Ohio Gubernatorial candidates Mike DeWine (L) and Jim Renacci (R) | Wikipedia
Ohio Gubernatorial candidates Mike DeWine (L) and Jim Renacci (R) | Wikipedia
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci said incumbent Mike DeWine is to blame for Ohio's winter shortage of COVID-19 tests, slamming him for spending money on "gimmicks" rather than test kits.
"Maybe instead of wasting taxpayer money on vaccine gimmicks and lotteries, Mike DeWine could have made sure Ohio had enough testing kits for the winter," Renacci said on Twitter.
Renacci was responding to reports of COVID-19 test kit shortages across the state.
In Cleveland, a drive-through testing site run by the national guard "was so overwhelmed with patients on its first day of operation that officials stopped allowing more people in line by noon," according to a Cleveland.com report.
The Franklin County public health department reported distributing 16,000 test kits in an hour at a fire station in Upper Arlington.
In September, DeWine said the State of Ohio had purchased two million COVID-19 tests to make available for free at local libraries.
Renacci, 63, is an accountant and entrepreneur who served as mayor of the Cleveland suburb of Wadsworth (pop. 23,436) before winning election to U.S. Congress in 2010, serving four consecutive terms. He announced his bid for governor in June.
Dewine, 74, was elected Ohio Governor in 2019. An attorney, has been in elected office for 41 years, including stints in the Ohio State Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and as Ohio Attorney General and Ohio Lieutenant Governor.
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