Historical Apoplexy · State Adaptations · Ohio · Ballot Language
Ohio Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act — Ballot Language
Companion to the full Ohio Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act
OHIO FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT
Filed with the Ohio Attorney General For certification and submission to the General Assembly
Signature Requirement (Initial Filing): 126,041 valid signatures (Three per cent of the total votes cast for governor at the November 8, 2022 general election, which totaled 4,201,368. Signatures must be collected from at least forty-four (44) of Ohio's eighty-eight (88) counties, with no fewer than one and one-half per cent (1.5%) of the electorate from each county counted.)
PROCESS: This is an INDIRECT INITIATIVE under Article II, Section 1a of the Ohio Constitution. Upon collection and certification of 126,041 valid signatures, the proposed statute is submitted to the General Assembly, which has four (4) months to act. If the General Assembly rejects or fails to act on the proposal, petitioners collect an additional 126,041 signatures (total: 252,082) and the proposed statute is placed on the ballot at the next general election.
PRECEDENT: Ohio voters demonstrated the vitality of the citizen initiative process in November 2023, when Issue 1 — a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment — passed with 56.8% of the vote, despite a prior attempt by the legislature to raise the amendment threshold.
BALLOT TITLE
SHALL THE STATE OF OHIO ENACT THE OHIO FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH:
(1) CREATING AN OHIO FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM OPERATED BY THE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO SELL GROCERY PRODUCTS AT AT-COST
PRICING TO ALL OHIO RESIDENTS THROUGH STATE-OPERATED FOOD
ASSURANCE CENTERS, WITH NOT FEWER THAN EIGHT PILOT CENTERS WITHIN
TWO YEARS — INCLUDING ONE IN THE DAYTON AREA ADJACENT TO THE
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE COMMISSARY THAT HAS SERVED
MILITARY FAMILIES AT BELOW-RETAIL PRICES FOR DECADES WHILE OHIO
CIVILIANS WERE DENIED ACCESS — AND TWENTY-FIVE CENTERS STATEWIDE
WITHIN FIVE YEARS, MODELED ON THE 157-YEAR MILITARY COMMISSARY
PRECEDENT (10 U.S.C. SECTION 2484);
(2) CREATING AN OHIO ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM THROUGH THE DEPARTMENT
OF DEVELOPMENT TO PRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE CLOTHING, HOUSEHOLD
SUPPLIES, HYGIENE PRODUCTS, AND OTHER ESSENTIAL GOODS AT BELOW-
RETAIL PRICING, LEVERAGING OHIO'S EXISTING MANUFACTURING
INFRASTRUCTURE;
(3) ENACTING PUBLIC HEALTH FINDINGS IN THE OHIO REVISED CODE
DESIGNATING FOOD INSECURITY, DEINDUSTRIALIZATION, AND POVERTY-
RELATED CHRONIC STRESS AS PUBLIC HEALTH CONDITIONS WITH DOCUMENTED
PHYSIOLOGICAL PATHWAYS, BASED ON THE WHITEHALL STUDIES (MARMOT),
PRIMATE STUDIES (SAPOLSKY, SHIVELY), AND TELOMERE RESEARCH
(BLACKBURN, 2009 NOBEL PRIZE), WITH THE OHIO OPIOID CRISIS
IDENTIFIED AS CASE PROOF THAT HIERARCHY-INDUCED BIOLOGICAL DAMAGE
— NOT MORAL FAILURE — DRIVES SUBSTANCE ABUSE;
(4) EXTENDING COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN OHIO FROM AGE EIGHTEEN TO
AGE TWENTY-FIVE BY ENACTING NEW SECTIONS OF THE OHIO REVISED CODE,
CREATING A SEAMLESS K-20 EDUCATION PIPELINE INTEGRATING THE K-12
SYSTEM, OHIO'S TWENTY-THREE COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGES, AND
ALL PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES INTO A SINGLE DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK,
WITH FULLY FUNDED IN-STATE TUITION FOR ALL OHIO RESIDENTS ENROLLED
IN THE PIPELINE;
(5) IMPLEMENTING A VQ-ALIGNED CURRICULUM (VITRUVIAN QUOTIENT)
MEASURING EIGHT DEVELOPMENTAL DOMAINS (KNOWLEDGE, REASONING,
EMOTIONAL, LANGUAGE, CREATIVE, SOCIAL, MOTOR, AND BIOLOGICAL
QUOTIENTS) MAPPED TO ERIKSON'S PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES AND REPLACING
