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Spotlight
Leadership Now received a 2024 Anthem Award for its efforts to protect majority rule in Ohio—mobilizing business leaders against Issue 1 through an open letter, digital ads, and media advocacy.
To amplify the impact of our open letter against Issue 1, Leadership Now launched a digital ad campaign featuring prominent Ohio voices including Jeni Britton (Founder, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams) and John Pepper (former CEO, Procter & Gamble).
What is Leadership Now Ohio
Leadership Now Ohio is a coalition of business and civic leaders—Republicans, Independents, and Democrats—committed to defending democracy and ensuring a stable, competitive future for our state. We believe Ohio’s economic success depends on the strength of our democratic institutions and the trust citizens place in them.
We’ve spoken out against efforts to undermine majority rule, weaken election systems, and entrench partisan power—because when democracy falters, business and communities pay the price.
Leadership Now Ohio is a state chapter of the Leadership Now Project.
Our Issues
Defending Majority Rule
Ending Gerrymandering
Protecting the Rule of Law
Business Voice for Democracy
How Can I Get Involved
Current & Past Initiatives
Ahead of the 2024 election, over 80 bipartisan Ohio business and thought leaders signed an open letter in support of a constitutional amendment advanced by Citizens Not Politicians to create an Independent Citizen Commission for statehouse legislative and congressional redistricting.
Issue 1 would have ended gerrymandering by empowering citizens, not politicians, to draw fair districts using an open and transparent process. It incorporated best practices adopted by other states like Michigan and Arizona.
Concerned Ohio business leaders signed an open letter expressing opposition to Issue 1. The formerly proposed constitutional amendment threatened the integrity of Ohio’s democratic processes and aimed to ensure that a simple majority could no longer pass constitutional amendments.
The election was held on August 8, 2023, and Issue 1 was defeated 57%-43%, paving the way for a November 2023 reproductive freedom ballot victory and the November 2024 objective redistricting ballot initiative.
Featured Press
Leadership Now Senior Advisor Richard Stoff and business leader Mario Morino advocate in an op-ed for the passage of Ohio's Issue 1, a proposed state constitutional amendment to empower citizen-led redistricting, emphasizing its importance in restoring competition and trust in the state's political system by ending gerrymandering.
In this op-ed, member Jeni Britton and Senior Advisor Richard Stoff advocate for Ohio's Issue 1, urging voters to end gerrymandering and ensure every voice in the state matters.
Leadership Now Project’s open letter is compared to the Ohio Chamber position, reporting that while the Chamber’s position is “understandable” it doesn't make it right and calling Issue 1 a “pure power grab”.
“Among all its other ills, partisan gerrymandering also threatens Ohio’s business climate, risking its reputation as a business-friendly state”, writes Dean Emeritus of the Cleveland State University College of Law Steven H. Steinglass.
Leadership Now is mentioned as a key business voice advocating for the Citizens Not Politicians amendment, which aimed to end partisan gerrymandering in Ohio by assigning redistricting to an independent 15-person commission.
Ohio’s democracy was tested in a special election on August 8, 2023, which proposed raising the threshold for citizen ballot initiatives from 50% to 60%. Leadership Now Senior Advisor Richard Stoff offered a powerful perspective on what was at stake.
Leadership Now Ohio’s open letter opposing Issue 1 was featured as the leading business voice against the measure, countering several statewide business associations and warning that it would undermine democratic stability and harm the state’s long-term business climate.
Questions or Press Inquiries
If you have any questions, please email us at: gretta@leadershipnowproject.org