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CELINA - Mercer County Republican Party Chairman Robert Hibner is asking elections officials to reject the petition of a St. Marys transgender woman looking to unseat State Rep. Angie King, R-Celina.
Mercer County Board of Elections members last month certified the petition of Arienne Childrey. Childrey was the lone Democrat to file to run for Ohio's 84th House District seat. The district covers all of Mercer County, southern Auglaize County and northern Darke County.
Facing no Democratic challengers in the March 19 primary election, Childrey is poised to advance to a showdown against King in the Nov. 5 general election.
Hibner on Friday submitted a letter of protest to the board of elections office, claiming Childrey has been known by at least one other name in the past year but did not list any other names on her petition.
A little-known 1990s state law says that a candidate must provide any name changes within the last five years to qualify for the ballot. The law is not currently listed on the candidate requirement guidelines on the Ohio Secretary of State's website.
"I would like to formally protest and request a rejection of the petition/declaration of candidacy as presented by Arienne Childrey," Hibner wrote in his letter to the board of elections, citing numerous sections of Ohio Revised Code.
Kristi Rable, deputy director of the board of elections, said the board will soon schedule a hearing on the matter. Asked by the newspaper, Rable said should board members vote to remove Childrey from the ballot, she would also be taken off ballots elsewhere in the 84th House District because Mercer County is the most populous county.
Arienne Childreyspeaks to a crowd at the Mercer County Courthouse last summer.
When reached by the newspaper on Friday evening, Childrey said she had no comment, adding she will speak with her counsel and respond as such. She indicated she will appear at the board's not-yet scheduled hearing.
Hibner's letter of protest against Childrey's candidacy comes on the heels of a transgender woman being disqualified this week from an Ohio House race because she omitted her previous name, raising concern that other transgender candidates nationwide may face similar barriers.
Vanessa Joy was one of four transgender candidates running for state office in Ohio, largely in response to proposed restrictions of the rights of LGBTQ+ people. She was running as a Democrat in House District 50 - a heavily Republican district in Stark County, Ohio - against GOP candidate Matthew Kishman. Joy legally changed her name and birth certificate in 2022, which she said she provided to the Stark County Board of Elections for the March 19 primary race.
To provide her former name, Joy said, would be to use her deadname - a term used by the transgender community to refer to the name given at birth, not one they chose that aligns with their gender identity.
And while Joy said the spirit of the law is to weed out bad actors, it creates a barrier for transgender people who want to run for office and may not want to share their deadname for important reasons, including concern about their personal safety.
"If I had known that I had to put my deadname on my petitions, I personally would have because being elected was important to me," Joy said. "But for many it would be a barrier to entry because they would not want their names on the petitions."
She continued, "It's a danger and that name is dead."
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose's office and the Stark County Board of Elections did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday. It is not clear if this law has applied to any current or previous state lawmakers.
Joy appealed her disqualification Thursday, and is now seeking legal representation. She plans to try to change Ohio's law.
"We're going to see this happening all over the place," she said. "This could be a snowball if I'm just the start of it. This is horrible news for the trans community."
- The Associated Press contributed to this article.