PASSIVE ATTENDANCE WITH STRUCTURED LEARNING TRIALS BASED ON
VYGOTSKY'S ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT AND BJORK'S DESIRABLE
DIFFICULTIES;
(6) ESTABLISHING A POST-AGE-TWENTY-FIVE PUBLIC SERVICE REQUIREMENT
OF TWO TO FOUR YEARS FOR ALL CITIZENS COMPLETING THE K-20 PIPELINE,
AND CREATING AN OHIO RESOURCE LIBRARY SYSTEM DISTRIBUTING GOODS BY
NEED AND TIERED BY PERMANENCE, WITH FULL ACCESS UNLOCKED UPON
COMPLETION OF BOTH THE K-20 EDUCATION PIPELINE AND THE PUBLIC
SERVICE REQUIREMENT;
(7) APPROPRIATING THREE HUNDRED FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS
($315,000,000) FOR THE BIENNIUM, REPRESENTING APPROXIMATELY 0.54
PER CENT OF THE STATE'S GENERAL REVENUE FUND OF APPROXIMATELY
TWENTY-NINE BILLION DOLLARS?
SUBMISSION CLAUSE
[ ] YES / FOR THE MEASURE
[ ] NO / AGAINST THE MEASURE
BALLOT TEXT
This measure enacts new sections of the Ohio Revised Code to create the Ohio Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, containing three divisions:
DIVISION I — FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE
This division enacts sections 901.90 to 901.99 and 122.90 to 122.99 of the Revised Code, creating:
- An Ohio Food Assurance Program operated by the Department of
Agriculture, establishing state-operated food distribution centers
where all Ohio residents may purchase the full range of grocery
products at at-cost pricing (production cost plus a facility
surcharge not exceeding 5%);
- Not fewer than eight pilot centers within two years: two in the
Columbus metropolitan area, one each in Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Dayton (adjacent to Wright-Patterson AFB), Toledo, Youngstown-
Warren, and one in Appalachian Ohio (Athens, Marietta, Zanesville,
or Chillicothe);
- The Dayton center is deliberately placed near Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base. The Defense Commissary Agency has operated a below-
retail grocery at Wright-Patterson for decades, funded by all
taxpayers, accessible only to military families. The civilian
food assurance center will demonstrate that what works for
military families works for all Ohio families. Montgomery County
recorded the highest per-capita overdose death rate in the nation.
The proof model and the crisis are in the same ZIP code;
- The Youngstown-Warren center acknowledges that Black Monday —
September 19, 1977, the closure of the Campbell Works — destroyed
50,000 jobs in the Mahoning Valley within five years and gave
birth to the Rust Belt. The community that paid the highest price
for deindustrialization will be the first to see the state
invest in rebuilding;
- Expansion to twenty-five statewide centers within five years,
with at least one center per congressional district and at least
five serving rural Appalachian communities;
- Ohio-first procurement: 50% Ohio-sourced within three years,
increasing to 70% within five years;
- An Ohio Essential Goods Program distributing clothing, household
supplies, hygiene products, tools, educational materials, and
other essential goods at below-retail pricing, leveraging Ohio's
manufacturing infrastructure to rebuild productive capacity that
deindustrialization idled.
EVIDENTIARY BASIS: The USDA ERS Food Dollar Series establishes the farm share of the food dollar at 24.3 cents, with 75.7 cents in markup. The U.S. military commissary system has operated at-cost food distribution for 157 years under 10 U.S.C. Section 2484. Ohio's agricultural cash receipts of $15.4 billion (2022) vastly exceed its population's food requirements. Approximately 1,408,693 Ohioans receive SNAP benefits, bringing $3.18 billion per year into the state through commercial retailers that charge 75.7 cents on the dollar in markup. The state spends approximately $3.18 billion annually on SNAP benefits distributed through a system where three-quarters of every dollar pays for permission, not food.
