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With three weeks until election day, Northwest Ohioans are being reminded of Derek Merrin’s “eyebrow-raising ties” to former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and his role in helping pass legislation dubbed “the worst energy bill of the 21st century” that has led to Ohioans being “cheated out of millions.”
According to reporting from Energy News Network, Merrin “was among the ‘Team Householder’ candidates” supporting Householder when he was on criminal trial and found guilty on federal corruption charges for directing “the use of dark money funds to help candidates whom he expected to support his bid to become speaker and then to pass a bailout for FirstEnergy.”
And, after receiving “more than $17,000 from Householder’s campaign committee and from one of the dark money groups involved in the HB 6 corruption scandal,” Merrin “was one of 20 Republicans who voted against expelling the former speaker.”
DCCC Spokesperson Aidan Johnson:
“Derek Merrin has spent his entire career blindly following the money at the expense of Northwest Ohio families’ pocketbooks. Voters see Merrin for exactly who he is: a self-serving, corrupt politician.”
Energy News Network: Congressional campaign attacks Team Householder candidate
October 15, 2024
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U.S. House Rep. Marcy Kaptur has made HB 6 a campaign issue in ads attacking Republican challenger Derek Merrin. Merrin is finishing his fourth term in the Ohio House of Representatives. He voted for HB 6 in 2019.
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Merrin also was among the “Team Householder” candidates listed on a government exhibit introduced last year at the criminal trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. The government claimed Householder directed the use of dark money funds to help candidates whom he expected to support his bid to become speaker and then to pass a bailout for FirstEnergy.
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One of Kaptur’s ads said Merrin increased Ohioans’ electric bills. Ohioans have paid more than a third of a billion dollars for HB 6’s coal plant subsidies so far. A separate ad noted Householder and his co-defendant Matt Borges went to prison but said Merrin “kept their money — nearly $20,000.”
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Kaptur campaign spokesperson Josh Strassberger pointed to a 2024 Daily Beast article saying Merrin received a total of more than $17,000 from Householder’s campaign committee and from one of the dark money groups involved in the HB 6 corruption scandal. Strassberger also referenced campaign donation and spending records adding up to those amounts.
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Energy News Network reached out multiple times to Merrin’s campaign office but has not received a response.
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