then-Auditor Dave Yost, for whom Merrin worked:
Merrin is a lot like that little freak Mayor Pete in that he’s a guy who has dreamed of achieving the United States presidency from a very young age. You do not become Speaker of the Ohio House at age 36 out of dumb luck.
Merrin will likely use his young face to present himself as your typical country club Republican. But make no mistake, he’s a true believer in every evil Republican cause.
Merrin once defended lead paint
Merrin won political office at age 18 and quickly became the mayor of his small village. He describes himself as a “realtor and real estate investor.” Merrin comes from family money, or small-town mayorships are more lucrative than I would have thought.
Merrin didn’t take long to learn how the Statehouse works in that it’s not frowned upon to push legislation in which you financially profit.
Merrin flips houses and once tried to gut Ohio cities’ regulations against lead paint by moving the responsibility from local jurisdictions to an understaffed and underfunded state agency.
From the cleveland.com editorial board in 2017:
Merrin, who has rental property himself, according to The Toledo Blade, said at the time that he was trying to avoid a city-by-city regulatory patchwork. Our editorial board, however, called his measure "a shameful, self-serving effort to keep children in unsafe housing just to save landlords a little money." It still is.
Keep this in mind whenever you see Merrin describe himself as pro-child. He tried to make it easier to give children lead poisoning. It sounds like a made-up attack, but it’s 100% factual to say that.
Merrin voted to keep Larry Householder in office after his RICO arrest
Derek Merrin voted for Larry Householder to become Speaker of the Ohio House. Merrin voted for HB-6, which got Householder indicted on RICO charges. Merrin then voted to let Householder keep his seat after the hog voters in Perry County sent him back to Columbus at the first opportunity.
This is how Merrin’s energy conglomerate pimps tout him in their literature:
“You have the chance to help the environment! Vote for Merrin and unleash an unregulated boom of methane fracking across our state!”
Hey, we know Merrin has no qualms about poisoning children if it means more money in his pocket.
Merrin told a Latina legislative aide about the time he almost got killed by Mexican thugs
From Jesse Balmert of cincinnati.com in 2019:
Reyes also wrote that Monclova Township Rep. Derek Merrin interjected himself into a conversation she was having about her southern Texas hometown at a legislative fundraiser. Merrin added that “Mexicans are dangerous people.”
“He went on to tell a story of how he was ‘nearly killed’ by a group of Mexican thugs while visiting Mexico,” Reyes wrote.
Merrin told The Enquirer that "the allegation is false, pure slander and ludicrous.”
God, if only we were that lucky. But it’s good to know, like most conservative males in America, Merrin is terrified of minorities.
Merrin is a Christian nationalist
Get a good look at Merrin’s face in the header of this article. There’s a good chance he will be intimately involved in your sex lives over the next couple of years.
From Sarah Posner of businessinder.com in an article detailing the “Christian nationalist boot camp” that trained state legislators to push anti-transgender laws across the country:
[Director Amanda] Banks has said that the Statesmen Academy trains roughly 30 legislators each year. "That is going to multiply into effective policies, God-honoring policies," she said in a promotional video. "If they're all pursuing those biblical values through the work that they do, I think ultimately God is going to be honored, and His will is going to be done on earth as it is in heaven." The Family Policy Alliance did not respond to interview requests about the Statesmen Academy.
Banks is the wife of the hard-right, pro-Trump Congressman from Indiana, Jim Banks, who previously served in the Indiana legislature and is an alumnus of the Statesmen Academy. Jim Banks has also worked as a National Field Director with Focus on the Family. Amanda Banks' own legislative experience was serving in the Indiana statehouse for one year when her husband was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014, and working as a federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family.
Five Statesmen Academy alumni—Reps. Derek Merrin and Jena Powell of Ohio, Rep. Sara Walsh of Missouri, Rep. Scott Allen of Wisconsin, and Sen. Jeff Raatz of Indiana—sponsored or co-sponsored anti-trans health care bans in 2022, along with other legislation seeking to limit abortion access and LGBTQ rights.
You read stuff like this and wonder about the views Merrin holds that he’s not willing to say in public. I can only imagine the ghoulish language that flies when those creeps get together in a room that you already know smells like formaldehyde and moldy bologna.
Threat level: High
Thankfully, Merrin only has one more term in the House. Unfortunately, nothing is stopping him from running for Senate in the do-si-do a lot of the career freaks like to pull in the legislature to skirt term limits.
He is young, ambitious, and a respectable fundraiser. He has already achieved the level where he’s pretty much unassailable from the ballot box, and it’s easy to envision him running for statewide office in the near future.
And unlike most of his predecessors, there’s no chance authorities will find him dead in his office on a random Tuesday after a Viagra overdose.
The FBI, as sad as it is, is our only hope. Merrin won’t be able to resist the temptation whet his beak in some corruption to grease the wheels on his next run for office. The Speakership is simply a stepping stone for him.
THOSE WMDs. Notes from a right-wing school board takeover... How Branden Fraser made it all work… How it feels to surf the world’s biggest waves… The soft power of Dolly Parton… Is the NBA’s super team era already over?
Never heard of Kittshill but can guarantee everyone calls it Shitkill