Tiffin’s state senator is now the only declared candidate to lead the Ohio Senate in the next General Assembly.

Sen. Bill Reineke (R-Tiffin) is the lone remaining contender for Senate president after Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) ended his own bid for the position, according to a report Wednesday by Gongwer News Service, a subscription-based statehouse news outlet.

Cirino, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told Gongwer he had spent roughly a year and a half pursuing the role and had hoped to bring the presidency to a senator from northeastern Ohio, but concluded that he lacked the support of his Republican colleagues.

The seat will open because current Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) was selected in January as Vivek Ramaswamy’s running mate in the 2026 gubernatorial race. McColley’s current Senate term ends Dec. 31, 2026. Republican senators traditionally meet to choose leadership in informal caucus votes after the November general election.

Reineke, a partner in the Reineke Family Dealerships, currently serves as Senate president pro tempore — a position he has held since January 2025. He represents the 26th Senate District, which includes Seneca County, and previously served three terms in the Ohio House representing the 88th District from 2015 through 2020.

A leadership candidate tied to two of Ohio’s biggest scandals

Reineke’s potential elevation would place a lawmaker with documented ties to two of the most consequential corruption scandals in recent Ohio history at the top of the upper chamber.

In 2019, Reineke voted in favor of House Bill 6 — the FirstEnergy-backed nuclear and coal subsidy law that became the centerpiece of the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history. Federal prosecutors alleged that FirstEnergy funneled roughly $60 million through a dark money group to secure passage of the bill, leading to the racketeering conviction of former House Speaker Larry Householder, who is serving a 20-year federal sentence. Former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges was also convicted in the scheme.

According to a 2020 review of campaign finance records by the Ohio Capital Journal, Reineke received $1,500 from FirstEnergy’s political action committee in the years leading up to his vote for HB 6.

Reineke is also among the Ohio politicians who received campaign contributions from William Lager, founder of the now-defunct Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow online charter school. Ohio Secretary of State campaign finance filings show Reineke accepted $12,155.52 from Lager in October 2014, during his first run for the Ohio House. ECOT collapsed in 2018 after state audits found the school had overbilled Ohio taxpayers by tens of millions of dollars by inflating student attendance figures. Tiffin City Schools alone lost approximately $1.13 million in funding to ECOT over a six-year period, according to a report from the nonprofit Innovation Ohio.

The FBI subsequently investigated whether ECOT employees were reimbursed for political donations made to candidates including Reineke, as previously reported by TiffinOhio.net. Reineke has not been charged in connection with either the HB 6 or ECOT investigations.

The next Ohio General Assembly convenes in January 2027.