In the video player above, watch a previous report on Republican plans to override Gov. DeWine’s vetoes.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The Ohio House’s expected vote to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a LGBTQ+ bill would mark only the ninth such attempt in nearly 40 years.

Ohio governors do not regularly veto bills; just over 100 have been vetoed since 1969. It’s rare for the legislature to try to override those vetoes, and even less common for them to succeed.

Now, the Ohio House is convening on Wednesday to attempt to override DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68, legislation that would ban transgender minors from receiving certain healthcare and prohibit transgender girls from participating in female athletics. Senate President Matt Huffman told NBC4 that should the House succeed, the Senate is likely to follow suit on Jan. 24. 

Also known as the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation” and the “Save Women’s Sports” acts, H.B. 68 would bar medical professionals from providing treatment known as gender-affirming care, like puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, to transgender children in Ohio. DeWine vetoed the measure on Dec. 29 and said he made his decision after visiting five children’s hospitals and speaking with families whose children undergo that treatment. 

“Were I to sign House Bill 68, or were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most, their parents,” said DeWine. 

Lawmakers amended HB 68 to also include House Bill 6 to prohibit trans girls from taking part in female athletics and override the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s trans student-athlete policy. The measure allows an athlete to sue for relief or damages if they are “deprived” of an athletic opportunity by a trans girl. 

A legislative supermajority, three-fifths of both the House and Senate, is required to overcome a governor’s veto. HB 68 itself passed with 62 votes in the House and 24 votes in the Senate, theoretically positioning it to overcome the 59 House and 20 Senate votes needed to override.

Hundreds of state lawmakers over the decades have found themselves at odds with the governor, but they do not often take the step to bypass his wishes – and they succeed even less of the time. NBC4 analyzed legislative history dating to 1969, excluding line-item vetoes due to inconsistencies in how they were recorded over the decades. Since then, governors have vetoed 101 bills; the legislature has attempted to override 29 of those vetoes but succeeded only 11 times.

Of the eight bills DeWine has vetoed since assuming office in 2019, the legislature successfully overrode one – a 2021 law giving legislators the power to nullify public health orders like COVID-19-related mask mandates or stay-at-home orders. DeWine’s vetoes rank toward the top among Ohio governors, at least in recent history. In just over four years, he has vetoed as many bills as John Kasich did in two terms in office.

Just two governors vetoed more than 10 bills while in office: Richard Celeste, with 13 bills, and Jim Rhodes. Rhodes, who was governor from 1963-71 and again from 1975-83, vetoed 52 bills in his third term alone, including 23 bills during the 1975-76 legislative session.

The 1975-76 legislative session was historic on multiple fronts. Rhodes’ 23 vetoes were the most gubernatorial rejections during a General Assembly. The legislature also successfully overrode the most vetoes in the 55-year period analyzed, with four bills becoming law against Rhodes’ objections.

Rhodes’ vetoes run the gamut, from a bill allowing public employees to collectively bargain with their employers to another that would have created a state commission, office and interagency council on Spanish-Speaking Affairs. Lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to override 16 of Rhodes’ vetoes from 1975-80 and succeeded in bypassing five.

In overriding Rhodes, the legislature paved the way for the state to match federal funds for free and reduced lunches and created the Senate majority whip. Veto overrides under other governors loosened concealed carry restrictions and shifted the burden of proof in self-defense cases to prosecutors.

Several override votes barely failed in the past 55 years. Most recently, in December 2018, the Senate was one vote short of overriding Kasich’s veto of the “Heartbeat Bill,” the six-week abortion ban that DeWine signed into law the next year. In 1980, the Senate needed two more votes to provide 13 more weeks of unemployment to people laid off due to plant shutdowns.

The governor has faced a wave of criticism from notable Republicans who are calling on the Statehouse to override his veto, including from former President Donald Trump, who wrote in a Truth Social post that DeWine “has fallen to the Radical Left.” 

“I’m finished with this ‘stiff.’ What was he thinking,” wrote Trump. “The bill would have stopped child mutilation, and prevented men from playing in women’s sports. Legislature will hopefully overturn.” 

DeWine attempted to assuage the backlash by signing an executive order on Friday to ban Ohio’s medical professionals from performing gender transition surgery on transgender youth. While Nick Lashutka, Ohio Children’s Hospital Association president, previously testified that the state’s children’s hospitals “do not perform any surgeries on minors for the condition of gender dysphoria,” DeWine said the order is necessary because there is “broad consensus against surgeries for minors.” 

However, Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery), the primary sponsor of HB 68, said the governor’s administrative orders “are no substitute for solid legislation.” Click argued it was inappropriate for DeWine to “discard the hard and deliberative process of the General Assembly and take ownership of this issue.” 

“While I support his efforts as a temporary measure, I cannot accept them as a substitute for the SAFE Act,” Click said. “His suggestion that we take his measures and place them in a bill for his signature was insulting. We fully intend to override the governor’s veto beginning on Jan. 10.”

Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) said DeWine’s actions fall short and don’t “cover a lot of what’s in House Bill 68.” He said the executive order does not change his mind and he plans to vote to reverse DeWine’s decision. 

“The governor tried to reiterate the use of executive orders and administrative agencies in order to do lawmaking which is reserved for the legislative branch,” Williams said. “We’re encouraged to hear that he wants to do some things, but the idea that he wouldn’t confirm that surgeries are being performed on minors in the state of Ohio is absurd.”