ASHLAND — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost talked about goals he plans to pursue as the Buckeye State’s next governor during a campaign stop in Ashland on Tuesday.
But Yost couldn’t help himself at the end of his speech when he saw a grand piano tucked away in the corner of the room at Mount Vernon Estates.
“Would you like to hear a song?” he asked, awakening the crowd into a burst of excited applause.
He left the podium, asking State Rep. Melanie Miller to join him in singing a ditty with which the crowd would be all too familiar: “God Bless America.”
Yost tickled the ivories and paused, creating an awkward moment as a flabbergasted Miller vocally struggled to find the correct key. They started over.
When she found the key, the duo soared into a patriotic melody, Yost adding jazzy flares to the accompaniment.
Ohio governor candidate and current AG @DaveYostOH tickled the ivories tonight during a Lincoln Day Dinner event in Ashland County. State Rep. Melanie Miller sang along. pic.twitter.com/SDLpwY0Hle
— Dillon Carr (@dillonswriting) April 8, 2025
The performance capped the gubernatorial candidate’s keynote address in front of Ashland County Republican Party members, during the GOP’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner.
The fundraising event is typically held in February or March, and sometimes on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on Feb. 12.
The Democratic Party holds a similar fundraiser. It’s dubbed the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.
Yost’s goals-driven platform
Yost is one of a growing number of candidates vying to be Ohio’s next governor. Gov. Mike DeWine faces a term limit; he cannot be elected as governor again when his term expires in 2026.
The attorney general joins tech billionaire and former Department of Governmental Efficiency co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy and Heather Hill, a small business owner and former Morgan Local School District board president on the Republican side.
Former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, the Lt. Governor, is another potential GOP candidate. However, he has not declared his intentions at this time.
Former director of the Ohio Department of Health Amy Acton is the lone Democrat in the running.
During his keynote address Tuesday, Yost balked at typical “political speeches” full of promises to fix myriad problems. Instead he offered three goals to pursue while in office, should he be elected.
He said he has other goals, but focused on the following three.
- Become a younger state: Yost said Ohio is the 16th oldest state in America, by median age of population. Other sources show Ohio as the 18th oldest by this measure. “What if, during the next census we don’t talk about how many congressional seats we were going to lose? What if we talked about adding a congressional seat?” he said.
- Become energy independent: Yost said Ohio doesn’t have enough electricity to run the state. The electricity is imported from other states. “It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “We’re sitting a few miles from one of the largest natural gas deposits in the country and yet we have to go elsewhere to get our base-load generation.” He suggested creating a “regulatory and legal sand box” for the private sector to build on top of available shale. The energy would be used for Ohio and not exported, he said.
- Become literate: Instead of promising to “fix schools,” Yost said his goal would be to incentivize school teachers to get every student literate. “Let’s get them to read and write well enough that you can learn how to operate a machine, learn a new job, learn how to do something by reading a manual or a standard operating procedure,” he said. “And then teach others by writing.” He said he’d be in favor of repealing “two-thirds of Title 23 of the Ohio Revised Code” in order to pay teachers based on whether or not students are reading. “We need to go after goals, not programs,” he said.
“I’m running because I want to bring a different kind of leadership to Ohio,” Yost said.
The candidate —joined by his wife, Darlene — met and spoke with those in attendance before and after the dinner. His campaign team also offered early copies of his book, “Stand: An Ohio Life,” to be published May 6 by Amplify Publishing.
To listen to Yost’s speech in full, listen below.
