Robert T. Bennett

Chairman, Ohio Republican Party

Robert T. Bennett is currently serving his tenth and final term as chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, a position he has held since February 1988. Mr. Bennett is also a 19-year member of the Republican National Committee, where he serves as chair of the Midwestern State Chairmen's Association.

Bennett is widely recognized as one of the most successful state party chairs in the nation. In 1988, he inherited a party that held no statewide offices and no legislative majorities. Throughout the decade that followed, he built a formidable grassroots political machine that led Ohio Republicans to longstanding majority control of the Ohio General Assembly and four straight terms of Republican leadership in the governor's office.

Today, despite a challenging national political environment for Republicans in 2006, Bennett's powerful grassroots organization enabled Republicans to maintain control of two of the three branches of Ohio government, including a unanimous majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, majorities in both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate, and a majority of Ohio's 18-seat Congressional delegation, including a seat in the United States Senate. Ohio Republicans also hold more than 63 percent of all countywide elective offices.

In addition to his political success, Bennett is known nationally as an expert on state party operations, campaign finance law and legislative redistricting. Although he works fulltime as party chairman, his background in business, law and accounting has enabled him to build one of the largest and most respected state party organizations in the country.

Professionally, Bennett is a Certified Public Accountant and an attorney specializing in tax and business law. He is a member of numerous boards and associations, including the University Hospitals of Cleveland board, the American Bar Association, the American Society of Attorney-Certified Public Accountants, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is the author of several publications on tax law and a guest lecturer to various professional and political organizations on the issues of state and federal tax law and campaign management.

Bennett holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor Degree from Cleveland Marshall Law School of Baldwin Wallace College (now Cleveland State University).

Mr. Bennett currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, Ruth Ann. They have two children.

Kevin DeWine

Deputy Chairman, Ohio Republican Party

Kevin DeWine serves as Deputy Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, a position created in April of 2007 to ensure an effective transition to chairman upon the retirement of the current chair, Bob Bennett, in January of 2009.

As Deputy Chairman, DeWine has taken an active leadership role in the day-to-day operations of the party, from candidate recruitment and party messaging to political strategy and fundraising. He is currently leading an extensive audit of the party's infrastructure, evaluating all aspects of internal and external operations.

DeWine also serves as the primary spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party, working through local, state and national media to communicate Republican accomplishments and counter the Democratic opposition.

Understanding the critical importance of fundraising to the party's success, DeWine plays an aggressive role in cultivating new financial support and building strong relationships with contributors. His efforts to expand the party's donor base are essential to maintaining the candidate services and grassroots programs that provide a competitive advantage on Election Day.

In addition to his role as Deputy Chairman, DeWine is currently serving his fourth and final term representing the 70th District in the Ohio House of Representatives. He also serves as Speaker Pro Tempore of the House, the chamber's second highest-ranking member.

His legislative accomplishments include extensive efforts to improve voter confidence in Ohio's elections process. DeWine has been instrumental in crafting major reforms to state campaign finance laws, which now require greater accountability, transparency and adherence to ethical standards. Most recently, he led a major legislative campaign to protect the integrity of Ohio's elections system by sponsoring reforms that safeguard the voter registration process and prevent fraud at the ballot box.

DeWine has earned a reputation during his legislative career as an advocate for Ohio's economic development, working to create much-needed jobs and winning the Guardian of Small Business Award from the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

DeWine holds a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Dayton and an MBA from Wright State University. He and his wife, Kelle, reside in Fairborn with their four sons.

Kay Ayres

Vice Chairman, Ohio Republican Party

Kay Ayres was elected Vice Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party in May of 2003, succeeding longtime vice chair Martha Moore who retired after 52 years of service to the party.

As Vice Chairman, Ayres is responsible for supporting the duties of the Chairman in addition to overseeing various party-building activities and outreach efforts, especially among women voters. Ayres serves on the board of directors for the Jo Ann Davidson Leadership Institute, an organization founded to support and train women in pursuit of public service. She also served as president of the Ohio Federation of Republican Women and as a vice chair for the National Federation of Republican Women.

Ayres has worked for more than 30 years on the frontlines of grassroots Ohio politics, serving as chairman of the Highland County Republican Party since 1978. She has assisted hundreds of candidates and campaigns over the years from the courthouse to the White House.

Ayres is also active in her community, where she has served on multiple boards including 4-H, Southern State Community College, Leadership Highland, and the Highland County Farm Bureau. She is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and lives with her husband, David Ayres, M.D., in Hillsboro. They have two grown children.

Jo Ann Davidson

Co-Chairman, Republican National Committee

Jo Ann Davidson was elected Co-Chairman of the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C. on January 19, 2005, pledging to devote her full energies to growing the Party and developing a strong grassroots political organization.

As Bush-Cheney '04 Ohio Valley Regional Campaign Chair, Davidson helped direct a historic grassroots effort that enabled President Bush to win Ohio by a decisive margin. The Ohio Bush-Cheney '04 campaign recruited over 87,000 Bush volunteers, held at least 3,946 parties for the President and made more than 4.5 million volunteer door-to-door knocks and phone calls to supporters and undecided voters in Ohio (with 2,373,167 volunteer door-to-door knocks and phone calls made in the final 72-Hours).

Davidson was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives for 20 years and served as Speaker of the House from 1995-2000. She served as Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party Central Committee for 25 years and Chairman of the Ohio House Republican Campaign Committee from 1986-2000. Davidson spearheaded the successful effort to return Republicans to the majority in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1994, for the first time in 22 years.

Davidson resides in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, and has two daughters and four grandchildren.

Mike Duncan

Chairman, Republican National Committee

Robert M. (Mike) Duncan, a 30-year political strategist and veteran of Republican politics, was elected as the 60th Chairman of the Republican National Committee in January 2007.

Duncan has worked for and advised Republican candidates and parties at the local, state and national level his entire adult life. He has held a wide variety of positions at the RNC, most recently as General Counsel and before that, Treasurer. During his career, he has served on the campaigns of five Presidents, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. He has been a delegate to six Republican National Conventions and is one of the few persons ever to serve on four standing convention committees.

Chairman Duncan's service has extended to the federal government. In 1989-90, during a sabbatical from his banking career, he worked in the George H. W. Bush White House as assistant Director of Public Liaison. President George W. Bush appointed him to the President's Commission on White House Fellows in 2001 and nominated him to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board, a position to which he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate in March 2006.

Duncan has been equally active in his home state of Kentucky, where he helped in the successful campaign to win back Kentucky's statehouse for the first time in 36 years. In 1998 he took a leave of absence from his business and chaired Jim Bunning's successful U.S. Senate race. In addition Duncan is a long-time supporter and fundraiser for Senator Mitch McConnell.

A civic capitalist, Chairman Duncan is active in numerous professional and nonprofit organizations. He served as board chairman of a state university and a private college. He is a Trustee of the Christian Appalachian Project, the 15th largest private social services agency in America. His public service has been recognized with several distinctions, including honorary degrees from the College of the Ozarks, Cumberland College, and Morehead State University. His student-mentoring program, in its 28th year, has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in The Los Angeles Times.

The Duncan family is the principal owner of two community banks with five offices in eastern Kentucky. Chairman Duncan has served as President of the Kentucky Bankers Association and as a Director of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank Cincinnati Branch.

Mike Duncan and his wife Joanne are 1974 graduates of the University of Kentucky College of Law. They live in Inez, Kentucky and have one son, Rob, an Assistant United States Attorney in Lexington, Kentucky, who is married to Valerie Ridder of Springfield, Missouri.