The Case Against Derek Merrin

“No one has been more dedicated to serving Northwest Ohio than Marcy Kaptur — fighting for Toledo’s auto industry, standing up to bad trade deals, protecting Lake Erie, and never once forgetting who she represents in Washington. Derek Merrin couldn’t be more different: a self-interested politician who spent eight years in Columbus bailing out corrupt energy companies with ties to Ohio’s biggest bribery scandal in history, rigging the rules for landlords like himself, and siding with special interests over the families who actually live here. Northwest Ohio rejected Merrin in 2024, and this November, they’ll do it again,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene. 

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To: Interested Parties
From: Riya Vashi, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: May 5, 2026
Subject: The Case Against Derek Merrin

Northwest Ohio voters squarely rejected Derek Merrin in 2024 when they sent Marcy Kaptur back to Congress even after Republican mapmakers rigged the district against her. But Merrin, a self-serving politician who has been running for his next job since his twenties, apparently enjoys being humiliated and wants to try again. And in the two years since his last defeat, his record has only gotten more extreme.

First, let’s recap what hasn’t changed: Merrin voted for the $1.3 billion FirstEnergy nuclear bailout at the center of the biggest corruption scandal in Ohio history, then refused to expel his indicted patron Larry Householder — who’s now serving 20 years in federal prison. He tried to strip Toledo of its ability to protect kids from lead poisoning in rental homes owned by landlords like himself. And he still backs the same anti-union, anti-tenant, and extreme agenda that got him rejected the first time around.

What is new is his latest promise to Northwest Ohio: backing House Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill that enacts the largest cut to Medicaid in American history to fund yet another round of tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.

Marcy Kaptur’s story could not be more different. Born in Toledo, raised in Toledo, and representing Toledo in Congress, Marcy is a true daughter of Northwest Ohio — the auto industry’s most relentless advocate, a tireless fighter for Lake Erie, and someone who earned her reputation the old-fashioned way: by working for it. 

Even after Republicans tried to rig the game and redraw OH-09 into hostile territory, voters sent Marcy back to Congress because Northwest Ohio knows she actually delivers. She secured over $24 million for road safety projects across Northwest Ohio that support good-paying construction jobs while keeping local families safe. Just weeks ago she landed the largest federal grant in the country to expand training for nuclear-related jobs in her district. She walked the picket line with striking Libbey Glass workers in Toledo last August. And she outraised every one of her Republican opponents combined.

Northwest Ohio voters already made the choice between Marcy’s steadfast record of fighting for working people and Derek Merrin’s dangerous agenda in 2024, and they’re more than ready to do it again this November.

Merrin’s Extreme Agenda Would Slash Health Care and Raise Costs on Northwest Ohioans

Derek Merrin has spent his entire political career selling Northwest Ohio on the idea that he’ll lower costs. What Northwest Ohio would actually get is a politician who has never met an extreme national Republican policy he wouldn’t rubber-stamp — and the Big, Ugly Bill is the latest example.

The consequences for OH-09 will be severe. The Big, Ugly Bill is the largest cut to Medicaid in the program’s 60-year history, and it’s projected to kick more than 31,000 Northwest Ohioans off their health insurance. It puts food assistance at risk for nearly 45,000 OH-09 households. The tax scam also let the ACA tax credits expire, hiking health care costs for the nearly 40,000 OH-09 residents on marketplace plans — and jeopardizing coverage protections for the roughly 300,000 OH-09 residents with pre-existing conditions.

The elimination of clean energy tax credits puts 4,000 manufacturing jobs in OH-09 at risk and jeopardizes $899 million in announced clean energy investments in the district. The bill is projected to raise Ohioans’ energy bills by roughly $410 a year and gas prices by another $300  — all to pay for over $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.

Merrin is also all in on his party boss’s agenda, including cost-spiking tariffs that are projected to cost the average American household $2,500 this year and hammering the auto industry Northwest Ohio depends on. Toledo’s economy is tied to the supply chains that tariffs are actively disrupting.

Marcy Kaptur voted against the Big, Ugly Bill because she knew it would be a bad bet for Northwest Ohio families. She has spent her career fighting for the manufacturing sector that employs Northwest Ohioans — standing up to bad trade deals even when it meant breaking with her own party, securing investments that keep the Jeep plant running, and delivering the battery assembly plant and nuclear jobs training grant that are creating good-paying jobs in Northwest Ohio right now. Marcy has also spent her career defending the Social Security and Medicare benefits that Northwest Ohio’s seniors have earned — the benefits working families have paid into for a lifetime and the benefits Republicans like Merrin would put on the chopping block to fund another round of tax cuts for the wealthy. That’s the real contrast OH-09 voters will see in November.

A Corrupt Politician at the Heart of Ohio’s Biggest Bribery Scandal in History

Derek Merrin’s ties to Larry Householder and the FirstEnergy bribery scandal are the clearest single example of who he actually works for.

In 2018, Merrin’s single largest campaign donor was Larry Householder, the former Ohio House Speaker who is now serving 20 years in federal prison for taking $60 million in bribes from FirstEnergy to engineer a $1.3 billion public bailout of the company’s nuclear plants. Merrin voted for Householder for Speaker and then for the FirstEnergy bailout. Merrin also accepted $1,500 from FirstEnergy’s own PAC and never returned it. And in June 2021 — nearly a full year after Householder was indicted on racketeering charges — Merrin was one of just 20 Ohio House Republicans to vote against expelling him from the chamber. He has never offered Northwest Ohio voters a serious explanation for any of it.