Cooper's Factory Proof: 293,000 U.S. manufacturing establishments, 19.5-29.3x overcapacity, 77% capacity utilization. Ohio is where this proof lives. Ohio was the factory. Akron, Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, Youngstown, Cincinnati — these weren't statistics. They were the industrial heartland. They were shuttered not because they failed but because finance decided they were more profitable elsewhere (Veblen, "The Engineers and the Price System," 1921).
DIVISION II — PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
This division enacts sections 5101.90 to 5101.99 of the Revised Code, which:
- Declares that food insecurity, poverty, deindustrialization, and
social hierarchy are medical conditions with documented
physiological pathways, supported by the Whitehall Studies
(Marmot: lowest-grade civil servants had 3x mortality of top
grade, among 10,308 subjects all with healthcare and employment),
primate research (Sapolsky: subordination produces chronic
elevated cortisol and immune suppression; when dominant males
died, subordinates' biology normalized — proving it was the
hierarchy, not the individual), macaque studies (Shively:
subordinate status causes coronary artery disease via serotonin
pathway), and Nobel Prize-winning telomere research (Blackburn:
chronic stress shortens telomeres, aging DNA);
- Identifies the Ohio opioid crisis as biological proof of hierarchy
damage: deindustrialization imposed catastrophic status loss on
entire communities in a single generation. Montgomery County
(Dayton) had the highest per-capita overdose death rate in the
nation. This is not a drug problem — it is a hierarchy problem.
Marmot, Sapolsky, and Blackburn explain the mechanism. The opioid
was the self-medication for a biological crisis caused by economic
subordination;
- Creates the Appalachian Ohio Health Equity Initiative for the
thirty-two Appalachian Ohio counties where food deserts,
healthcare deserts, and education deserts converge;
- Designates the food and commodity assurance programs as public
health interventions;
- Requires the Department of Health to conduct a baseline healthcare
cost assessment within two years and submit annual reports on
healthcare cost reductions attributable to the programs, with
specific tracking of opioid-related morbidity and mortality.
DIVISION III — EDUCATION MODERNIZATION
This is the largest division. It enacts sections 3301.90 to 3301.99 and 3333.40 to 3333.49 of the Revised Code, creating:
THE K-20 EDUCATION PIPELINE: A continuous educational pathway from
kindergarten through age 25, integrating the K-12 system, Ohio's
twenty-three (23) community and technical colleges under the Ohio
Association of Community Colleges (OACC), and all public
universities under the Ohio Department of Higher Education into a
single developmental framework. The Ohio State University, the
University of Cincinnati, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
University, Kent State University, Bowling Green State University,
Miami University, and all regional universities are included. The
educational infrastructure already exists.
COLLEGE CREDIT PLUS AS BRIDGE: Ohio's existing College Credit Plus
(CCP) program, which already enables 71,577 high school students
to earn college credit at no cost, serves as the bridge mechanism
between K-12 and postsecondary segments of the pipeline.
AUTOMATIC POSTSECONDARY ADMISSION: Upon completing secondary
education, every Ohio resident is entitled to continue in the K-20
pipeline at a public institution of higher education through a
placement process, replacing the competitive application model.
FULLY FUNDED IN-STATE TUITION: All Ohio residents enrolled in the
K-20 pipeline receive fully funded in-state tuition and mandatory
fees at all public institutions. Current in-state tuition: Ohio
State University approximately $13,641; University of Cincinnati
approximately $12,000; community colleges approximately $4,500-
$5,500. Total Ohio higher education budget: approximately $3.3
billion per biennium. A needs-based living stipend is established
for students below 200% of the federal poverty level.
