While scrolling through social media recently, I began seeing repeated posts from former Ohio House Democratic Caucus legal counsel Sarah Cherry. Her claims about her termination and about Allison Russo caught my attention. Given that Russo is currently running for Secretary of State, I thought those claims warranted a direct conversation rather than commentary from a distance.
I reached out to Sarah and asked her to sit down for a recorded discussion. In that video, she explained why she launched Protect Ohio Women at Work, why she believes she was terminated, and why she is now speaking publicly about her experience.
After that conversation, I contacted Allison Russo to request her response. If I am going to publish allegations during an active primary, both sides deserve the opportunity to be heard.
To be clear, I do not have independent knowledge of the alleged conduct described by either side.
Below is a summary of my conversation with Sarah Cherry, along with Russo’s emailed response. You can also watch the full interview video and review the documents provided.
I also asked Allison Russo & Brian Hambley, both of whom are running for Secretary of State, to come on to talk about their campaigns for Secretary of State
Russo and Hambley: Two Democrats. One Office. Same Questions.
I recently sat down with former State House Minority Leader Allison Russo and Bryan Hambley. Both are Democrats running for Secretary of State here in Ohio.
Protect Ohio Women at Work
Sarah Cherry is the founder of Protect Ohio Women at Work and a longtime Democratic election and voting rights advocate who spent 13 years as legal counsel to the Ohio House Democratic Caucus, advising on ethics, public records, and major policy fights. She has also served for 15 years in voter protection leadership through the Ohio Democratic Party’s Ohio Promote the Vote steering committee, and she is running for the State Central Committee seat in Senate District 25 to help ensure the party is led by strong Democrats committed to labor, working people, women, and racial justice.
In this conversation, she lays out why she was fired in 2023 and why she is now talking publicly. She says Allison Russo fired her after she reported discrimination against women in the workplace. She also said she filed an EEOC charge in March 2024 and that the process is still ongoing.
The heart of her explanation is blunt. She says she believed Russo did not want to deal with the situation, and that the longer the matter sat unresolved, the more it signaled to staff, interns, and young aides that speaking up could get you punished instead of protected.
The Allegation and the Stakes Inside the Legislature
Cherry’s claim is that there was a male aide accused of sexual assault by another aide, and that a different woman was disciplined by the Republican majority for speaking about him. She framed it as a workplace culture problem with real consequences because the legislature is full of young people: aides, interns, and students. Her argument is that if leadership allows that kind of story to circulate without accountability, the message to everyone else is clear: keep your head down, do not report, and do not expect protection if something happens.
She also described her frustration with how she says Russo responded. Cherry said Russo acknowledged the situation was wrong, even calling what Republicans were doing “bullshit,” but then told her she could not “spend political capital” on it and wanted Cherry to move on. Cherry argued that approach was not just morally weak, it was strategically weak. She said you cannot go into fights like redistricting from a position of weakness, and that letting your own team be treated that way broadcasts weakness in rooms where leverage is everything.
Why She Backs Bryan Hambley and Rejects the “Hit Job” Claim
Cherry did not dodge the politics. She said plainly that she does not want Russo to win the Secretary of State primary. She also said she started speaking about this in a limited way as early as January 2025, before she even knew much about Bryan Hambley. She described first seeing him speak to an Ohio Democratic Party voter protection volunteer group and later meeting him at a house party, then seeing him again at a county town hall where she thought he connected well with voters. Her bottom line was that she has been impressed with what she has seen, and she is glad there is a “high-quality alternative candidate.”
When pressed on whether this is coordinated with Hambley’s campaign, she rejected that framing. She said slander is slander when it is not true, and that she is telling the truth and people will say what they will say.
The Redistricting Split
Cherry’s take on Russo’s record was not one-dimensional. She said Russo did strong work on redistricting while Cherry was there, and she described sitting directly behind Russo for months during that process. But she had an opinion on what happened after Cherry left in July 2023.
Cherry said she was disappointed to see Russo vote for a state map in September 2023 and she said she believes Russo could have gotten a better map if she had used the leverage she had. Cherry said Republicans threaten to make maps worse all the time, and that leaders have to be able to navigate those rooms with more skill than simply accepting the threat as reality. She also said Russo went into that vote without a full staff and without legal counsel, which she viewed as part of the problem.
Allison Russo’s Response
After speaking with Sarah Cherry, I reached out directly to Allison Russo for comment. She emailed me a response addressing Cherry’s claims and urging caution in how they are presented.
Russo stated that these allegations are not new and were previously examined. She referenced contemporaneous reporting from January 2025, including coverage by Cleveland.com, and encouraged me to review those materials before publishing what she described as disputed claims as fact. She also noted that Cherry filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and that the EEOC dismissed the complaint in September 2025. According to Russo, Cherry has appealed, but there has been no additional action or communication from the EEOC since that time.
Russo further argued that the documented record reflects performance issues that led to Cherry’s departure, and that the decision was made with awareness and support from both majority and minority leadership. She said all related records can be obtained through a public records request to the Ohio House of Representatives legal counsel. In her message to me, she emphasized that readers deserve accuracy and the full record rather than what she characterized as one side of a personnel dispute, particularly given that Cherry is actively campaigning against her for party office.
For transparency, please take a look at the corresponding PDFs provided to me by Allison Russo.
