Ohio Republicans advance bill to increase challenges to transgender candidates

A first hearing was held on Tuesday for a new bill aimed at increasing the frequency of Ohioans’ challenging the legitimacy of transgender candidates who have legally changed their names.  

The bill’s Republican sponsors – Reps. Rodney Creech (R-west Alexandria) and Angie King (R-Celina) – are both set to run against out transgender candidates in the 2024 general election. 

Members of the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee heard sponsor testimony Tuesday morning on Ohio House (HB) Bill 471, which would give voters registered under any political party legal footing to challenge the legitimacy of transgender candidates should they fail to publicly list their former legal names.

Currently, only registered voters from the same party as the prospective candidate can formally challenge the candidate’s legitimacy, for any reason.

Under HB 471, any voter could challenge any candidate based on a narrow list of criteria, including failing to list former legal names on official election paperwork – effectively outing transgender candidates, who would be required to publicly list any legal name change in the last five years. Additionally, current election paperwork does not provide a space for former names to be listed.

If passed, the bill could block both Creech and King’s political opponents from serving as elected officials entirely, even if voters choose to elect them in November.

Disqualifying transgender candidates

Republican lawmakers introduced HB 471 just weeks after House Democrats introduced HB 467, which would grant an exemption to an obscure Ohio law requiring candidates to formally disclose any changes of name in the past five years. The exemption would cover any legal name changes and mirrors an exemption already in the law on name changes resulting from marriage.

HB 467’s Democratic sponsors – Reps. Michele Grim (D-Toledo) and Beryl Piccolantonio (D-Gahanna) – said they drafted the legislation in direct response to a series of anti-LGBTQ+ incidents involving transgender candidates during the March 2024 election cycle:

In January, 42-year-old transgender candidate Vanessa Joy was disqualified from running for a seat in the Ohio House after she failed to include her former legal name on official election paperwork.

Transgender Ohio House candidate Arienne Childrey – King’s opponent in the race to represent District 84 – was cleared to run for office by the Auglaize County Board of Elections.

Creech’s opponent, Bobbie Arnold, is also transgender, and was cleared to appear on the ballot by the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

Should either of them win, both Arnold and Childrey face being forcibly vacated from their own seats as elected officials.

“Even if a candidate is elected after the violation of one of the five reasons outlined under this bill, the individual would be required to vacate their seat and pay back any funds received in the form of a salary,” said Creech during public testimony Tuesday.

“The candidate, should they win, will be immediately vacated from office,” King reiterated to the committee.

Committee members respond

Both HB 471 and HB 467 have been assigned to the House Government Oversight Committee. The Democrat-sponsored HB 467 received a first hearing on April 9.

During sponsor testimony Tuesday, committee members questioned the necessity of the statute.

“I don’t understand,” said Rep. Richard D. Brown (D-District 5). “I just don’t understand the purpose of this bill.”

Aside from the three transgender candidates currently running for seats in the Ohio House,  Brown noted concerns around citizenship, and how the law may be used to target specific candidates based on race or ethnicity.

“There are in fact bad actors out there, and politics is a dirty game – I know it is,” Brown said, noting that the bill could be used to level false allegations of election and identity fraud against specific individual candidates.

“That’s something we haven’t considered,” said King.

When questioned further, neither King nor Creech could describe the process of certifying candidates via any of the state’s 88 County Boards of Elections.

“We can’t speak to that,” King told committee members. “I’ve not ever worked with the Board of Elections. I don’t know what their process is.”

Protecting transgender candidates

Rep. Beth Liston (D-District 8) also questioned the necessity of the law, citing the effectiveness of existing election petition laws.

“I’m concerned about the process downstream,” said Liston, describing a potential situation in which candidates received dozens of challenges from voters, all of which require individual hearings to determine if the statute has been violated.

“That’s a pretty heavy investment of resources,” Liston said.

A history of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric

In 2023, Rep. King protested outside an LGBTQ+ pride event alongside members of a self-identified Christian group and the Aryan White Nationalists, a neo-Nazi group affiliated with the Aryan Freedom Network and organized Ku Klux Klan activity.

King also has a documented history of using anti-LGBTQ+ language consistent with Christian nationalism.

Last month, she appeared on the April 5th episode of “The Windsor Report,” a conservative talk radio show hosted by Jack Windsor, who regularly uses anti-transgender rhetoric to question both the existence as well as the mental health of transgender Ohioans.

During the segment, King repeatedly asserted that the current election law applies to everyone: “This is a requirement of every single candidate. Everyone has to follow the rule.”

King did not clarify that the law “does not apply to a change of name by reason of marriage,” and therefore does not apply to every single candidate. At one point during the interview, Windsor invented a hypothetical situation involving an incarcerated person:

“Based on their logic, that incarcerated criminal should be let go,” Windsor said, referring to his interpretation of the stance of trans candidates. “The new person should just waltz out of jail. Is that what they’re saying?”

However, Ohio’s current revised code does not allow Ohioans with criminal convictions to run for office, a point which King did not offer up in response to Windsor.

Further, King directly accused transgender candidates of lying about their legal identities.

“For a group that wants to talk about inclusion, they don’t want equality,” King said. “They don’t want to play by the same rules as everyone else. What they really want is special rights or exemptions to circumvent the law.”