VQ-ALIGNED CURRICULUM: The Vitruvian Quotient framework (Cooper)
models human intelligence as eight measurable domains: Knowledge
(KQ), Reasoning (RQ), Emotional (EQ), Language (LQ), Creative (CQ),
Social (SQ), Motor (MQ), and Biological (BQ) quotients. VQ = KQ+RQ+
EQ+LQ+CQ+SQ+MQ+BQ. The curriculum maps these eight quotients to
Erikson's psychosocial stages across five developmental stages:
Stage 1: Foundation (Ages 0-6) — Trust, Autonomy, Initiative
Stage 2: Knowledge Acquisition (Ages 6-12) — Industry vs. Inferiority
Stage 3: Identity Formation (Ages 12-18) — Identity vs. Role Confusion
Stage 4: Integration and Mastery (Ages 18-24) — Intimacy vs. Isolation
Stage 5: Leadership and Transition (Age 25) — Citizen readiness
STRUCTURED LEARNING TRIALS: Replaces passive attendance as the
primary measure of educational progress. Based on Vygotsky's Zone
of Proximal Development (calibrated challenge), Bjork's desirable
difficulties (struggle as mechanism of learning), and van Gennep/
Turner rites of passage (structured ordeal as developmental
infrastructure). Trials increase in difficulty through the pipeline
and are scored using a compensatory framework where strength in one
quotient offsets deficit in another.
INTELLECTUAL LINEAGE AND CULTURAL LITERACY: Every graduating student
must trace the chain of discovery in their field, engage with
primary sources, and demonstrate the shared knowledge base necessary
for democratic participation (Hirsch, 1987). This prevents
Historical Apoplexy — the loss of civilizational memory (Cooper,
2025).
TARGETING ERROR PROTECTION: Teachers are not held individually
accountable for student outcomes attributable to structural
conditions outside the educator's control (poverty, food insecurity,
housing instability, community deindustrialization), based on Bowles
and Gintis (1976) and Cooper (2025). The ocean is stratified; the
cup is not.
KENT STATE MEMORIAL CLAUSE: This division is enacted in the memory
of Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William
Schroeder — the four students killed by the Ohio National Guard at
Kent State University on May 4, 1970 — and the nine students
wounded. Ohio knows what happens when the state turns against its
own citizens. This proposal builds through democratic process, not
confrontation. Structural reform, not protest, is the instrument.
PUBLIC SERVICE REQUIREMENT: Two to four years of approved public
service, typically completed post-age-25 adjunct with Ohio state
university programs. Service categories: state/local government,
emergency services, military, public education, agricultural/
manufacturing service, healthcare in underserved areas, community
volunteer corps, infrastructure and environmental service. Military,
Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and VISTA service credited year-for-year.
RESOURCE LIBRARY: A distribution system for goods tiered by
permanence (Fresco, 2007; Cooper, 2025):
- Constant-need goods (food, consumables): Available to ALL Ohio
residents through at-cost food assurance centers. If a household
does not request its approximate monthly allocation, the system
flags the household for a wellness check — not punishment, care.
- Semi-permanent goods (clothing, household supplies): Available
through essential goods program and resource library
- Permanent goods (appliances, one home, one vehicle): Available to
qualifying individuals completing both K-20 pipeline and public
service
- Currency tier (luxury, custom, specialty): Currency survives for
goods not covered by the resource library. The market economy
continues.
THE UNLOCK MECHANISM: Full resource library access (tiers 1-3) is
granted upon completion of BOTH the K-20 education pipeline
(approximately 20 grades, through approximately age 25) AND the
post-pipeline public service requirement (2-4 years). Typical full
access: approximately age 27-29.
WHY EDUCATION IS NON-NEGOTIABLE: Luthar (2003, 2005) documents that
children of abundance without developmental structure show HIGHER
rates of substance abuse, anxiety, and disconnection than children
of poverty. Abundance without the gate produces pathology. Division
I feeds Ohio. Division II heals it. Division III builds the human
beings capable of sustaining both. Without this division, the
program fails.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
APPROPRIATION:
Department of Agriculture (food assurance): $75,000,000
Department of Development (essential goods): $30,000,000
Dept. of Health (health assessment/equity): $10,000,000
Dept. of Higher Education (K-20 pipeline): $180,000,000
Dept. of Admin. Services (public service/
resource library): $20,000,000
TOTAL BIENNIAL APPROPRIATION: $315,000,000
This total represents approximately 0.54% of Ohio's General Revenue
Fund of approximately $29.4 billion for fiscal year 2025, or
approximately 0.34% of Ohio's total state budget of approximately
$93.4 billion.
