Derek Merrin paid firm run by former Trump campaign staffer charged with campaign finance felonies

Reports show Ohio Republican congressional candidate Derek Merrin paid $42,733.71 to mailing firm Direct Wins, whose chief operating officer was charged with two felony counts accusing her of breaking campaign laws in 2017.

Merrin’s filings show he paid Direct Wins for direct mail production and printing from July 15to Sept. 25. During that time, Direct Wins’ COO was Stephanie Alexander, who was arrested in 2016 for conspiracy to commit a felony and illegally coordinate dark money.

The charges stem from a Republican primary election for Oklahoma’s state superintendent race in 2014. Alexander (then known as Stephanie Milligan) and her then-boyfriend Chad Alexander founded an independent advocacy organization called Oklahomans for Public School Excellence (OPSE). During the primary election, OPSE ran a $300,000 ad campaign against incumbent candidate Jane Baresi.

After Chad Alexander, who was named one of the most influential lobbyists in Oklahoma, was arrested for cocaine possession, police found incriminating text messages on his phone linking Stephanie Alexander to Baresi’s opponent Joy Hofmeister. In 2016, Stephanie Alexander was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and illegally coordinate dark money in the superintendent race. During this time, Alexander was the battleground state political director for Donald Trump’s campaign.

An Oklahoma judge expunged and sealed the court records related to the case in 2016. In 2017, all charges were dropped by prosecutors, who intended to refile but never did. In 2020, former district attorney investigator Gary Eastland told Business Insider that he did not know why the charges were dropped, but he had “suspicions.” Alexander was also promoted to chief of staff for Trump’s reelection campaign in 2020.

Merrin’s campaign did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

Merrin is attempting to unseat longtime incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D), who is seeking her 22^nd term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cook Political Report currently rates Ohio’s 9^th Congressional District race as “Leans Democrat,” but Republicans view the seat as obtainable.

Merrin was tapped to take on Kaptur after her 2022 opponent J.R. Majewski garnered criticism for lying about seeing combat and using an anti-disability slur to describe Special Olympics athletes on a podcast.

Merrin has served in the Ohio House of Representatives since 2016, where he failed to gather enough support to become speaker of the chamber in 2022. In 2017, Merrin, who invests in real estate, introduced an amendment that would have stripped cities of the authority to test water pipes for lead. Merrin has also sponsored legislation to give tenants less time to respond to eviction notices.