Insurgents go public

Dear Members of the Executive Committee and County Chairs,

We are writing to you to express our concern about the potential election of Kathleen Clyde to Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party. We write as two former employees of Kathleen’s. While neither of us has spoken publicly about our personal experiences of our respective tenures as employees of Kathleen, we are coming forward now because we believe that the body effectively deciding the future of democratic politics for the state should be aware of the behavior of its potential leaders. Out of fear of retaliation and after much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to remain anonymous. We understand this might render our message less potent, but even so, we hope it will be considered seriously. 

This Party champions working people and is invested in politics that center the dignity of labor, but it is considering a Chair who is unable to treat her own staff with respect. We care about the future of the Democrats in the state and believe its leaders should set the standard and embody the Party’s values: treating everyone with dignity and respect and fighting for equality and justice. Kathleen Clyde does not represent those values. She champions workers and women in public, but in private, has abused her poorly compensated, mostly female staff for years.

In our experiences and in those conveyed by other former staffers in a recently published story from The Rooster, Kathleen created a hostile, unprofessional, and abusive working environment.

The Ohio Democratic Party Executive Committee will select the party’s new chairperson on Tuesday, June 10, at the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 189 on Kinnear Road at 7 p.m.

In a sign of the vibrant social democracy in which we live, a handful of incorrigible political perverts who spent the last three weeks haggling behind closed doors have already decided the outcome of that vote, with former Portage County Commissioner Kathleen Clyde set to ascend to power.

State Senator Bill DeMora (D-Columbus), the only other candidate in a five-candidate race that posed a threat to Clyde’s candidacy, officially dropped his name from consideration Thursday morning. It’s hard to weep after seeing DeMora, a party insider from birth and a ranking general in the Franklin County Ol’ Boys Democratic Club, eat shit in a fair election for once in his life. But I supported Demora, despite his many flaws, because at least he has won elections, relishes a fight, and understands that you can’t beat Republicans by taking the high road.

That’s more than you can say for Clyde, the former Portage County Commissioner who moved to Columbus in November 2023 after losing a statewide election, her commission seat that she originally earned via appointment, and a campaign to return to the Ohio House.

Given the electoral record, Clyde’s ascendency only makes sense through her friendship with Liz Brown, whom Clyde hilariously understated as an “activist” on her endorsement slate, but in reality is the daughter of former United States Senator Sherrod Brown.

The Rooster reported on May 19 that Clyde had already secured 40 of the 70 votes needed to win, primarily through blocs of organized labor delivered to her camp due to Brown’s personal lobbying on her behalf.