Dave Yost

David Anthony Yost (born December 22, 1956) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the 51st attorney general of Ohio since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Yost previously served as the state auditor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019.

During his tenure as Attorney General, he supported attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which was won by Joe Biden. He has played a key role in defending an Ohio abortion law that prohibits abortion six weeks into a pregnancy (before many women know they are pregnant) without exceptions for rape or incest. In 2022, he was involved in a public controversy over a child rape victim who traveled from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion to avoid carrying the rapist's child.

Education and early career

Yost graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. He earned a Juris Doctor from the Capital University Law School. After earning his bachelor's degree, Yost became a journalist with the ''Columbus Citizen-Journal''.

Political career

Yost later served in senior positions within the administration of Columbus mayor Buck Rinehart and governor George Voinovich. Yost was appointed Delaware County Auditor in 1999. In 2003, he became the Delaware County Prosecutor. He was elected Ohio's 32nd state auditor in November 2010, after earlier vying for the Republican nomination for Ohio attorney general against Mike DeWine. In January 2017, Yost announced he was running for Ohio Attorney General in 2018.

Ohio Attorney General (2019–present)

Yost defeated his Democratic opponent Steve Dettelbach, who previously served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, in the 2018 Ohio Attorney General election. In the 2022 election, Yost was re-elected to his position over Democratic candidate Jeffrey Crossman, a member of the Ohio House from Parma.

Abortion ban

Following the ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'' decision that overturned ''Roe v. Wade'', Yost filed a successful motion to dissolve the injunction on Ohio's six-week abortion ban. On June 24, 2022, Yost tweeted that "The Heartbeat Bill is now the law." He released a video statement on YouTube the same day in which he said, "This decision returns abortion policy to the place it has always belonged: to the elected policies branches of the governments."

Yost's son and daughter-in-law publicly criticized his actions in messages on Facebook on June 24 and 25, the former saying, " e lack of pro choice is blatantly against what this country says it is on its banners and documents. The land of the free doesn't seem so free right now."

On June 30, 2022, shortly after the ban became effective, a 10-year-old rape victim who was "six weeks and three days" pregnant traveled from the Columbus area to Indianapolis, Indiana, to get an abortion to avoid carrying her rapist's child. The incident was widely reported, beginning with an article in the ''Indianapolis Star'' newspaper on July 1, and was mentioned by President Joe Biden on July 8 in comments at the White House. On July 11, Yost disputed the report, saying that neither his office or the state crime lab had any information on the matter, and that his staff had heard "not a whisper" about it; in an interview on July 12, Yost said it was "more likely that this is a fabrication". That day, the report was confirmed by the Columbus Division of Police and a rape suspect was arrested.

On July 14, Yost's office shared a backgrounder with media and on Twitter which listed specific exceptions contained in Ohio's "Heartbeat Law", and suggested, as had Yost in interviews on July 11, that the 10-year-old girl would have been able to obtain a legal abortion under those exceptions. The Ohio Legislative Commission said that nothing in the language of the law explicitly includes the age of the person seeking an abortion as a qualification for exception, and that it was unclear whether the girl would have qualified for a legal abortion. The following week, Yost rejected calls from the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party and others for his resignation.

Attempt to invalidate 2020 presidential election results

After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Yost filed a " friend-of-the-court" brief in support of the Trump campaign's attempt to invalidate ballots cast in Pennsylvania. However, in December 2020, Yost opposed a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General

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