Buckeye Reporter

Musician John Legend, a resident of West Hollywood, Calif., is campaigning this week against an Ohio ballot initiative that would require petition-based statewide constitutional amendments to pass with 60 percent of the vote, not simple majorities.

Legend will appear at a "get out the vote rally" on July in Cincinnati, according to a tweet shared by Red, Wine, and Blue, a Shaker Heights-based group of "suburban wine moms," founded by political consultant Katie Paris, that's been fighting to keep pornographic books in Ohio K-12 school libraries.

A native of Springfield, Ohio, Legend currently resides in West Hollywood with his wife, model Chrissy Teigen. The couple recently sold their previous 8,520-square-foot home in Beverly Hills for a reported $16.8 million.

Legend has been politically active in recent years, endorsing the “Defund the Police” movement in 2020, and contributing to The Bail Project, a group that posted bail for Black Lives Matter rioters and was sued in 2022 for “releasing a serial criminal who less than a week later tried to murder a waiter” in Las Vegas. 

He endorsed an Ohio ballot initiative in 2018 that would have reduced penalties for drug traffickers. That initiative was defeated with 63% of voters opposing the measure.

Legend was criticized in 2022 for endorsing Democratic San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in a recall election. Boudin lost the recall and was removed with the support of 61% of voters. Boudin’s recall “became a referendum on some of San Francisco’s most painfully visible social problems, including homelessness, property crime and drug addiction,” reported the Los Angeles Times. 

Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx’s reelection received Legend's endorsement in 2020. Foxx recently announced that she will not be seeking reelection, and in 2022 her office faced a “mass exodus” and a “Chicago crime wave,” reported the Washington Examiner. 

The rally at which Legend will appear is being held by One Person One Vote, a coalition of left-leaning advocacy groups that oppose Issue 1.

Other groups opposing Issue 1 include Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Black Lives Matter Dayton, Pro-Choice Ohio, Black Out and Proud, the Cleveland Bi+ Network, Columbus New Liberals, Democrat Socialists of America-Cleveland, Ensuring Parole for Incarcerated Citizens, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, and the Ohio Communist Party.

Supporters of Issue 1 include U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R-Ohio).

Vance endorsed Issue 1 in a new online video, saying that, "radical activists want to change the Ohio Constitution and strip away parental rights on August 8th."

Including Ohio, currently 15 U.S. states allow for statewide initiatives to change their constitutions, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and South Dakota. 

Illinois, Arizona and Florida have 60 percent vote thresholds; Colorado's is 55 percent.