COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Jo Ann Davidson, Ohio's first woman House speaker and an advocate for putting effective Republican women in office, died Friday. She was 97.
Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a long-time friend, announced Davidson's death in a statement, calling her “a model public servant who was full of wit, intelligence, class and skill.” He ordered flags on government buildings across the state flown at half-staff in her honor.
During a political career of nearly 60 years, Davidson went from being a volunteer in the Columbus suburb to being elected to the local city council, leading the Ohio House and serving as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
As speaker, Davidson succeeded the retiring Vernal G. Riffe, a powerful Democrat who spent a state-record 20 years in the job.
With her business suits, friendly but no-nonsense demeanor and penchant for holding policy decisions close to the vest, Davidson began moving Republicans into leadership roles and digging into the big policy challenges of the day. She shepherded through a welfare overhaul, but held off attempts by fellow Republicans to pass a concealed weapons law, although successors ultimately passed such laws.
"Jo Ann was very good at building consensus," Bruce Johnson, a former Ohio lieutenant governor whose district as a state senator overlapped hers, once told The Associated Press. "Some people do it by brute force or other unseemly tactics. Jo Ann did it by being better, being smarter, doing her homework, having the facts."
Davidson headed President George Bush's regional reelection effort in 2004, helping give him the crucial Ohio victory against Democrat John Kerry to win the White House. She also led the successful 2002 campaign of GOP Gov. Bob Taft.
To her embarrassment, Davidson flubbed her line at the 2008 Republican National Convention. She'd been given the honor of introducing the party's first female vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, and accidentally called her "Sarah Pawlenty," merging Palin’s name and that of another contender for the job, then-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
It was a rare misstep in an otherwise largely unblemished life in public view.
After a decade away from the public limelight, Davidson became a close adviser to then-Republican Gov. John Kasich and he named her to chair the state casino commission in 2011. In 2012, she was among Kasich allies who helped him orchestrate the ouster of the GOP state party chairman.
“They just don't make them anymore like Jo Ann Davidson,” he wrote on X. “Her wisdom, compassion and leadership will be sorely missed.”
After retiring due to term limits from the Ohio House in 2001, Davidson devoted energy to the Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute. She founded the Columbus-based training center in 2000 to provide potential female candidates with the self-confidence and leadership skills to pursue public office, community service and party leadership. Over the years, she personally guided nearly 500 women.
“Jo Ann Davidson was kind, resilient, unwavering in her principles, and a true public servant," Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said Friday. “She was a trailblazer at a time when few women were in politics. Her leadership not only transformed Ohio’s political landscape but also empowered countless women to find their own voices.”
Davidson encouraged women to be proud of their distinct leadership style and to embrace public service despite other work-life pressures.
"We tend to be consensus builders," Davidson told the AP in 2007. "Our leadership styles are different because most of us who are a little older learned our leadership skills in volunteer organizations, where you can't take a top-down approach."
Female lawmakers of both political parties praised her on Friday.
Republican state Sen. Michele Reynolds, a graduate of Davidson's institute and the first Black Republican elected in populous Franklin County, said, “One piece of advice she shared has profoundly impacted my approach: ‘The side door is still an entrance.’”
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, a Democrat, said Davidson shattered the glass ceiling for her and countless other women. “As the first and only female Speaker of the Ohio House, she was an incredibly strong and skilled leader who knew never to back down from a fight when it mattered most to the people of Ohio,” she said.
Republican Cliff Rosenberger, a former Ohio House speaker who is of Asian descent, said Davidson also broke barriers for minorities like him. "Godspeed, Madam Speaker,” he said in a tribute.
Davidson was born in Findlay, Ohio, on Sept. 28, 1927.
Her life in politics began with a defeat. In 1965, she ran for the all-male Reynoldsburg City Council and lost. Davidson persisted, won election two years later, and spent the next 10 years as a council member — eventually rising to lead the powerful Finance Committee.
Following more than a decade in local office, she was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1980. She would serve there for the next 20 years, building a swift reputation for hard work, team-building and smarts.
Fellow lawmakers elected her the first female speaker after the GOP took the 99-member House in 1994.
After the first year, no one wondered whether she was up to the job.
"Some people thought I wasn't tough enough to do the job," she said in a December 1995 interview with The Columbus Dispatch. "Maybe some of 'em think I'm too tough."
Terry Casey, who served as executive director of the Franklin County Republican Party in the early days of Davidson's career, marveled at her "steel trap mind" and her amazing energy.
"A lot of people get in higher office and just hang out in their office," he said. "Not Jo Ann. She was constantly on the road and on the go." That continued until recently, when health concerns slowed Davidson down.
Republican Jason Stephens, the current Ohio House speaker said, “As a true trailblazer, Speaker Davidson’s legacy is one of strength, grace, and servant leadership. She fostered a culture of mentorship that changed the lives of many for the better.”
Alongside her legislative service, she worked as vice president of special programs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
After leaving the House, she established her institute and a consulting firm, JAD and Associates, where she provided advice on public policy, strategic planning and political campaigns.
From the beginning, Davidson appreciated she was going to be a role model.
"I don't necessarily feel like a trailblazer," she said in the 1995 Dispatch interview. “I'm trying to do a good job so other women will have an opportunity in the future. That weighs heavily on me.”
Julie Carr Smyth, The Associated Press
