Ohioans are paying about 79 cents more for a gallon of gas than they were a year ago. Chevron just booked its best quarter in years. And the senator who could vote to end the war driving both of those numbers has now voted not to, thirteen separate times.

Jon Husted has been in the U.S. Senate for a year and a half — appointed, not elected. In November he has to ask Ohio for the job. Before we decide, it's worth looking at exactly what he's done on the war that's emptying our wallets, and exactly who has been funding him while he did it.

Thirteen chances. Thirteen no votes.

Since the fighting with Iran began, the Senate has taken 13 roll call votes on resolutions directing the president to pull U.S. forces out of a war Congress never voted to authorize.

Husted voted no on every single one.

Here's the record, straight from the Senate's own vote tallies:

• March 4 — Motion to discharge S.J.Res. 104, rejected 47–53
• March 18 — S.J.Res. 118, rejected 47–53
• March 24 — S.J.Res. 116, rejected 47–53
• April 15 — S.J.Res. 123, rejected 47–52
• April 22 — S.J.Res. 114, rejected 46–51
• April 30 — S.J.Res. 184, rejected 47–50
• May 13 — S.J.Res. 163, rejected 49–50
• May 19 — S.J.Res. 185, agreed to 50–47 — it passed without him
• June 16 — S.J.Res. 172, rejected 47–48
• June 23 — H.Con.Res. 86, agreed to 50–48 — again without him
• June 24 — S.J.Res. 185, rejected 47–50
• July 23 — S.J.Res. 180, rejected 47–49
• July 30 — S.J.Res. 181, rejected 49–50

That last one failed by a single vote.

And these weren't party-line votes he had no choice about. On July 30, Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky all voted yes to end the war. Three Republicans looked at the same resolution Husted did and reached a different answer. He had a choice. He made it thirteen times.

Who's been paying for his reelection

While Husted was casting those votes, Federal Election Commission records show oil money flowing to his campaign from three directions.

The biggest is a single $200,000 contribution from Chevron Corporation, recorded on June 1, to a super PAC called Ohio Flyer PAC — a committee that exists for one purpose, supporting Husted's election. Super PACs can take unlimited corporate money. It was the fourth-largest gift the committee reported all cycle.

On top of that, two corporate PACs gave Husted's campaign the legal maximum:

• Chevron Employees PAC — $5,000 in March 2025 and $5,000 more in February 2026
• ExxonMobil's PAC — $10,000 across four contributions between May and October 2025

Add it up: $210,000 in Chevron-connected money, $220,000 counting Exxon.

What those companies made off the war

Both companies reported second-quarter results on July 31, and both said plainly that the disruption is what made the quarter.

Chevron told the SEC it earned $12.1 billion — nearly five times the $2.5 billion it made in the same quarter a year earlier — on record U.S. production and refineries running above 97% capacity. ExxonMobil reported $14.5 billion, roughly double its year-earlier result and its strongest quarter since 2022. Exxon CEO Darren Woods said the quarter "was shaped by disruption, but defined by execution."

"Disruption" is a tidy word for a war that has pushed crude into the $90-a-barrel range.

What it costs the rest of us

Ohio's average price for regular gas was $3.86 on July 28 — up from $3.07 a year earlier, according to AAA. At the peak in May it hit $4.78. In Tiffin, it reached $4.99.

AAA hasn't been coy about why. "Volatility along the Strait of Hormuz and instability in the region have pushed crude oil prices into the $90 per barrel range," the association said, and warned it could keep pushing costs up through the summer.

For Ohio, this isn't an abstraction. Farm operations run on diesel. Fertilizer prices track energy prices. Freight costs land on grocery shelves. Every family that commutes pays the difference twice — once at the pump, once at the checkout.

"What do you want me to do?"

The single most revealing moment came in May, when gas in Ohio was at $4.78.

Asked on the Northeast Ohio podcast Strictly Speaking Unfiltered on May 19 what he was doing about gas prices, Husted replied:

"What do you want me to do?"

Hours later, he voted against the war powers resolution — the one that passed anyway, 50 to 47.

So here's the answer to his question. We wanted him to do the thing he was literally being asked to vote on that same afternoon. He had the ballot in his hand. He voted no.

Husted has said he wants the war finished. Speaking to reporters in Dayton on March 6, eight days into the fighting, he said his goal was that it "should be brief and successful," adding: "We don't want to have hostilities linger on any longer than they need to, but if we're going to undertake this, let's finish it." He later acknowledged the war's end isn't in sight.

He said he wanted it over on July 22, in an interview with CNN. The next day, July 23, he voted against the resolution to end it — which failed 47 to 49.

Saying you want a war to end and voting thirteen times to keep it going are not the same thing. Only one of them shows up in the record.

This is the pattern, not the exception

None of this is illegal, and nobody has produced evidence that a check changed a vote. Corporate money flows to senators in tight races all the time. That's the point — it's routine, it's disclosed, and we're allowed to look at it.

And when we look at Husted, this keeps happening. His campaigns have taken more than $679,000 from insurers and their executives over his career — and in June he voted against two amendments directing federal investigations into insurance denials. We've already covered how the tech and utility companies driving up Ohio electric bills have been funding his campaign too.

Oil, insurance, utilities. Different industries, same shape: the people with business before his committee write the checks, and the votes come out their way.

The choice in November

Husted was appointed to this seat by Gov. Mike DeWine in January 2025, to fill the vacancy left when JD Vance became vice president. He has never faced Ohio voters for it. On November 3, he finally will, against former Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Outside groups have already committed more than $174 million to this race. A lot of that money is betting that we won't check the record.

The record is thirteen votes. Every one of them a no. Every one of them at a moment when a different answer would have started bringing Americans home and taking pressure off the price of a tank of gas.

Chevron got its $12.1 billion quarter. We got $4.78 gas. Husted got $220,000.

Source

Reporting by Dave Miller at TiffinOhio.net. Photo: Sen. Jon Husted/YouTube. Vote records verified against the Senate's official roll call tallies.