At 1:11 p.m. on Tuesday, May 5 — with polls open in Ohio’s primary election — state Rep. Gary Click posted a Facebook attack on his own Republican primary opponent and on the Ohio Treasurer candidate who had endorsed him. About 45 minutes later, the post was gone.
Click, the three-term incumbent in Ohio House District 88, used the post to accuse former state Rep. Jay Edwards — running in the May 5 Republican primary for Ohio Treasurer — of being “Larry Householder’s right hand man” and part of “the cabal” that elevated former House Speaker Jason Stephens with Democratic votes in 2023. The target of the attack was Click’s primary challenger, Eric Watson, who had announced Edwards’s endorsement of his HD-88 campaign earlier in the day.
The post, captured in screenshots preserved by TiffinOhio.net and other observers before its removal, read in full:
“Wow. Fascinating to learn that my opponent was just endorsed by Larry Householder’s right hand man. If 🌵 had not been in Arizona, he might have known about this scandal. Jay was also a part of the cabal that partnered with Democrats to elect their choice for a speaker who allowed abortion to get into the Ohio Constitution. That what happens when you are clueless because you haven’t been here. 🤦”
The cactus emoji is a recurring jab Click and his allies have used to reference Watson’s Arizona background. Watson, who moved back to Ohio after a short stint in Arizona, has been nicknamed “the Arizona Kid” by Click’s supporters throughout the primary cycle.
What Click did not say in the post is that the man he labeled “Householder’s right hand man” was endorsed in February by Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno. Vance, in announcing his endorsement, called Edwards a “son of Appalachia” and “a strong America First conservative.”
The Watson post that prompted Click’s response remains live on Facebook. It reads: “I’m honored to have the endorsement of Jay Edwards for Ohio Treasurer! His support means a lot to our campaign as we fight for our rights, our farmland, and real change in District 88. Jay happens to be endorsed by Vice President JD Vance and Senator Bernie Moreno! Vote Eric Watson and Jay Edwards today!”
A candidate who once paid to defend HB 6
The credibility problem with Click’s election day attack is that Click himself spent campaign money to defend the very law at the heart of the Householder bribery scandal — and his official campaign website still describes that law in approving terms today.
As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, Meta’s Ad Library shows that The Committee to Elect Gary Click, treasurer Jerri Miller, paid for a sponsored Facebook ad that ran from September 20 to September 22, 2019. In it, Click — then a first-time candidate for the 88th House District — shared a U.S. Department of Energy post about the closure of the Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and added: “I’m glad that Ohio’s leaders thought this through, keeping our best interest at heart!” The post used the hashtag “#YestoHB6” and tagged then-Speaker Larry Householder among other Republican leaders.
The ad ran in the closing weeks of the petition drive opponents were running to put a referendum on House Bill 6 on the 2020 ballot. The repeal effort fell short, and HB 6 took effect. The federal racketeering case against Householder and his associates surfaced 10 months later, in July 2020.
Click’s current campaign website still defends HB 6. Under the “Energy” section of his issues page at garyclick.com, the site reads: “House Bill 6 was a necessary investment, providing stability by preserving nuclear energy in Ohio.”
What’s verified about Edwards’s record
Click’s central factual claim — that Edwards joined Democrats to elect Stephens — is accurate. As reported by the Statehouse News Bureau in January 2023, Edwards was one of 22 Republicans who joined all 32 Democrats to elect Stephens speaker over the GOP caucus’s choice, Derek Merrin. The group has since been labeled the “Blue 22.”
Click’s broader characterization of Edwards as Householder’s “right hand man” tracks with documented connections that Edwards himself has acknowledged. Edwards voted for House Bill 6 in 2019 — the same bill Click’s campaign committee was paying to defend on Facebook that fall — and later voted against expelling Householder from the Ohio House. Edwards was also reportedly present at an FBI-recorded dinner with Householder and indicted lobbyist Neil Clark months before the bribery indictments. Edwards has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
Edwards has publicly addressed the relationship in interviews this year, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer of Householder: “He did wrong. He’s serving his time. He’s paying for the consequences that he made.”
The piece of Click’s post that does not survive scrutiny is the claim that Stephens “allowed abortion to get into the Ohio Constitution.” Issue 1, the reproductive rights amendment Ohio voters approved in November 2023, was a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment placed on the ballot through petition signatures, not legislation a House speaker could block.
The Treasurer’s race undercurrent
Edwards is in a contested Republican primary for Treasurer against state Sen. Kristina Roegner of Hudson. According to the Dayton Daily News, Roegner has been endorsed by gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and by Republican leadership in the Ohio House and Senate. The Ohio Republican Party declined to endorse in the race.
That places Click’s election day attack squarely in the lane of one Treasurer candidate against the other — on a day when Click’s own primary should have been the only race on his mind. The attack also pitted him directly against a sitting Vice President from his own party, a fact the deletion suggests his campaign recognized within 45 minutes.
The deletion
By approximately 1:56 p.m. on May 5, the post had been removed from Click’s Facebook page. As of publication, Click has not posted a replacement attack, an explanation, or any further commentary on Watson, Edwards, or the deleted post. Watson’s post remains live.
Polls in Ohio closed at 7:30 p.m. on May 5. Click is on the ballot against Watson in the Republican primary, with Democrat Aaron Jones unopposed for his party’s nomination. Click is seeking a fourth and final term under Ohio’s term-limit rules.
