Elected officials on both sides of the aisle have been on the receiving end of threats, which has been ticking up in recent years. And the June 2025 assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark raised questions about the safety of public officials in their homes.
Sen. Al Cutrona (R-Canfield) is sponsoring Senate Bill 327, also known as the PEACE Act. It stands for Protect Elected Officials Against Coercion and Extremism.
“This legislation ensures that elected officials can serve their constituents without exposing their families to unnecessary risks," Cutrona said in an interview. "You are continuously seeing an uptick in violence, threats and intimidations. And so elected officials need to be able to do their jobs and be able to make tough decisions and at the same time not have to worry about who is looking to attack the family members or they themselves because of the tough decisions they make.”
Cutrona said there have been specific threats against Ohio lawmakers: “There's mailed items to people’s homes. Threatening envelopes of unknown white powdered substances have been sent to top elected officials. The list kind of goes on and on.”
Cutrona said the bill would block the address of a lawmaker and their family from public websites, like those maintained by a county board of elections. He said it would allow lawmakers' information to be handled similarly to the method for the addresses for judges and police officers. A reporter or person seeking the address of a lawmaker could still get it, but they'd have to request it in person, and would have to list their name and explain the reason for wanting the information. The lawmaker would be notified of the request along with who's making it within three days.
