Tom Zawistowski, president of the We the People Convention, said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s push to put incumbent Democrat President Joe Biden on the state’s general election ballot by calling a special session of the Ohio General Assembly is a “real serious problem.”
Without a legislative solution by state lawmakers, Biden’s name is not authorized to be on the Ohio ballot as the Democratic National Committee’s convention from August 19-22 does not meet the deadline specified by state law for the party’s nominee to be certified for ballot access.
“This is the part that drives all of us crazy because the law in Ohio, which has been on the books since 2010, basically says that you have to tell us who your nominee for the November general election is 90 days before the election, because, duh, we have to print 11 million ballots. We’ve got to get the machines ready. It’s basic math, right? Here’s the deal. It takes time. So of course the Democrats scheduled their convention for August 19th, I think, which is two weeks after our deadline for getting on the ballot. Then they want to scream ‘Oh, that’s unfair, and you need to fix it’,” Zawistowski explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Zawistowski (pictured here) noted that when Democrats attempted to withhold ballot access to former President Donald Trump through the 14th Amendment, saying, “There were no Democrats going out of their way to help President Trump overcome the 14th Amendment cases.”
“How unfair was it when you were trying to throw President Trump off the ballot with this nonsensical 14th Amendment stuff? And what did you do? You made us fight it all the way to the Supreme Court,” Zawistowski said, speaking to Democrats. “In Ohio, our legislature, which is Republican, said, ‘We’re not going to give you an exemption; we’re not going to temporarily change the law.’ And the governor, Governor DeWine, said, ‘That’s just wrong. It’s unacceptable, so I’m going to call a special session so that we can fix this.’ And I’m like, why are we helping them? It’s on you.”
Regarding the political makeup of the Ohio House, Zawistowski said the chamber is “controlled” by Democrats who are being “helped” by the governor.
“For our governor to call a special session – we have a real serious problem here,” Zawistowski explained. “There’s a thing in Ohio a year ago called the Blue 22, where we elected 67 out of 99 house members who were Republicans – a supermajority. Then, 22 of them took bribes from the Democrat unions and voted with the 33 Democrats to appoint a speaker of the house. So now, we have a super majority of Republicans, except the Democrats are controlling our house. Then the governor is now helping the Democrats in the House. And we’re saying, ‘Where’s our representation? What are we going to get?”
Zawistowski also pointed out that with the accommodation of a special session to put Biden on the ballot, the General Assembly will not move to work on any other legislation “until next January.”
“It’s so bad…They’re literally saying that we’re going to have no legislation move in Ohio until next January except for this bill to put Joe Biden on the ballot,” Zawistowski said.
In regards to state lawmakers reaching a legislative solution to put Biden on the ballot, Zawistowski said an agreement is “in doubt” as he said he believes Republicans are “understanding that the optics to this doesn’t look good.”
“I’ve been engaged with many legislators in the last four hours and they are getting it. They’re understanding that the optics to this doesn’t look good. How’s this going to look to my constituents if I don’t save Ohio’s kids, but I helped Joe Biden get on the ballot? So it’s going to be a little dicey, but then again, politics is politics. And I guess I wouldn’t be shocked if they actually did it,” Zawistowski added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Gov. Mike DeWine” by Gov. Mike DeWine.