EFFECTIVE DATES:
Division I (Food): July 1, 2027 — pilot centers operational within
two years
Division II (Health): July 1, 2027 — baseline assessment within
two years, Appalachian Health Equity Initiative within one year
Division III (Education): K-20 compulsory education phased in
beginning with students entering ninth grade in 2029-30, with the
first full cohort completing the pipeline in 2036-37. Full tuition
funding phased in over the first two biennia.
Public Service/Resource Library: July 1, 2032 — applies to first
cohort completing K-20 pipeline
SEVERABILITY: If any provision is held invalid, remaining provisions continue in effect.
EMERGENCY CLAUSE: This act is declared necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety.
PROPONENT STATEMENT
This initiative proposes the most comprehensive state-level reform of food distribution and education in Ohio's legislative history.
THE PROBLEM: Ohio generates $15.4 billion in agricultural cash receipts annually, yet 1,408,693 Ohioans receive SNAP benefits. The USDA documents that 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup, not food. The military commissary at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has distributed food at below-retail prices to military families for decades — but the Ohio taxpayers who fund it are denied access.
Thirty-two of Ohio's eighty-eight counties are designated Appalachian. In these counties, food deserts, healthcare deserts, and education deserts converge in the same geography. Meanwhile, NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland builds propulsion for interplanetary spacecraft. Ohio builds technology for Mars while its Appalachian counties can't feed their children.
On September 19, 1977, the Campbell Works steel mill in Youngstown closed without warning. Within five years, 50,000 jobs vanished from the Mahoning Valley. Akron lost its tire industry. Cleveland lost its steel. Toledo lost its glass plants. Dayton lost its manufacturing base. Then Dayton and Montgomery County recorded the highest per-capita overdose death rate in the nation. This is not coincidence. This is biology.
Marmot's Whitehall Studies prove that hierarchy kills — among 10,308 British civil servants, all with jobs and healthcare, the lowest grade had 3x the mortality of the highest. Sapolsky's baboon research explains the mechanism: when organisms are stripped of status, cortisol rises, immune function collapses, cardiovascular disease follows. Blackburn's Nobel Prize-winning telomere research proves it at the DNA level: chronic stress shortens the protective caps on chromosomes, accelerating aging. Deindustrialization stripped entire Ohio communities of status in a single generation. The opioid was the self-medication. This bill addresses the disease.
THE SOLUTION: This act addresses all three problems simultaneously because they are interdependent:
1. FOOD AT COST — not charity, not subsidy, but the same at-cost
distribution model the military has used since 1867, already
operating at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton. Extended to all
Ohioans who fund it through their taxes;
2. EDUCATION THROUGH MATURITY — extending compulsory education to
match the brain's actual developmental timeline, integrating
Ohio's existing university and community college systems into
a seamless K-20 pipeline with fully funded in-state tuition;
3. SERVICE BEFORE ACCESS — the resource library does not give
anything away. Citizens earn full access by completing their
education and then contributing through post-age-25 public
service.
Material abundance without education produces the affluence pathology documented by Luthar (2003): substance abuse, anxiety, and depression arising from wealth without developmental challenge. Education without material security cannot function because students cannot learn while food-insecure. These programs are interdependent.
THE COST: $315 million biennial — 0.54% of the state's $29.4 billion General Revenue Fund. Ohio currently distributes $3.18 billion annually in SNAP benefits routed through commercial retailers. At-cost pricing delivers approximately four times the food value per benefit dollar. The food assurance program is designed to achieve self-sufficiency within seven years through volume surcharges.
