Columbus, Ohio — In order to ensure that President Joe Biden is included on the state’s 2024 ballot, Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, announced on Thursday that he would be calling an extraordinary special session of the General Assembly for next week.
Tuesday was designated as the special session day.
“Ohio has a limited amount of time to place current US President Joe Biden on the ballot this autumn. It is just unacceptable to fail to do this. This is absurd. DeWine declared, “This is [an] absurd situation.”
The question of whether Biden will run has become entangled in a partisan legislative battle to prevent foreign funding from entering state elections, one year after funds connected to a Swiss billionaire helped to successfully support an attempt to include abortion rights in the constitution of the firmly red state.
The official nomination of Joe Biden for the Democratic National Convention takes place following Ohio’s August 7 ballot deadline. The convention takes place in Chicago from August 19–22.
In order to accommodate candidates from both parties, Ohio lawmakers had to modify the certification deadline twice, in 2012 and 2020, from 60 to 90 days prior to the general election. Every modification was merely momentary.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose established a deadline of May 9 for lawmakers to come up with a resolution, but this year they were unable to do so.
According to DeWine, he told LaRose on Thursday that we are “up against a wall.” LaRose informed him that the drop-dead deadline is next Wednesday.
“I’ve waited. I’ve been patient. And my patience has run out,” DeWine said.
According to DeWine, the Senate version of the bill, which prohibits foreign nationals from funding Ohio ballot proposals, will be able to pass thanks to his proclamation.
Considered a “poison pill” in the divided Ohio House, where Republicans need Democratic votes to advance certain bills, the proposal has received criticism.
Senate President Matt Huffman’s spokesperson urged House leadership to permit a vote on House Bill 114 in a statement.
“With the Governor, we concur. In addition to correcting the Democratic Party’s mistake that prevented Joe Biden from running for office in November, it is time to safeguard Ohio’s elections by banning foreign contributions to political campaigns, the statement stated.
After the governor’s speech, DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney stated that a “clean” House bill that would permanently alter the ballot deadline would also be taken into consideration.
State Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters accused GOP lawmakers of politicizing the ballot process and thereby disenfranchising Ohioans.
Leader of the Ohio House Democratic Party Allison Russo claimed on social media platform X that money from foreign donors is already prohibited and that the true problem is dark money funding of political campaigns.
Russo declared, “GOP strategy: change the rules when you can’t win.” They want to totally abolish citizens’ power to fund ballot initiatives because they are afraid that people would use direct democracy to voice their opinions. Any discussion of “foreign money” is misleading.
GOP lawmakers, according to State Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters, are disenfranchising Ohioans and politicising the legislative process.
“We must pass the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act, which would require dark money groups to identify their funders, disclose their spending, and strengthen the ban on foreign money,” Walters said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, Republican politicians who hold supermajorities in both chambers at the statehouse must put politics aside and pass a clean bill to put Joe Biden on the ballot,” she continued. “Despite Republicans’ political gamesmanship, we’re confident Joe Biden will be on the Ohio ballot.”
Republican state House Speaker Jason Stephens said lawmakers have language that bans foreign influence from ballot issue campaigns without hurting the rights of citizens.
“We look forward to real solutions that will actually pass both chambers next week and solve problems,” Stephens said in a statement.
And fellow Republican J.D. Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio aided by a late Donald Trump endorsement in a tight 2022 primary, issued a statement saying the calling of a special session is a “reasonable compromise.”
Vance, who before entering electoral politics labeled Trump an idiot, expressed confidence that the former president would beat Biden regardless of whether the Democratic president is on the ballot, but he said “a lot of Trump voters might sit at home if there isn’t a real presidential race, and that will really hurt our down-ballot races for the Senate and Congress. We need to play chess.”
The Ohio Republican Party strongly supports DeWine’s decision, chairman Alex M. Triantafilou said.
There was no immediate response by the Biden campaign to a message requesting comment.
Alabama recently changed its law to ensure Biden will appear on fall ballots. Similar accommodations in the state were made four years ago for Trump.
The last time Ohio lawmakers were ordered back to Columbus in a such a manner was in 2004, under Republican Gov. Bob Taft, to consider campaign finance reform.
