Supreme Court keeps former DNC candidate off Ohio GOP primary ballot 

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court refused to intervene in Ohio’s Republican primary election on Thursday, rejecting a congressional candidate’s bid to get back on the ballot after Republicans kicked him off, claiming he’s a secret Democrat.

Samuel Ronan was once a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee, but he launched a campaign to unseat the Republican incumbent in his congressional district, Representative Mike Carey.

A voter upended his campaign by lodging a protest against his candidacy, claiming his allegiance wasn’t to the Republican party. After being subsequently removed from ballots, Ronan asked the high court for emergency action.

“By their own written admission, [Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose] removed Ronan from Ohio’s Republican primary ballot based solely on the content of his political speech,” Ronan wrote in his application. “They concluded that his past statements on various political issues were inconsistent with Republican principles and that he therefore must have lied when he swore under oath that he is a Republican and intends to abide by Republican principles. But Ronan did not lie.”

Instead of hiding from his Democratic roots, Ronan says his campaign sought to transport his ideals — which he claimed Democrats have forsaken — across the aisle.

“That is not a ‘strategic candidacy’ or some kind of trick,” Ronan wrote. “It is not unlawful. It is not wrong. It is what countless politicians, including Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump and hundreds of others, have done before Ronan.”

Mark Brown, an attorney at Capital University Law School representing Ronan, said the decision allowed the Republican incumbent to interfere in the race.

“We are disappointed,” Brown said in an email. “Ronan’s opponent, Mike Carey, has been allowed to surreptitiously sabotage Ronan’s ballot access by secretly enlisting the Ohio Republican Party to protest Ronan.”

Brown also reiterated arguments about the bias of one of the board members who refused to recuse from voting on Ronan’s ballot access.

“One of the board members, Meredith Freedhoff, is the second-highest ranking officers in the Ohio Republican Party, yet she refused to recuse herself, incredibly claiming she did not know the Ohio Republican Party and Carey campaign were involved,” Brown said. “Thus she sat on a case where her own organization, Ohio’s GOP, which she controls as second-in-command, was the real party in interest challenging Ronan. So much for fairness and due process.”

LaRose, himself a Republican, argued that Ronan has been on a decadelong mission to get Democrats to primary Republicans in deep-red districts. LaRose said he removed Ronan from primary ballots for lying on his candidacy form about his membership in the Republican party and his willingness to abide by the party’s principles.

“Falsifying the election-candidacy declaration is a felony of the fifth degree,” LaRose wrote. “As required by Ohio law, Ronan declared that he was ‘a member of the Republican Party’ and if elected he would ‘support and abide by the principles enunciated by the Republican Party.’ But even after signing this form, Ronan continued to push his vision that Democrats like himself should primary Republicans in deep-red districts to ‘get a foot in the door.’”

LaRose cited Ronan’s social media to support his assessment, citing a Facebook post which read, “Leftists need to infiltrate Republican spaces and primary them.”

Ronan countered that this whole legal ordeal was underwritten by the Republican Party itself.

He claimed that the voter who protested his candidacy was supported by the Ohio Republican Party. He also claimed that members of the Franklin County Board of Elections — responsible for voting on the protest — were biased because they endorsed the incumbent candidate.

“Allowing state elections officers to choose between candidates based on their ‘credibility,’ ‘honesty,’ and consistency with party principles cause candidates cognizable, and intolerable, constitutional injuries,” Ronan wrote. “Emergency relief from this court is warranted.”

Even under emergency docket standards, Ronan’s Hail Mary appeal put the justices on a tight timeline. He asked the court to intervene on Monday — the eve of the scheduled start for early voting.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, called for a response by Wednesday, allowing early voting to begin without intervention.

Kavanaugh referred the application to the full court, which denied Ronan’s request in a short order. The justices did not explain their decision.

Representatives for the Franklin County Election Board and the Ohio attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

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