The Seneca County Democratic Party on Thursday publicly pressed state Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, to say whether he believes fellow Republican state Rep. Rodney Creech should step aside — and to explain why he continues to cosponsor legislation alongside him.
Creech, R-West Alexandria, was investigated by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation over allegations that in 2023 a minor female relative accused him of climbing into bed with her while wearing only his underwear. Creech told investigators he had gotten into bed with the minor in his underwear but denied the sexual nature of the allegations. Clark County Prosecutor Daniel Driscoll, brought in as a special prosecutor, declined in October 2024 to bring charges, writing that Creech’s behavior was “concerning and suspicious” but that the evidence fell short of the threshold needed for prosecution. No charges were filed. Creech has denied wrongdoing and called the allegations “demonstrably false.”
Click and Creech are among the cosponsors of House Bill 249, the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act, which the Ohio House passed in March and which is now pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republican sponsors describe the measure as a way to shield children from obscene public performances and to preserve privacy in restrooms and locker rooms. Opponents, including the ACLU of Ohio, call it a drag ban that would criminalize gender nonconformity and raise First Amendment concerns.
In its statement, the party put two direct questions to Click: whether he will call on Creech to step aside, and how he justifies cosponsoring what its backers market as child-protection legislation alongside a colleague whose conduct a special prosecutor labeled “concerning and suspicious.”
“Let’s be entirely blunt about Gary Click’s silence,” said party chair Gina Grandillo. “Rodney Creech admitted to state investigators that he climbed into bed with a minor relative. His own Republican Speaker was troubled enough to strip his committees and ask him to resign. Yet Gary Click looks the other way.” Grandillo accused Click of being “entirely comfortable using ‘child protection’ as a political talking point” while staying quiet about Creech, and said families in Seneca and Sandusky counties “deserve to know why their representative won’t stand up.”
The allegations first cost Creech his committee posts. House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, stripped Creech of all four of his committee assignments — including his chairmanship of the House Agriculture Committee — in May 2025 and asked him to consider resigning, calling the matter “very serious.” Huffman reversed course in February 2026, restoring Creech to his committee seats, though not to the Agriculture chairmanship, and signing a letter requesting that the Ohio Republican Party endorse him for re-election. The party did so, and Creech went on to win his May primary. He is the Republican nominee for re-election in House District 40, which covers Preble County and parts of Montgomery and Butler counties.
Click and Creech are frequent legislative allies. Click is also a primary sponsor of House Bill 693, the Affirming Families First Act, which would write the disputed concept of “parental alienation” into Ohio law — the same term Creech used publicly to dismiss his accuser. That bill remains before the House Judiciary Committee.
Click, who represents House District 88 covering Seneca and Sandusky counties, has not publicly called for Creech to step down, according to a review of endorsement materials, campaign statements and public reporting by TiffinOhio.net. He has previously disputed the outlet’s coverage of his record. Click faces Democrat Aaron Jones in the Nov. 3 general election.
