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GOP INCUMBENT Don Jones won election to a third term Tuesday as representative of the Ohio 95th House District, with 30,113 votes to Democrat challenger William Ryan's 10,127.
"I'm humbled and grateful and thankful for the voters and their votes of support and confidence," Jones said. "I appreciate them giving me the opportunity to continue the work we've been doing for the last four years, and look forward to continuing to work hard and trying to make Eastern and Southeastern Ohio a better place to live," he said. "Thank you to the voters for your support and confidence in me, and I hope to be the leader that they expect me to be."
Jones was watching statewide results on Election Night.
"The Republicans had a good night, and I'm just going to be blunt to the point: We now need to do something. The voters have spoken, and we need to do something. My role is I've got two more terms left, and we're going to work hard in the next two terms or at least the next two years 'til our next election ... to do what needs to be done. We'll see what the future brings," he said.
One issue is the possibility of bringing a greater share of proceeds from oil and gas severance taxes to the local area.
"That's always a conversation, and it's one of those things we're going to have to work on and look for opportunities to bring more dollars back to Eastern and Southeastern Ohio," Jones said. "We've been pretty successful, and we can't really say we live in a forgotten part of Ohio anymore because the governor ... paid a lot of attention to our part of the state and we've got to continue to work to build those relationships."
Another matter to be considered following the overturning of Roe v. Wade is Ohio's "Heartbeat Bill," which would prohibit abortions after the first fetal heartbeat can be detected. The bill was passed in 2019 but has been stalled by the courts.
"I don't know that for sure, but I'm guessing some of my colleagues will want to revisit that bill. It's a big issue for a lot of people. ... it's a sensitive issue, and we need to be smart about what we do. But I'm guessing it'll be a topic of conversation moving forward. We'll address it when we get there."