AS OHIO GOES, SO GOES THE NATION: Ohio has been the bellwether of American politics for over a century. If this proposal passes in Ohio — the state where the factories closed, where the Rust Belt was born, where the opioid crisis hit hardest — it becomes a national model. Ohio has the political gravity to shift the Overton window. The proof model is at Wright-Patterson. The science is sixty years deep. The factories worked. They were closed. The people suffered. The capacity still exists. The only thing missing is the vote.
Originally proposed: 2016 (Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation, Colorado DPOS Registration, Cooper) Updated: 2026 (Historical Apoplexy series, Cooper) Ohio adaptation: March 2026
FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY
(Prepared pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 3519.01 et seq.)
INITIAL BIENNIAL APPROPRIATION: $315,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund for the FY 2028-2029 biennium
PERCENTAGE OF GRF: 0.54% of approximately $29.4 billion (FY 2025 basis)
BREAKDOWN:
Food Assurance Program: $75,000,000 (0.26%)
Essential Goods Program: $30,000,000 (0.10%)
Public Health Assessment/Equity: $10,000,000 (0.03%)
Education Modernization (K-20): $180,000,000 (0.61%)
Public Service / Resource Library: $20,000,000 (0.07%)
PROJECTED ONGOING COSTS:
Food assurance operations: Estimated $50-70 million annually during
expansion phase (years 3-7), declining toward self-sufficiency
through volume surcharges
Education modernization: Estimated $250-350 million annually at full
implementation, representing an approximately 7.5-10% increase over
current higher education appropriations of approximately $3.3
billion per biennium
Public service administration: Estimated $15-25 million annually at
full implementation
PROJECTED SAVINGS:
SNAP efficiency: At-cost pricing delivers 4x food value per benefit
dollar, reducing effective SNAP expenditure. Ohio currently
distributes $3.18B annually through retailers charging 75.7% markup.
Healthcare cost reduction: Improved nutrition and reduced hierarchy
stress projected to offset program costs within 10 years, based on
Marmot's documentation of hierarchy-related healthcare utilization
Opioid crisis cost reduction: Addressing root cause (hierarchy-
induced biological damage) rather than symptoms projected to reduce
treatment, incarceration, and emergency service costs attributable
to opioid-related incidents
Education return: Fully developed K-20 cohorts entering the
workforce with complete prefrontal cortex maturation, cross-domain
competency, and public service experience represent increased
economic productivity and reduced social service utilization
CONTEXT:
Ohio's total state budget: approximately $93.4 billion (FY 2025)
Ohio's General Revenue Fund: approximately $29.4 billion (FY 2025)
Ohio higher education appropriation: approximately $3.3 billion
per biennium
Ohio SNAP distribution: approximately $3.18 billion annually
Total biennial appropriation as share of total budget: 0.34%
OHIO'S BIENNIAL BUDGET ADVANTAGE: Ohio is one of only four states that budgets on a two-year cycle. This means a full pilot cycle for food assurance centers and K-20 pipeline planning can be built into a single budget window — an implementation advantage no annual-budget state possesses.
SIGNATURE LINES
We, the undersigned registered electors of the State of Ohio, do hereby propose by initiative petition, pursuant to Article II, Section 1a of the Ohio Constitution, the following law for submission to the General Assembly and, if the General Assembly fails to adopt it within four (4) months, for submission to the electors of the State of Ohio at the next general election:
Print Name: ___________________________________________
Signature: ____________________________________________
Address: ______________________________________________
Date: ___________________
County of Residence: __________________________________
(Repeat as needed — 126,041 valid signatures required for initial filing with the General Assembly; an additional 126,041 required if the General Assembly fails to act within four months, for a total of 252,082 to place on the ballot)
END OF BALLOT LANGUAGE
OHIO FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT Citizen Initiative Petition Pursuant to Article II, Section 1a, Ohio Constitution
Prepared by: The Amanuensis — theamanuensis.com Originally proposed: 2016 (Cooper, State of Colorado) Ohio adaptation: March 2026
"Black Monday was September 19, 1977. The commissary at Wright-Patterson has been open every day since. The factories worked. They were closed. The people suffered. The proof model is already here. As Ohio goes, so goes the nation."