Sherrod Brown shows he's never had a boss
His last handpicked party chairwoman resigned in disgrace, and Brown has seemingly done the impossible in finding an unqualified replacement that will almost certainly be worse at the job.
The Ohio Democratic Party Executive Committee will select the party’s new chairperson on Tuesday, June 10, at the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 189 on Kinnear Road at 7 p.m.
In a sign of the vibrant social democracy in which we live, a handful of incorrigible political perverts who spent the last three weeks haggling behind closed doors have already decided the outcome of that vote, with former Portage County Commissioner Kathleen Clyde set to ascend to power.
State Senator Bill DeMora (D-Columbus), the only other candidate in a five-candidate race that posed a threat to Clyde’s candidacy, officially dropped his name from consideration Thursday morning.
It’s hard to weep after seeing DeMora, a party insider from birth and a ranking general in the Franklin County Ol’ Boys Democratic Club, eat shit in a fair election for once in his life.
But I supported Demora, despite his many flaws, because at least he has won elections, relishes a fight, and understands that you can’t beat Republicans by taking the high road.
That’s more than you can say for Clyde, the former Portage County Commissioner who moved to Columbus in November 2023 after losing a statewide election, her commission seat that she originally earned via appointment, and a campaign to return to the Ohio House.
Given the electoral record, Clyde’s ascendency only makes sense through her friendship with Liz Brown, whom Clyde hilariously understated as an “activist” on her endorsement slate, but in reality is the daughter of former United States Senator Sherrod Brown.
The Rooster reported on May 19 that Clyde had already secured 40 of the 70 votes needed to win, primarily through blocs of organized labor delivered to her camp due to Brown’s personal lobbying on her behalf.
Party sachems’ deference to Brown doesn’t make as much sense as it might have six months ago. Brown is a private citizen for the first time in 50 years after losing to Bitcoin aficionado Bernie Moreno in 2024.
Brown also hand-selected the last party chairwoman, former Summit County Councilwoman Liz Walters, who never covered herself in glory before resigning last month to become the “CEO” at Vote Smart, a sketchy data firm to which she had funnelled party resources during her reign.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, multiple sources have told The Rooster that Walters and Brown had a “falling out” after the November 2024 election.
Beyond that, Brown’s entire Senatorial schtick was that there is “dignity in work,” which, again, was always somewhat amusing coming from a man who had never worked an actual job in his adult life.
But if that’s actually something Brown holds close to his heart and not mundane sloganeeering, then he’s betrayed that principle by putting his thumb on the scale for Clyde.
Over the last three weeks, The Rooster spoke to four former Clyde staffers and multiple former Statehouse colleagues who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the woman poised to become one of the most powerful Democrats in the state.
Collectively, they painted a picture of Clyde as a person who schmoozes those above her and treats those below her like specks of shit on her shoes.
After a do-nothing career at the Statehouse and on the Portage County Commission, in which she failed to show up for large swaths of those jobs, Clyde lost her past three elections for reasons that went well beyond the increasingly red hue of Ohio’s statewide politics.
“If it wasn't met up to her standard, there were conversations about, ‘Are you stupid? ‘Are you not understanding? What is taking you so long? What is so hard about this?’” said one former aide, who held an undergraduate and master’s degree while working for Clyde.
“There were times that Kathleen would say things like, ‘There are people out there who could do your job. I can bring them in tomorrow.’ Things that were really hurtful professionally to somebody I looked up to.”
Clyde’s personal digs are familiar to anyone who has ever had an overbearing boss. And her demands for perfection would be more understandable if they were the standards she applied to herself. She would also demand that her legislative assistants, who received starvation wages, drive to Summit County on weekends on their own dime to work for her campaign for free.
Clyde’s petty cruelty didn’t stop with direct subordinates, either.
In one famous incident retold by multiple former Statehouse staffers, Clyde derisively dismissed a Black legislative aide as “the help” when the aide accidentally sat in her seat in a committee room on one of the few days Clyde chose to come to work.
“She is the worst candidate I've ever worked for,” recalled another former Clyde staffer. “[Fundraising] with her is absolutely miserable. She's so mean to you. She expects everything to be perfect.”
That’s an especially troubling anecdote considering that fundraising is perhaps the most critical responsibility for a party chairperson.
“The way that she talked to the people funding her campaign, I had a huge problem with,” the staffer said. “And they were people I ultimately had to get dinner and drinks with to keep them on board.
“… And then she would get all jealous and vindictive that they liked talking to me better than her because she's so miserable to talk to. It's all she does, talk about herself.”
Losing her Portage County Commission seat, which she originally earned through appointment, was about more than the county’s rightward shift. It also didn’t help that Clyde failed to execute simple tasks for any politician not wealthy enough to fund their campaign.
“She pretty much did no work for her campaign, and for her [commission] job during this time,” the former staffer said.
“With fundraising, we'd sit down for two hours in call time, and she'd make like six calls, and she would just like stare at these sheets like a deer in the headlights.”
When you add it all together, it’s hard to see what Brown sees in Clyde, other than a sycophant and personal friend to his daughter.
However, one Columbus Democratic politico speculated that installing Clyde as chairwoman could smooth the way for Brown to run for governor.
State candidates, unlike federal ones, are much more reliant on the state party to raise and direct funds in their support.
Brown had an infamously tumultuous relationship with former Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Pepper in 2018, which saw the party’s “Dream Ticket,” which included Clyde as Secretary of State, get swept by the Republicans after allegations that the Ohio Democratic Party misused, mispent or misdirected funds under Pepper’s command.
Putting a faithful stooge in the party’s chairmanship could “take one hesitancy or objection off the table” for Brown to run for governor, the politico said.
And Brown’s meddling from beyond the political grave will only be excused if he runs for governor and stops notorious conman Vivek Ramaswamy from turning Ohio into an outright tax haven for the criminally rich.
In typical Brown fashion, however, he has refused to stake himself to any commitment and left the party ticket in limbo while the Republicans amass their statewide parade of horribles under Ramaswamy’s pirate flag.
Anything short of Brown nailing this selection—and folks, there is absolutely zero reason to think he has—and all he has done is further condemn this state to Republican hobgoblin rule to keep the last shreds of Ohio Democratic political power in his family’s hands.
You can read Clyde’s outline to save the Ohio Democratic Party over here. May God help us all.
What’s next for House Democrats?
Yesterday, House Minority Leader Allison Russo announced she would be stepping down from her position. This decision had been in the works for the past couple weeks, with House Democrats going on retreat over the weekend to hash out the future of their super-minority caucus.
Two names have emerged as possible successors to Russo:
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