Jon Husted

Jon Husted’s latest move on immigration has the look of a politician reaching for an outdated page in a worn out political playbook, hosts of Today in Ohio said Friday.

The Republican U.S. senator appears desperate to revive the immigration anger that helped Donald Trump return to the White House, even though Ohioans are now consumed by rising costs, taxes, data centers and other problems closer to home.

Husted asked the U.S. departments of Homeland Security and Transportation to stop states from issuing driving-only licenses to people who cannot prove they are in the country legally. The request followed the death of an Ohio man in Connecticut in a crash involving an immigrant driver. Husted’s request followed by a day Sen. Bernie Moreno’s criticism of the licenses.

Laura Johnston explained that the licenses cannot be used to vote or board an airplane. Their purpose, she said, is to ensure that people who are going to drive receive training and meet licensing requirements so they can safely travel to work, school and elsewhere.

The federal demand also sits awkwardly beside Republicans’ frequent insistence on states’ rights, Johnston said.

“Remember what I said about states rights yesterday?” she asked. “I mean, now the Republicans are the ones to want to trample all over that idea.”

Chris Quinn said the maneuver was striking because Husted has been largely invisible on the issues that are actually important to Ohioans, especially the pocketbook issues created by inflation. Husted has only recently begun speaking about data centers, Quinn said, despite having played a role in bringing many of them to Ohio.

“He’s not involved in the things that matter, but he seizes on this,” Quinn said. “I think this is such a desperate effort. “

The problem for Husted and other Republicans, Quinn argued, is that they have controlled state government and cannot escape responsibility for the financial pain many Ohioans feel. Turning back to immigration is an attempt to look as though they are fighting for constituents without confronting their own record, he said.

Johnston agreed that people are angry about immigration, but said the anger has moved in the opposite direction from where Republicans apparently think it has. She pointed to Haitians who came to the United States for safety and are now being forced to wear ankle monitors. Trump’s brutal treatment of law-abiding immigrants – with ICE agents killing people – has infuriated much of the nation.

“That’s where the anger is,” Johnston said. She said Republicans seem not to understand where most Americans are now, so they are doubling down on what got them elected in the first place.

“They have a one page playbook,” Quinn said. “You know, you’re supposed to have a playbook with lots of pages and a lot of issues. They have immigration.”

The reaction from cleveland.com commenters reinforced the point, Quinn said. The site’s audience includes plenty of conservative commenters, but commenters responded to Husted’s move by asking where he has been on the matters that affect them directly.

“Where have you been on anything that matters?” Quinn said, paraphrasing their response. “But now you’re going to get up and pound your chest. “

Johnston compared the maneuver to living inside one of the attack ads that dominate television during election season. The rhetoric lets politicians sound as though they are fighting, she said, while they ignore the genuine problems their constituents need them to solve.

Listen to the conversation here.

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