Ohio Senate candidate Matt Dolan still holds thousands of dollars in Norfolk Southern stock

Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Matt Dolan still holds up to $50,000 in Norfolk Southern stock according to campaign financial disclosures submitted by Dolan.

After the East Palestine incident — in which a Norfolk Southern train derailed last February and released hazardous substances like vinyl chloride into the eastern Ohio town — many Ohio politicians harshly criticized the rail company’s safety procedures and cleanup response. Following the tragedy, both Ohio U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and J.D. Vance (R) introduced the bipartisan Railway Safety Act, which Dolan refused to endorse. If passed, the bill would expand safety procedures and implement harsher punishments on companies like Norfolk Southern for circumventing protocols.

The legislation has been stalled in Congress and has been ready for a floor vote in the U.S. Senate since May without any action. The bill hasn’t even made it passed committee in the House.

A former legislator from northeast Ohio, Dolan had accepted thousands of dollars from Norfolk Southern, including a $1,000 campaign donation from last September. Publicly, he has pushed for “tangible results” from the rail company in the wake of the tragedy.

Dolan is a former member of Ohio’s state Senate and House of Representatives, and he was first elected to public office in 2004. He previously ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022, where he finished third in the primary election behind Vance and former state treasurer Josh Mandel. Dolan’s family are the owners of the Cleveland Guardians, and Dolan stepped away from politics to take a job in the team’s front office in the mid-2010’s after losing a 2010 local election.