Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine calls lawmakers into special session to fix Biden ballot debacle

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called the lawmakers into a special session to pass legislation to ensure President Joe Biden will be on the November ballot. This comes after a month of controversy surrounding the debacle.

In a surprise press conference on Thursday evening, DeWine condemned the General Assembly for their lack of action to fix an obscure law that will prevent Biden from being a choice for voters.

“Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, sitting president of the United States, on the ballot this fall,” DeWine said. “Failing to do so is simply not acceptable. This is ridiculous; this is an absurd situation.”

Ohio requires parties to confirm their presidential candidates 90 days before the Nov. election, which would be Aug. 7. But Biden won’t be the official nominee until the Democratic National Convention, which is on Aug. 19.

Democratic leaders were unaware of this, and plenty of other lawmakers across the aisle also didn’t know. Sec. of State Frank LaRose didn’t remind Dems until April.

DeWine has been urging lawmakers to do this since the warning was raised by LaRose, but the GOP leaders have been disagreeing on the way to do it.

The House has its own version and the Senate has theirs.

The House was a clean bill that changed the nomination deadline to 74 days. This would likely be a permanent fix.

But the Senate passed a separate bill. It changed the nominating deadline from Aug. 7 to Aug. 23 — but only for 2024, so it wasn’t a permanent fix.

However, the Senate added in Senate Bill 215, a campaign finance bill. In early March, Republican senators passed legislation meant to stop foreign donations to state ballot-issue campaigns, but Democrats argued the bill goes too far, as it has a provision that could make it harder for grassroots movements to get on the ballot — even with U.S. dollars.

The House doesn’t seem to like this, so they ignored it.

The leaders of each chamber are fighting with each other, which is also a likely culprit for why nothing is moving.

“The purpose of this session will be for the General Assembly to pass legislation ensuring that both major presidential candidates will be on the Ohio ballot in November,” DeWine said.

DeWine advocated for the vehicle to be the Senate’s version.

“I think when you ask most Ohioans, they would think that it’s a ridiculous situation that foreign nationals can come into the state of Ohio, or not even come into the state of Ohio, and spend a significant amount of money to affect an Ohio ballot issue,” DeWine said. “We do not allow them to do that for candidates. Why in the world should we allow them to do that for a ballot issue? The Senate has already passed legislation in this regard. So clearly, … this issue should be debated and shouldn’t be dealt with one way or the other.”

Senate GOP spokesperson John Fortney issued a statement following the governor’s press conference:

We agree with the Governor. It is time to protect Ohio’s elections by outlawing foreign campaign contributions, while at the same time fixing the Democratic Party’s error that kept Joe Biden off the November ballot. We encourage the Speaker and Minority Leader to allow a vote on House Bill 114 which does both.

Fortney seemingly suggests that Minority Leader Allison Russo is preventing the bill from hitting the floor — despite Stephens having a supermajority of Republicans. Stephens has been accused of being too close with the Democrats and allowing Russo to make decisions. The speaker has denied this, and so has Russo.

House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) gave a lengthy statement.

“For weeks, we have been pushing to find a legislative solution to having President Biden on the ballot. Ultimately, the will to do so wasn’t there in the Republican caucus.

Everyone agrees that we need to ban foreign political contributions from ballot issue campaigns in Ohio, and we have been driving towards a solution.

We have language that has input from campaign finance experts and important interested parties to deal with the issue. This is language that squarely and directly bans foreign influence in Ohio’s issue campaigns, while not also inadvertently limiting the rights of citizens to have their voices heard.

We look forward to real solutions that will actually pass both chambers next week and solve problems.”

Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) issued the following statement regarding the special session:

This is the right call and it’s a reasonable compromise: Republicans keep foreign money out of our state ballot process, and both major parties’ nominees will be on the ballot,” said Senator Vance. “Remember: Donald Trump will beat Joe Biden, whether he’s on the ballot or not, by 10 points. But 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.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.