“It’s hard to sell stuff on the basis of public health,” DeWine mentioned in an interview forward of Wednesday’s State of the State handle. “Everyone wants to see kids do better. … It’s easier when you couch it in those terms instead of talking about building up what some people will look at as some bureaucracy that interferes in my life.”

The two-term governor has struggled to enact key elements of his public well being agenda with a deeply conservative legislature blocking his initiatives, as detailed by The Washington Post in an examination final yr of how red-state politics shave years off American lives.

The Post’s findings, DeWine mentioned, spelled out the alarming statistics for his state in human phrases. Roughly 1 in 5 Ohioans will die earlier than they flip 65, the same life expectancy to residents of Slovakia and Ecuador, comparatively poor international locations.

DeWine mentioned he instructed his Cabinet to learn The Post’s life expectancy protection as a part of his efforts to make bettering his constituents’ longevity a centerpiece of his remaining years as governor. He even met together with his former state well being director, Amy Acton, to ask how he may enhance Ohio’s well being outcomes, in line with Acton, who has been floated as a Democratic candidate for statewide workplace.

Appearing earlier than the state legislature Wednesday, DeWine introduced initiatives geared toward bettering the lives of Ohio’s kids, utilizing rhetoric that emphasizes conventional conservative values.

“The single most important thing we can do for Ohio’s future is to ensure that all Ohio children — all of our children, no matter where they live, no matter who their parents are — have the opportunity to live up to their full God-given potential,” he mentioned.

He promoted secure sleep for infants, early training, psychological well being care, poison management and gun-violence prevention. He touted an initiative to put in well being clinics in Appalachian faculties. He highlighted a pilot program to offer house visits from nurses to assist new moms.

He proposed laws to ban flavored vaping and cigarettes that he mentioned tobacco firms use to hook kids. He continued to champion a stricter seat-belt regulation. The Post previously detailed tobacco and vehicular deaths as preventable contributors to Ohio’s lagging life expectancy.

And he did all of it with out mentioning these two phrases: public well being.

Republican legislators have beforehand thwarted DeWine’s makes an attempt to strengthen the state’s seat-belt legal guidelines, a measure public well being specialists say saves lives. DeWine himself misplaced his daughter Becky in a automotive crash greater than 30 years in the past.

Last fall, laws he had supported for years to curb distracted driving went into impact, permitting police to pull over drivers for utilizing their telephones.

Since then, preliminary information exhibits a major drop in distraction-related crashes, as citations for distracted driving have greater than doubled, in line with Lt. Ray Santiago, Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman.

The outcome: a 20 % lower in deadly crashes associated to distractions in contrast with 2022.

“We are seeing an immediate success,” Santiago mentioned.

DeWine is redoubling his efforts to codify Ohio troopers’ capacity to tug over drivers for not sporting a seat belt, a measure 35 states have in place. More than 500 Ohioans who lose their lives in automotive crashes every year usually are not sporting seat belts.

“That’s why I will be coming to you with a proposal to save young people’s lives — and adults — through a primary seat-belt law,” DeWine advised legislators Wednesday. “We know it works. It’s a vote that will save lives.”

Ohio’s deeply conservative legislature has fought DeWine’s makes an attempt to curtail tobacco use, together with limiting the flexibility of native jurisdictions to ban flavored vaping and preempting efforts to lift tobacco taxes. Roughly 1 in 5 Ohio adults smoke, one of many highest charges within the nation.

DeWine inspired the Biden administration to take motion on a nationwide menthol ban that specialists say may stop lots of of 1000’s of deaths in predominantly Black communities. The ban, initially anticipated final yr, has been delayed due to political pressures and warnings that it may alienate a few of President Biden’s Black supporters forward of the election, in line with White House officers.

DeWine lately advised The Post that he is aware of easy methods to do the political math: The votes usually are not there for a larger tobacco tax, a confirmed public well being initiative to decrease smoking-related deaths. But he mentioned in his speech Wednesday that he’ll attempt to go the prohibition on vaping and cigarette flavors one other means.

“We have an obligation to protect Ohio children,” he mentioned, “and we have the ability to do that.”

The governor additionally used the speech as a platform for youngsters’s entry to well being care, college and a brighter financial future — important efforts to elongate their life expectancy, he advised The Post.

The investments might not repay in his political lifetime, he mentioned, however they may change the lives of future generations.

“While we can talk about the legislature overriding a veto once in a while and you can talk about them not be willing to pass a tobacco tax, the truth is that on almost every one of these children’s programs they have given me the money that I’ve asked for,” he advised The Post.

Dan Diamond contributed to this report.