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Summit County, OH ballot

Robert Sprague

Republican

Secretary of State · Summit County, Ohio · November 3, 2026

Also on the ballot: Tom Pruss (Libertarian), Allison Russo (Democratic)

Robert Sprague is the current Ohio State Treasurer and the Republican nominee for Secretary of State, running on a platform of stricter election security including paper-verifiable ballots and tighter absentee-voting rules. He does not currently hold the Secretary of State office, which is open in 2026.

What this office decides

The Secretary of State is Ohio's chief elections officer: oversees the county boards of elections, sets rules for voting and voter-roll maintenance, and chairs the Ohio Ballot Board, which writes the ballot language for statewide issues. The office also registers businesses and sits on the Ohio Redistricting Commission. Four-year term.

How this race lines up with you

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Dossier

Researched 2026-09-23 · Claude Code research agent with web search

Donald Trump: nothing found. No search turned up an explicit Trump endorsement or criticism of Sprague in this race.

  • Ohio Republican Party (for) source

Who they are

Robert Sprague is the current Ohio State Treasurer, elected 2018, reelected 2022; term-limited, he's running for the open Secretary of State seat (OCJ). He previously served in the Ohio House from 2011.

Positions

  • Voting rules: Wants voters to state a reason for absentee ballots, reversing Ohio's no-excuse absentee policy since 2005, plus photo ID/citizenship checks and state funding for paper-verifiable ballots statewide (Statehouse News).
  • Business & regulation: Proposes using AI to connect businesses with existing grant/loan programs (Statehouse News); no clear position found otherwise.
  • Party politics in courts and agencies: No public position found.

Record

His office credits him with preserving OhioCheckbook.gov, a COVID-era small-business grant program, and the "Family Forward" adoption-loan program (per his party) (Ohio GOP). A Columbus Free Press opinion column (Oct. 4, 2025) says he grew state Israel Bonds holdings from $167.5M to $277M while chairing that bond program's leadership group, and in 2016 doubled treasurers' Israel Bonds investment cap by amendment; it also cites litigation over double taxation naming him (Free Press).

Money

Post-primary filings showed over $310,000 raised and about $1.1 million cash on hand; mid-2026 filings showed $632,011 cash on hand (OCJ). He was reportedly the top downballot ad buyer late in the primary, near $1.3 million on stricter-voting-rules ads (OSCPA).

Recent news

  • 2026-05-05: Won the GOP primary with over 70% of the vote (OCJ).
  • 2026-07-03: Reported a large cash lead over Russo (OCJ).
  • 2025-10-04: Criticized in a Free Press column over his Israel Bonds role (Free Press).

What we couldn't find

  • A neutral, non-party/non-opinion accounting of his treasurer record.
  • Any explicit Trump endorsement or criticism in this race (only unsourced mentions of his own pledge to support Trump).
Sources (7)