While in Columbus, Merrin wrote Ohio legislation that would personally benefit himself. As a landlord who owns six rental properties, Merrin introduced an amendment in 2017 to strip Toledo of its authority to require lead-paint inspections in pre-1978 rental homes — an ordinance Toledo’s City Council had just unanimously passed to protect children from lead poisoning. Toledo’s mayor accused Merrin of catering to the interests of landlords and putting “profits ahead of the health of children.” The Plain Dealer editorial board called it “a shameful, self-serving effort to keep children in unsafe housing just to save landlords a little money.”

This is the pattern that defined Derek Merrin’s time in Columbus — and it’s why Northwest Ohio voters rejected him in 2024. Meanwhile, Marcy Kaptur has spent decades standing with Ohio’s working families against the donors and special interests who would rather hollow them out. She has been a consistent champion of holding corrupt and powerful politicians accountable — helping lead the public push to release the Epstein files and demanding accountability for the Washington elite and billionaires who think they are above the law.

An Anti-Worker Extremist Who Puts Special Interests Over Northwest Ohio Families

Derek Merrin’s voting record in Columbus reads like a wish list for the special interests that fund his campaigns and is a complete slap in the face to the working families of Northwest Ohio he promised to serve.

Merrin cosponsored a public-employee right-to-work bill designed to gut union power, backed the notorious S.B. 5 anti-collective bargaining law Ohio voters overwhelmingly overturned, and supported weakening Ohio’s prevailing wage law protecting construction workers. He’s also tried to cut paid sick leave for public employees twice — first as Waterville mayor and then in Columbus — in an effort public-employee unions called “an attempt to undermine collective bargaining.”

Merrin also sponsored legislation designed to make it easier for landlords to evict tenants faster. Housing rights groups warned it would “lead to more homelessness and greater housing insecurity for Ohio families.”

On Lake Erie, Merrin was one of only 10 House Republicans to vote against a bipartisan bill protecting Lake Erie water quality — even though a majority of the dredged sediment the bill addressed comes from Toledo Harbor, in Merrin’s own backyard.

Merrin’s record couldn’t stand in clearer contrast to Marcy, who has spent her career fighting for federal investments to combat toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie and standing with Ohio’s unions to protect the wages, pensions, and bargaining rights of the workers who built Northwest Ohio.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Toledo Blade: Kaptur reports significant cash haul as Republican opponents grab every dollar [Toledo Blade, 4/17/26]

Cleveland.com: Marcy Kaptur defiant as Ohio redistricting targets her seat: ‘I will fight on’ [Cleveland.com, 12/28/25]

“Even after GOP mapmakers forced her into a demographically Republican district following the 2020 Census, she won two successive elections in hostile terrain. Through it all, she’s remained focused on representing her district.”

WTOL: Libbey Glass strike enters second week as US Rep. Kaptur visits picket line [WTOL, 08/29/25]

Toledo Blade: Region lands largest federal grant to expand training for nuclear-related jobs [Toledo Blade, 4/9/26]

WTOL: Over $3 Million dollars could be coming for community projects that benefit the Toledo area [WTOL, 1/10/26]

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio congressional candidate’s rental properties are not yet lead-safe [Columbus Dispatch, 10/6/24]

Heartland Signal: In Ohio congressional race, GOP backs a candidate who advocated against lead pipe inspections [Heartland Signal, 1/11/24]

“The National Republican Congressional Committee has turned to Derek Merrin, a state representative and real estate investor who once proposed legislation to remove mandatory lead pipe testing for rental properties in Ohio cities, in the state’s Ninth Congressional District race.

“In 2017, the northwest Ohio representative introduced an amendment to the state budget which would have stripped cities of the authority to test water pipes for lead. The amendment came after a law was unanimously passed by the Toledo City Council to require certain buildings to pass lead pipe inspections before landlords could lease units to tenants.”

Cleveland.com: Ohio legislature could become even more conservative under House Speaker-elect Derek Merrin [Cleveland.com, 11/23/22]

“In the legislature, Merrin introduced a number of bills and amendments affecting landlords like himself, including proposals to speed up eviction deadlines and prohibit local governments from enacting their own anti-lead poisoning rules. He has signed on to other legislation championed by the right as well, including cosponsoring:

• A “right-to-work” bill that would prohibit private-sector union membership as a condition of employment
• A number of anti-abortion bills, including multiple proposals to pass a near-total abortion ban in Ohio.”

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio congressional candidate’s rental properties are not yet lead-safe [Columbus Dispatch, 10/6/24]

Tiffin Ohio: Photo of Derek Merrin with disgraced lawmaker Wes Goodman resurfaces in OH-9 GOP primary [Tiffin Ohio, 4/6/26]

PATH TO VICTORY

Marcy Kaptur has spent her entire career proving she can win in the toughest political environments — and she will do it again in 2026. Kaptur has consistently outrun every other Democrat on the ballot in OH-09, significantly outperforming the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2022, and outpacing Kamala Harris’ margin in the district by 5 points in 2024. Marcy has built the kind of personal brand that transcends party — and it is exactly why Republicans have repeatedly failed at unseating her. Under these same district lines in 2018, the last midterm with Donald Trump in the White House, Senator Sherrod Brown carried OH-09 with well over 50% of the vote, and Marcy followed suit in 2022 by securing over 52% of the two-way vote, despite a cycle that was significantly more challenging for Democrats.

In an environment where voters across the heartland are souring on Republicans’ extreme record of raising costs and gutting health care, the contrast between Marcy and a corrupt, self-serving politician like Derek Merrin, who Northwest Ohio already rejected once, has never been sharper. Kaptur has only strengthened her position heading into November, posting her best fundraising quarter to date in Q1 — raising over $1.5 million compared to Merrin’s $142,379.

This November, Northwest Ohio voters will once again reject Derek Merrin’s corruption, reject the special interests he has spent his career serving, and send Marcy Kaptur — their proven fighter — back to Congress to keep delivering for the working families of OH-09.

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