State Rep. Gary Click spent his Valentine’s Day picking a public fight with fellow Republicans over an AI-generated video — while continuing to dodge calls to debate his own GOP primary challenger.
Click, a three-term Republican from Vickery, posted on his personal Facebook page Saturday afternoon calling on secretary of state candidate Marcell Strbich to “denounce his best friend Mark Pukita” over an AI-generated video Pukita posted depicting Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague refusing to debate Strbich because he’s a “candy ass.”
“It’s always the guy losing that wants the debate,” Click wrote in his post, which was public. “They are trying to grift off of the leaders name ID.”
The comment drew immediate blowback — including from Click’s own supporters and fellow conservatives — over what they described as hypocrisy. Click has not agreed to debate Eric Watson, the Tiffin Republican challenging him in the May 5 primary for Ohio’s 88th House District.
“Chicken to debate Eric,” wrote one commenter, adding a string of chicken emojis.
Another commenter in the thread wrote that there is “no excuse to not debate” and that “it ought to be required to appear on a ballot.” He added: “It’s always the guy who doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about that dodges the debate.”
Click did not address the debate criticism in the thread.
The exchange highlights an ongoing pattern for the Sandusky County lawmaker, who has repeatedly engaged in combative social media exchanges with members of his own party. In 2019, a viral video showed Click in a tense confrontation with then-Ohio Senate candidate Melissa Ackison at the Union County Fair. Click later described Ackison as “going on like a little Chihuahua” during a meeting at the Fremont Baptist Temple, where he serves as pastor, according to audio first reported by TiffinOhio.net.
AI hypocrisy
Multiple commenters also pointed out that Click himself shared an AI-generated image from the Ohio Conservatives PAC Facebook page approximately 10 days earlier. That image depicted a fabricated scene of Springfield, Ohio, residents cheerfully welcoming ICE agents over coffee, with signs reading “THANK YOU ICE!” and “WE ❤️ OUR ICE.” The post was captioned: “Locals in Springfield, Ohio are THRILLED to welcome ICE!”
When confronted about that image, Click told StayTunedSandusky he was “not Ohio Conservatives PAC” and suggested most people understood the image was not real. “I doubt it was meant to be understood as a real pic,” Click said at the time.
A social media user referenced the Springfield image directly in Saturday’s thread: “You posted an AI generated photo of Springfield welcoming ICE agents ten days ago!”
Pukita’s ‘antisemitism’ history resurfaces
Click also used the thread to raise Pukita’s history of antisemitic rhetoric, sharing a 2021 Mediaite article about Pukita’s failed U.S. Senate campaign. During that race, Pukita ran a radio ad questioning whether voters should trust that the “most Christian-values Senate candidate is Jewish” — a reference to then-frontrunner Josh Mandel, a former Ohio state treasurer. At a November 2021 candidate forum, Pukita defended the ad by saying he was merely pointing out that Mandel “is going around saying he’s got the Bible in one hand and the constitution in the other. But he’s Jewish. Everybody should know that though, right?”
The remarks were widely condemned. Fellow GOP candidate Bernie Moreno said at the same forum: “Josh, nobody should question your faith. That’s not right.” Pukita was also excluded from a Center for Christian Virtue forum over the controversy.
Click appeared to use the Mediaite article as a challenge to Strbich, writing: “This is a test of his character. It’s not about you it’s about Marcell Strbich.”
Strbich, a retired Air Force intelligence officer, endorsed Click’s primary challenger Eric Watson during a January fundraiser in Clyde, telling Watson: “You are the right man to lead District 88.”
Sprague-Strbich debate demands
The underlying dispute involves calls for a debate in the Republican primary for Ohio secretary of state. Sprague, the current state treasurer, is running against Strbich in the May 5 primary. Multiple commenters in Click’s thread — including some who were otherwise sympathetic to Click — said Sprague should agree to debate.
Gregory Fanning, who praised Click’s legislative record in the thread, nevertheless wrote: “Robert Sprague should debate Marcell Strbich; any refusal is unfair, and it’s a completely absurd not to.”
Pukita was more pointed, writing: “Gary, will you DEMAND your boy Bob DEBATE Marcell Strbich for Ohio? If so, I’ll back off Bob. Let’s make this legit. Otherwise, buzz off you fraud con-artist.”
An internal poll released by Strbich’s campaign in late January showed him leading Sprague 12% to 4% among Republican primary voters, though 84% remained undecided. No independent polling has been released in the race.
Click responded to the debate pressure by defending Sprague’s record and describing Strbich as “an unknown commodity in elected office” who “has aligned with some questionable people, such as Pukita.”
“Robert has a long track record of serving the people,” Click wrote. “He has nothing to prove and has built reliable relationships.”
What’s at stake
The social media clash comes less than three months before the May 5 primary, with early in-person voting beginning April 7. Click faces Watson in the 88th District GOP primary. The winner will face Democrat Aaron Jones, a Tiffin City Councilman, U.S. Army veteran, and longtime manufacturing supervisor, in the November general election.
Click’s campaign has raised more than $312,000 since 2020, with 65.6% coming from corporate PACs and industry groups, according to campaign finance records previously reported by TiffinOhio.net. Individual donors within the 88th District account for just 13.9% of his total fundraising.
Watson’s campaign has centered on Click’s corporate PAC fundraising, his co-sponsorship of digital ID legislation, and what Watson characterizes as the incumbent’s prioritization of corporate interests over constituent concerns.
