On August 29, 2026, a driver failed to yield at a stop sign in Fulton County, Ohio. He struck an SUV, which overturned. Austin Karr Grimes, 29 years old, died at the scene. Two passengers, one of them three years old, were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol says the driver, Washington Naula Ochoa, ran the stop sign. He has been charged and is being held on an immigration detainer. Husted's office says he was in the country unlawfully and had obtained a Connecticut drive-only license, the kind the state issues to people who cannot establish lawful presence. WTOL says it has requested the underlying investigative records from law enforcement, including information about that license.
Jon Husted now wants to use that crash to force 19 states and the District of Columbia to stop issuing those licenses — and he says he may go after their federal highway money if they refuse.
He told WTOL's 11 Investigates he plans to raise it with Trump personally.
"I intend to have a conversation with the president. When I get back to Washington, I'm going to take this up with everybody that I can because this is something that's got to stop."
The part of the story his argument depends on
WTOL put it plainly, in the middle of its own reporting:
"The investigative materials released so far do not establish that his immigration status or Connecticut's decision to issue him a license caused the crash."
The patrol's account is that a driver ran a stop sign. That is what killed Austin Grimes. Nothing released so far connects it to where the driver's license came from.
Husted said something different. "Ohioans are dead as a result of it," he told WTOL.
He also repeatedly questioned whether people who get these licenses can read traffic signs or safely operate a vehicle. Connecticut's own rules answer that. A drive-only applicant has to get a learner's permit, pass a vision test, pass a written knowledge test, meet driver-training requirements and pass a road test. The state's motor vehicle department says every applicant "must understand and speak enough English to understand basic driving instructions from the DMV agent and to read the road signs."
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has defended the program on the grounds that people without status will drive regardless, and that testing and insuring them puts safer drivers on the road.
Husted's answer: "That's fantasy. These people are in the country illegally, and instead of enforcing the rule of law, this governor of Connecticut makes it more dangerous."
What he is actually threatening
Husted admitted the federal government cannot simply cancel a state's licenses.
"Right now, the administration cannot take action against these states. But I intend to ask the governors to stop this practice, and if they refuse to do it, I could take it a step further and deny those states their highway funding."
He compared it to the way Washington once used highway money to push states into a drinking age of 21.
That threat goes beyond the letter he sent on Thursday to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, which asked those departments to prohibit or discourage the licenses.
Ohio does not issue drive-only licenses. Neither does Michigan. Both are required to honor Connecticut's, because they are legally issued documents.
He has run this play before, on a crash that did not fit either
In August, an ad boosting Husted's campaign used footage of a fatal Ohio crash and a family friend's photograph of Lynnea, Luke and one-year-old Logan Soposki to warn voters about "dangerous illegals." The family did not consent to the use of the photo. The driver charged in that crash is a U.S. citizen, and FactCheck.org found no connection between the crash and the votes the ad was attacking.
This is the same construction. Take a real death, attach it to immigration, and let the connection go unexamined.
It is also not the first time his immigration claims have failed a fact-check. PolitiFact rated False his Fox News claim that Sherrod Brown backed "Social Security payments for illegals".
Why this, and why now
Husted's Senate campaign is not going well. Cleveland.com's Today in Ohio described the move as reaching for an outdated page in a worn-out playbook, and noted that Ohioans are preoccupied with costs, taxes and data centers.
Content director Laura Johnston pointed out the licenses cannot be used to vote or to board a plane. Their purpose is to make sure people who are going to drive have been trained and tested.
She also noted the awkwardness of Republicans demanding federal control here. "Remember what I said about states rights yesterday?" she said. "I mean, now the Republicans are the ones to want to trample all over that idea."
Editor Chris Quinn's point was about what Husted has not been doing. He has been largely invisible on the cost-of-living issues Ohioans care about, and only recently started talking about data centers, despite having helped bring many of them to Ohio. "He's not involved in the things that matter, but he seizes on this."
Quinn said even the site's conservative commenters responded by asking where Husted has been on anything that affects them.
We wrote last month about Husted voting three times to keep the tariffs squeezing Ohio farmers, which is one answer.
What the record shows
An Ohio man died on August 29 when a driver ran a stop sign. The state patrol's released materials do not tie the crash to the driver's immigration status or his Connecticut license. Jon Husted has said "Ohioans are dead as a result of it," written to two cabinet secretaries, and threatened to take away the federal highway funding of 19 states and the District of Columbia. It is the second time in two weeks that an immigration attack tied to his Senate campaign has rested on a fatal crash the known facts do not connect to immigration.
Source
Husted says he may target federal highway funding over licenses for undocumented immigrants; plans to raise issue with President Trump, by Brian Dugger, WTOL 11 Investigates, September 4, 2026.
