COLUMBUS, Ohio– Jo Ann Davidson, the first female speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and an advocate for effective Republican women in office, died Friday. She was 97.
Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine, a longtime friend, announced Davidson’s death in a statement, calling her “a model public servant who was full of humor, intelligence, class and skill.”
During a political career that spanned nearly 60 years, Davidson went from volunteer in suburban Columbus to local city council, leading the Ohio House and co-chairing the Republican National Committee.
As speaker, Davidson succeeded the retiring Vernal G. Riffe, a powerful Democrat who served in the position for a record two decades.
With her business suit, friendly but no-nonsense attitude and tendency to keep policy decisions close to the vest, Davidson began placing Republicans in leadership roles and delving into the big policy challenges of the time. She led a welfare reform bill but held off efforts by fellow Republicans to pass a concealed weapons law, although successors eventually passed such laws.
“Jo Ann was very good at building consensus,” Bruce Johnson, a former Ohio lieutenant governor whose senatorial district overlapped hers, once told The Associated Press. “Some people do it with brute force or other inappropriate tactics. Jo Ann did it by being better, being smarter, doing her homework and knowing the facts.”
Davidson led President George Bush’s regional re-election efforts in 2004, helping him deliver the crucial victory in Ohio against Democrat John Kerry that allowed him to win the White House. She also managed GOP Governor Bob Taft’s successful 2002 campaign.
To her embarrassment, Davidson shifted her position at the 2008 Republican National Convention. She had been given the honor of introducing the party’s first female vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, and accidentally referred to her as “Sarah Pawlenty,” using Palin’s name was merged with that of another candidate for the position, then-Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
It was a rare misstep in an otherwise largely unblemished life in the public eye.
After a decade out of the public eye, Davidson became a close adviser to then-Republican Governor John Kasich and he appointed her chairman of the state casino commission in 2011. In 2012, she was among Kasich’s allies who helped him orchestrate the ouster of the state GOP party chairman.
After retiring from Ohio House terms in 2001, Davidson devoted his energies to the Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute. She founded the Columbus-based training center in 2000 to give potential female candidates the confidence and leadership skills to pursue public office, community service and party leadership. Over the years she personally guided almost 500 women.
“Jo Ann Davidson was kind, resilient, steadfast in her principles and a true public servant,” Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said Friday. “She was a pioneer at a time when few women did so. Her leadership has not only transformed Ohio’s political landscape, but also empowered countless women to find their own voices.”
Davidson encouraged women to take pride in their distinct leadership style and embrace public service despite other pressures at work.
“We tend to be consensus builders,” Davidson told the AP in 2007. “Our leadership styles are different because most of us, who are older, learned our leadership skills in volunteer organizations, where you can’t take a top-down approach. .”
Davidson was born on September 28, 1927 in Findlay, Ohio.
Her life in politics started with defeat. In 1965, she ran for the all-male Reynoldsburg City Council and lost. Davidson persevered, winning election two years later and spending the next decade as a councilor, eventually rising to lead the powerful Finance Committee.
After serving more than a decade in local office, she was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1980. She would serve there for the next twenty years, quickly building a reputation for hard work, team building and smarts.
Fellow lawmakers elected her as the first female speaker after the Republican Party captured the 99-member House of Representatives in 1994.
After the first year, no one questioned whether she could handle the job.
“Some people thought I wasn’t strong enough to do the job,” she said in a December 1995 interview with The Columbus Dispatch. “Maybe some of them think I’m too tough.”
Terry Casey, who served as executive director of the Franklin County Republican Party in the early days of Davidson’s career, marveled at her “steel trap mind” and her amazing energy.
“A lot of people hold senior positions and just hang out in their offices,” he said. “Not Jo Ann. She was constantly on the go.” That continued until recently, when health problems slowed Davidson down.
Republican Jason Stephens, current speaker of the Ohio House, said, “A true trailblazer, Speaker Davidson’s legacy is one of strength, grace and servant leadership. She fostered a culture of mentorship that changed the lives of many for the better.”
In addition to her legislative service, she served as vice president of special programs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
After leaving the House, she founded her institute and a consulting firm, JAD and Associates, where she advised on public policy, strategic planning and political campaigns.
From the beginning, Davidson knew she would become a role model.
“I don’t necessarily feel like a pioneer,” she said in the 1995 Dispatch interview. “I try to do good work so that other women get a chance in the future. That weighs heavily on me.”