50 years of powerful action. 50 years of extraordinary wins powered by ordinary Ohioans. 50 years of building a grassroots legacy to deliver a stronger, safer, and healthier future in Ohio while fighting back against the worst abuses of government and corporate greed. For half a century, our leaders have been going door-to-door and speaking with our neighbors about issues they care about.
We’ve been winning important campaigns and we’ve been building long-lasting coalitions that continue to protect our democracy, our health, and our climate in Ohio.
Our Wins
For decades, our campaigns have connected Ohioans and helped build a grassroots movement to protect democracy and create a sustainable and equitable future.
Securing A Cleaner Future for Ohio
Early in 2025, Ohio lawmakers passed HB15, which repealed the notorious OVEC coal bailouts that subsidized obsolete coal polluters in our state. This repeal will return hundreds of millions of dollars back into the pockets of hardworking Ohio taxpayers.
Thanks to OCA leaders organizing on the ground, we were able to fight back against corporate corruption, hold our representatives accountable, and achieve this major win to deliver a cleaner future for Ohio. We knocked on more than 34,000 doors in Ohio neighborhoods and conducted more than 7,800 in-person conversations that helped change the minds and hearts of everyday Ohioans.
In addition to repealing the massive coal bailouts, HB15 also promotes updating Ohio’s energy grid, improves heat mapping and tracking outages, encourages schools to use solar energy and become more energy-efficient, and enables overall financial transparency.
With this powerful and sweeping win, Ohio is moving towards a more modern, transparent, and accountable energy system.
Transforming Clean Energy in Rural Ohio
Our leaders achieved another big win in 2025 when they successfully organized with Ohio farmers and landowners to deliver sustainable solar energy to Knox County!
Despite a well-funded misinformation campaign, our leaders built relationships with folks in the community, held meaningful conversations to identify common issues, and amplified the voices of everyday residents who had been advocating for much-needed solar power in the rural county.
The Frasier Solar project is expected to generate $1 million in taxes per year, with half going to local public schools. Tax money will also flow to Knox County’s general fund, the public library system and more.
Congratulations Knox County! Congratulations Ohio!
Defending Ohio’s Democracy & Protecting Our Healthcare Freedoms
In 2023, as part of a united statewide effort, Ohio Citizen Action helped protect Ohioans’ freedoms to pass citizen-led ballot initiatives and to make personal healthcare decisions.
We helped defeat Issue 1 – a harmful initiative that would have stripped Ohio voters of the power to propose and pass our own laws. Our leaders went all in to defend one of our core values: government works better when more people participate.
After working to help secure a resounding victory in the special election in August 2023 that preserved the principle of one person—one vote, Ohio Citizen Action worked to help pass Issue 1 in November 2023. Issue 1 enshrined reproductive rights and personal health care decisions in the state Constitution.
Throughout the campaign, our staff knocked on more than 60,000 doors, made nearly 100,000 phone calls, and urged voters to engage in the democratic process by making a plan to vote and supporting Issue 1 in November.
Exposing Corporate Corruption in Energy Policy
In April 2019, Ohio's legislature introduced House Bill 6, a bailout for FirstEnergy's failing nuclear plants that gutted renewable energy standards and and included subsidies for two old, dirty coal plants operated by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation. Ohio Citizen Action mobilized grassroots opposition and warned of corporate corruption.
The bill passed by one vote in July, 2019. Almost exactly one year later, news broke that the FBI and US Attorneys uncovered a $61 million bribery scandal perpetrated by FirstEnergy Corporation, former House Speaker Larry Householder, former Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) Chairman Sam Randazzo, and their associates. After years of investigations, indictments, and trials, Larry Householder is serving 20 years in federal prison, while former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borgess was sentenced to 5 years. FirstEnergy executives are currently awaiting their trials.
Activating Good Neighbors & Pioneering A New Organizing Approach
Ohio Citizen Action ran successful "Good Neighbor Campaigns" that used community organizing to pressure major polluters into reducing emissions beyond what regulations required. The campaigns employed tactics like door-to-door canvassing, citizen-conducted pollution testing, media engagement, and direct communication with company decision-makers to build public pressure for change.
The organization applied this model successfully to Ohio’s most dangerous pollution sources, including B.F. Goodrich, GenCorp Polymer Products, Brush Beryllium, First Energy Davis-Besse nuclear plant, Mittal Steel, General Environmental Management, Baard Energy, Cleveland Incinerator, Cincinnati Specialties, Rohm & Haas, AK Steel, Lanxess Plastics, Eramet Manganese, Rumpke Trash, WTI Hazardous Waste Incinerator, American Landfill, River Valley High School,Columbus Steel Drum, Universal Purifying Technology, Shelly Asphalt, DuPont Chemical Washington Works, Georgia-Pacific, and AMP-Ohio.
Winning Local Power to Fight Back Against Corporate Pollution
In Cincinnati in 1982, Ohio Citizen Action, unions, and community groups won City Council approval for the strongest toxic chemical right-to-know ordinance in the nation. The Cincinnati ordinance became the model for laws we were then able to pass in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Kent, Lancaster, Norwood, Oregon, and Toledo.
Congress turned its attention to the right-to-know issue in 1984 after a disaster at Union Carbide’s pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. Tens of thousands of people surrounding the plant were killed, blinded, or maimed for life by exposure to methyl isocyanate gas.
Congress began drafting a federal right-to-know proposal using Ohio’s local ordinances as a model. In the fall of 1985, Ohio Citizen Action and a national coalition delivered more than one million petition signatures to Congress demanding a strong bill. The new law passed, and the subsequent reporting of toxic chemical pollution became the most potent tool Americans have for getting companies to cut their pollution.
Protecting Worker Rights Locally & Nationally
At the time of our founding in the 1970s, our leaders pushed to end unwarranted factory closings in Northeast Ohio. Workers would show up for their shift and find the factory gates shut – which is how they learned they were out of a job.
Ohio Citizen Action and others proposed state legislation to require advance notice to employees before a closing. When the state legislature hesitated, U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum sponsored it as a federal bill. This ultimately led to the passage of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) in 1988, requiring companies to provide 60 days' notice before a plant shutdown. This legislation embodies a worker's "Right to Know" about impending job losses.
Without our persistent organizing, base-building, and policy advocacy, this historic win would not have been possible for workers.
Join Our Alumni Network
OCA has helped train generations of activists and organizers who have used the skills they’ve learned for careers in the nonprofit, government, law, and small business sectors. We have also helped build up a strong network of volunteers in Ohio and nationally.
We’d love to catch up and stay in touch. Click here to join our Alumni Network!
Become a Grassroots Champion
We're recruiting 50 new Grassroots Champions to support our next 50 years!
Grassroots Champions give an ongoing monthly gift, which reduces fundraising costs, allows OCA to respond to unforeseen challenges and opportunities, and fits their gift more easily into their budget.
There's no set amount to give, but please consider a gift of $50/month for our 50th anniversary.
OCA Through the Years:
2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008-2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1975 – 1998
