Buckeye Reporter

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Joe Blystone has been ordered to return over $100,000 in campaign donations that were in violation of the state of Ohio's limit on corporate cash donations, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose's office also found "more than two dozen other irregularities, including missing donor information vague descriptions of money spent and contributors, and an additional $130,000 in contributions that could need to be refunded because they may have come from corporations, the story said. 

According to the South Franklin News, Blystone recently came under fire for falsely claiming that Jim Renacci, another GOP candidate trying to unseat incumbent Gov. Mike Dewine, had voted in favor of transgender bathrooms when he served in Congress. Ohio Republicans quickly issued a letter in defense of Renacci, condemning Blystone for spreading untrue claims, the story said.

"Joe Blystone has spent the past year doing DeWine's dirty work for him and paving the way for his re-election," Renacci campaign spokesman Tom Weyand said in a statement. "It's going to take a lot of work to defeat DeWine in these final weeks, and it won't be done by spreading baseless lies or going broke from returning hundreds of thousands of dollars in mismanaged donations. It's now clearer than ever that Jim Renacci is the committed pro-Trump, America First conservative Ohio Republican primary voters can rely on to have the discipline and the organization necessary to put an end to Mike DeWine's 40-year political career."

Renacci is a businessman and former U.S. representative for the 16th congressional district who is one of three Republicans running against DeWine in the GOP gubernatorial primary on May 3.