Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine on Thursday called a special session of the state Legislature to get President Joe Biden on the ballot in November, saying his patience has “run out” with his fellow Republicans, who don’t seem particularly inclined to pursue a legislative solution provide for a timing problem with the Democratic Party convention.
“The legislature did [a] yesterday and again failed to take action. This is simply unacceptable,” DeWine said in a statement to the press. “Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting president of the United States, on the ballot this fall. Failure to do so is simply not acceptable. This is a ridiculous – this is an absurd situation.”
“The goal of this session will be for the General Assembly to pass legislation that will ensure that both major presidential candidates will be on the ballot in Ohio in November, as well as legislation that would ban campaign spending by foreign nationals,” DeWine said.
NBC News has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment on DeWine’s comments.
The late date of this year’s Democratic Convention, when Democrats will recognize Biden as their nominee, comes after Ohio’s legal deadline to certify presidential nominees for the November ballot. In the past, such issues have been handled with quick legislative fixes, but some Republican lawmakers have balked this year.
The special session begins on Tuesday.
DeWine expressed anger at lawmakers from his party in the State House, who appear to have made no significant efforts to put Biden on the ballot.
“The Senate has passed several bills that would remedy this situation,” DeWine said. “However, the House of Representatives has not done this.”
The office of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Jason Stephens, a Republican, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
DeWine has been at odds with the Republican Party-dominated state legislature in the past. In 2021, lawmakers voted to limit his authority to issue public health orders. By votes of 23-10 in the Senate and 62-35 in the House of Representatives, lawmakers overturned his veto of a bill aimed at giving them more power to reject his proposals. The override set off a power struggle with DeWine, who had mandated masks and weighed other social distancing rules against reopening schools and businesses.
Elizabeth Walters, chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, denounced “corrupt Republican politicians” in a statement after DeWine’s announcement.
“In the meantime, Republican politicians who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state House must put politics aside and pass a clean bill to get Joe Biden on the ballot,” Walters said. “Despite the Republicans’ political play, we are confident that Joe Biden will appear on the ballot in Ohio.”
On the other side of the aisle, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex M. Triantafilou agreed with DeWine’s decision to call a special session, “although we are confident that Donald Trump will act decisively to win.”
Ohio used to be considered a vital swing state, but has moved to the right in recent elections.
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump won the state with about 53.3% of the vote, compared to Biden’s 45.2%. Four years earlier, Trump won with 51.8% over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with 43.7%. President Barack Obama won the state in 2012, marking the last time a Democratic presidential candidate won Ohio.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
