Who pays to lobby the state government.
Registered lobbyists, their clients and what the clients reported, from Ohio’s lobbying records.
registered lobbyists
Distinct agent IDs with at least one active legislative, executive agency or retirement system registration on Oct. 19, 2026 (OLAC active-by-date report). Not everyone registered during 2026.
clients (lobbyist employers)
Distinct employer IDs with at least one active registration of any of the three types on Oct. 19, 2026 (OLAC active-by-date report).
| The Ohio State University | $52,899.68 |
| Wholesale Beer and Wine Association of Ohio | $38,216.82 |
| Ohio Conference of Teamsters | $31,965.04 |
| Ohio Pork Council | $25,254.10 |
| Ohio Association of REALTORS | $22,103.77 |
| Ohio Chemistry Technology Council | $19,845.75 |
| Ohio Fair Managers Association | $18,675.00 |
| Ohio Township Association | $18,271.68 |
| OhioX | $16,727.75 |
| Ohio Fire Chiefs' Association | $14,160.28 |
| JobsOhio | $13,634.99 |
| Ohio Funeral Directors Association | $13,365.38 |
| Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies | $13,008.94 |
| Ohio Aggregates & Industrial Minerals Association | $12,821.11 |
| Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. | $9,504.37 |
| Ohio Credit Union League & Affiliates | $9,276.89 |
| Inter-University Council of Ohio (IUC) | $9,136.84 |
| Ohio Association of Health Plans, Inc | $8,899.90 |
| Ohio Mayors Alliance | $8,805.90 |
| Ohio Children's Hospital Association | $8,664.65 |
| Ohio Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs | $8,658.00 |
| Ohio State Bar Association | $8,172.66 |
| The Nature Conservancy in Ohio | $7,734.74 |
| The Success Group, LTD | $7,652.71 |
| Ohio Marine Trade Association | $7,121.25 |
Gifts, meals and beverages, and all-invited event costs that the employer and its registered agents reported providing for the benefit of public officials and staff (legislative, executive agency and retirement system reports combined), Jan. 1 - Aug. 31, 2026. It is not what the employer paid its lobbyists (Ohio does not collect that), not total lobbying spending, and not campaign contributions.
Sources: JLEC, Lobbying Statistics Reports; OLAC, Active Agents and Employers By Date (agent and employer summaries and details for Oct. 19, 2026, CSV); OLAC, Agent & Employer Lists (all currently registered agents and employers, CSV, updated daily); OLAC, Legislative, Executive and Retirement System Expenditure Searches, CSV exports for 2026 reporting periods; OLAC, Expenditure Searches, CSV exports for 2025 reporting periods; OLIG, 2025 Ohio Lobbying Statistics Report (March 13, 2026); JLEC/OLIG, Ohio Lobbying Handbook.
How to read this
Ohio calls a paid lobbyist an agent and the person or organization paying the lobbyist an employer; on this page employers are the clients. Ohio registers three kinds of lobbying separately: legislative (bills and resolutions), executive agency (agency decisions and rules) and retirement system (the five state pension systems). The counts include all three: 1,426 agents and 2,448 employers held at least one active registration on Oct. 19, 2026, in 11,122 agent-employer engagements (5,954 legislative, 5,110 executive, 58 retirement). By type, 1,384 agents were registered as legislative agents, 889 as executive agency lobbyists and 58 as retirement system lobbyists; many hold more than one, so these do not add to the total. Counting everyone registered at any time in 2026, not only on Oct. 19, there were 1,552 agents. Ohio does not collect what employers pay their lobbyists or what they spend on lobbying overall. The only amounts it collects are expenditures for the benefit of legislators, executive officials, retirement board members and their staff: gifts, meals and beverages, and food and drink at events to which every member of the General Assembly or of one chamber is invited. The top list adds up, for each employer, every expenditure it and its agents reported for Jan. 1 - Aug. 31, 2026 (the January-April and May-August reports, due May 31 and Sept. 30), the same way JLEC's annual report ranks spending by source. In all, 481 employers reported $604,402.96 in such expenditures in that period. September-December reports are due Jan. 31, 2027. Calendar 2025, a complete year, is shown separately and never added to 2026. Names are as filed; The Success Group, LTD is a lobbying firm registered as an employer in its own name.
What is not here yet
- Ohio does not collect lobbyist compensation or employers' total lobbying spending (Ohio Lobbying Handbook; 2025 Lobbying Statistics Report), so no client can be ranked by what it paid to lobby. The amounts here are only gifts, meals and event costs for officials and staff.
- September-December 2026 reports are due Jan. 31, 2027; 2026 expenditures cover January through August only. One September-December 2026 row already filed ($37.03) is left out.
- Counts are registrations active on Oct. 19, 2026, not everyone who lobbied in 2026. OLAC offers an any-time-in-2026 report for agents (1,552) but not a matching employer summary, so the 2026-wide employer count is not given.
- The expenditure exports carry employer names but no employer IDs; totals are grouped by the name exactly as filed, so an employer filing under two spellings would be split.
- Recomputed 2025 totals ($1,139,636.94) differ slightly from JLEC's published 2025 figure ($1,139,117.56, data as of March 10, 2026), because filers can amend reports; the 2025 top ten match JLEC's list in order with small amount differences.
- www.ohiolobbying.gov did not answer from the workspace (proxy 502 on Oct. 19, 2026); the same records were pulled from jlec-olig.state.oh.us and its OLAC reports.
- Financial transaction statements (business dealings between agents or employers and officials) and the bills and decisions lobbied were not reviewed.
Gaps in the lobbying records as of the date checked.