136th General Assembly Ohio Legislative Freshmen Series – Ohio Senate

01/15/25

Senate Freshman Overview

2025 kicks off a new two-year General Assembly in the Ohio state legislature , and this week all members are being sworn in for their new term . Let's take a look at some of the new members joining the Senate half of the lawmaking body. There are six (6) freshmen in the 33-Senator roster, and all six are former Representatives in the House. The only one who did not come immediately over from the H ouse is Senator Kyle Koehler, who exited his tenure there due to term limits in 2022. This freshman class is evenly split with three (3) Democrats and three (3) Republicans . Republicans hold a 24-9 majority in the Senate.

Senate District 6 - Willis Blackshear Jr. (D - Dayton)

Blackshear is joining the Senate after serving two terms as Representative for 38th House District, which includes the City of Dayton, Riverside, and parts of Huber Heights. He served in the 135 th GA as Ranking Member on the House Infrastructure Committee. Blackshear served as an outreach specialist at the Montgomery County Auditor's Office prior to his legislative tenure, and h is father was a former State Representative in the Dayton area.

Senate District 10 - Kyle Koehler (R - Springfield)

Former State Representative Kyle Koehler served Ohio's 79 th House District covering most of Clark County from January 2015 until term-limited in 2022. Koehler served as Chair of the Agriculture & Rural Development Committee for four years. He also served on several committees including Federalism, Workforce Development, Labor and Commerce, Technology and Innovation and all eight years serving on the Primary and Secondary Education Committee in the Ohio House. A software engineer by trade, he owns and operates his longtime family manufacturing business, K. K. Tool Company.

Senate District 12 - Susan Manchester (R - Lakeview)

Manchester joins the Senate after serving three terms in the Ohio House. She represented the 78th House District, which encompasses Allen County and the northern portion of Auglaize County. Prior to her Statehouse tenure, she served on Congressman Jim Jordan's policy staff. During her time in the legislature, Representative Manchester chaired the House Families, Aging, and Human Services Committee, and also served as a member of the House Health Committee and House Primary and Secondary Education Committee. Additionally, she was appointed to the Health Oversight and Advisory Committee in 2021. Notable bills she had signed into law include the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Program, which helps assist one generation of farmers to the next as agricultural assets are rented and sold.

Senate District 16 - Beth Liston (D - Dublin)

Dr. Liston joins the Senate after serving in her third term as a member of the Ohio House, representing Worthington, and part of Northern Columbus. She began her career in medicine, earning her MD and PhD at The Ohio State University and subsequently training in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Yale New Haven Hospital. She served in the House as the Ranking Member on the Public Health Policy Committee and the Health & Human Services Finance Subcommittee, and sits on the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, Families Aging and Human Services Committee, Health Providers Services Committee, and Finance Committee.

Senate District 24 - Tom Patton (R - Strongsville)

A seasoned state legislator joining the Senate for the second time after also serving two separate tenures in the Ohio House, Patton is a lifelong resident of Cuyahoga County and grew up as one of nine kids on the near west side of Cleveland. The son of a Cleveland police officer and the father of a Cleveland Heights police officer who tragically died in the line of duty, Representative Patton has taken up many legislative initiatives pertaining to police, firefighters, and first responders.

Senate District 28 - Casey Weinstein (D - Hudson)

Weinstein join s the Senate after serving three terms representing the 34 th House District in northern Summit County. He serve d in the 135 th GA as the Ranking Member of the House Public Utilities Committee. He was appointed by Governor DeWine in 2020 to serve on the state's Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Education Commission. Weinstein is a former Hudson City Councilman and Air Force officer.

If you want to check who your State Senator and Representative is, you can follow this link to an interactive map on the official legislature website .

(Link: https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/members/district-maps )

Also, if you happen to know your State Senator or Representative on a personal level, please let OBL's Government Relations team know by sending me a note at [email protected] .

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