GOP treasurer candidate Jay Edwards received more than 42 gifts worth at least $75 a piece last year as he prepared his campaign, financial disclosures show.
The list of gift-givers spans a mix of industrial titans and personal friends of Edwards from Southeast Ohio. That includes health care entrepreneurs, construction executives, campaign fundraisers, and a lobbyist for the vendor that’s regularly in the hunt for state lottery contracts.
The list also includes a gift of undisclosed size from Robert “Bobby” George, a restauranteur and son of a prominent Cleveland businessman. Robert George in November 2025 pleaded guilty to a charge of strangulation after he was originally charged with rape, kidnapping, attempted murder, and felonious assault.
Candidates and public officeholders must disclose all gifts they receive worth more than $75, according to the Ohio Ethics Commission. It’s a rule designed to guard against conflicts of interest and provide transparency into relationships of those who run the government.
So did Edwards really receive more than $3,100 worth (at minimum) of gifts, as he disclosed in his financial statement? Probably not, he said in an interview.
Edwards, who served in the Ohio House between 2017 and 2024 where he was also required to disclose certain gifts, said in an interview he was blindsided by the requirement to file as a statewide candidate.
So against a legal deadline, he said he went through his contacts and simply listed his friends, and went through his calendar and included anyone who he met with.
“You don’t get in trouble by overreporting,” Edwards said. “I know for a fact I didn’t receive gifts from some of them.”
But stuffing the financial statement with what amounts to false positives, as Edwards said he did, makes it functionally impossible to know who’s buying him gifts. That’s not Edwards’ problem, he said.
“I fill out these forms for the OEC [Ohio Ethics Commission], I don’t fill them out for news reporters,” he said.
Such a move presents a glaring contradiction. In his financial statement to ethics officials, Edwards said he received each gift he disclosed. But in his interview, he said he didn’t.
Who bought the gifts?
Take Bobby George, for instance. Edwards said he doesn’t think he has seen George in a year, but added him anyway. (Bobby George’s father, Tony George, has hosted fundraisers for Edwards.)
There’s also Jett Facemyer, a lobbyist for Intralot who’s registered to lobby on matters related to Ohio Lottery’s central gaming and VLT (video lottery terminal) programs, both of which are farmed out to private companies. Facemyer, a former legislative aide to Edwards, took Edwards to see a Tim Dillon comedy show. Facemyer “might have” paid,” Edwards said.
Edwards said he golfs with Scott Weisman, owner of a jewelry store, and disclosed a gift on his statements because he can’t remember who paid for the rounds.
Or Steve Boymel, head of a chain of nursing homes in Ohio. Edwards said Boymel has hosted an event for him as a candidate. And, per the financial statement at least, also gave him a gift.
“I don’t think he bought me a gift but I can’t remember,” he said.
Edwards’ gift receipts stand out for their volume. Signal Ohio reviewed financial disclosures of all statewide candidates on the ballot this year. Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump-backed Republican with a national profile, received 24 as he runs for governor. His likely Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, disclosed none. Most candidates disclosed none or a small handful, although. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican running for state auditor, disclosed 23.
Other prominent names that Edwards said gave him $75 or more gifts include:
- Republican fundraisers Brooke Bodney and Paige Simms
- GOP megadonor Virginia ‘Gini’ Ragan
- Jeff Woda, of housing developer Woda Cooper
- Health care entrepreneurs Miro Kesic and Neall French
- Mark Porter, of his eponymous auto group
- Zach Schiff, a prominent Columbus lawyer
- Jacob Block, CEO of American Nitrile (a state tax break grantee)
Troubled history with ethics laws
Edwards is an Athens County Republican known as a powerful political fundraiser and former chairman of the House Finance Committee. As Ohio treasurer, he would be responsible for overseeing the state’s hundreds of billions in assets, including getting checks out the door and managing a sprawling investment portfolio. He is running in next month’s Republican primary election against state Sen. Kristina Roegner, of Hudson.
He has brushed against ethical lines and transparency requirements in the past.
In September of 2019, as Edwards operated as a top political lieutenant of then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, Edwards joined him for what turned out to be a $2,400 dinner at a private dining club in Columbus.
At the table were, among others, three undercover FBI agents building a case against Householder that would lead to Householder’s 20 year prison sentence.
Edwards was not accused of wrongdoing. But, the lavish dinner became an important piece of trial evidence. And it indirectly revealed that Edwards failed to disclose the fact that three people he believed were lobbyists bought him a very expensive dinner.
“Notwithstanding my good faith due diligence, I subsequently became aware that the total value of the dinner, inclusive for all attendees, had been described in media reports as costing more than twenty-four hundred dollars,” Edwards wrote to ethics officials in 2023.
”As soon as I became aware of this information, I contacted caucus legal counsel to ask if I had a duty to amend my [financial disclosure statement).”
When reporters filed records requests in connection with news of Householder’s arrest, many of Edwards were missing, despite a legal duty to preserve public records. He later explained his regular practice of deleting text messages.
“You’re going down the rabbit hole saying Jay Edwards deletes texts with Larry Householder. No, that’s not true,” Edwards said at the time, referring to himself in the third person. “Jay Edwards deletes all texts. To members, to other people; I go through at night and erase text messages I don’t find useful.”