This law was used to keep trans people off the ballot. Now it’s being used against a cis Republican.

A cisgender Ohio Republican running to retain his seat in the state’s House of Representatives could be disqualified under the same 1995 law used earlier this year to challenge the candidacies of three transgender Democrats.

State Rep. Tex Fischer (R), a 28-year-old former political consultant, was appointed to represent Ohio’s 58th district in June, filling a vacancy left after the district’s former representative, Alessandro Cutrona (R), was appointed to the Ohio Senate. Fischer is currently running to retain his seat.

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Ohio Democrats & Republicans introduce dueling bills in battle over trans candidates’ deadnames

The Republican bill was introduced by two state Representatives who are facing trans challengers in November’s election.

But as Cleveland.com reported, earlier this month, Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman Chris Anderson filed a complaint with local election officials on August 13, arguing that Fischer should be disqualified due to an obscure state law requiring candidates to disclose any name changes that have taken place within the last five years.

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According to Cleveland.com, Fischer legally changed his name from Austin James Fischer to Austin James Texford Fischer in 2020. Mahoning Board of Elections Chairman David Betras told the outlet that Fischer had “put his changed name on everything” but did not include his former name on paperwork certifying his candidacy.

“If they’re going to use the law to penalize trans candidates, then it needs to be applied equally,” Anderson said.

In January, real estate photographer Vanessa Joy, who was running as a Democrat in Ohio’s firmly Republican House District 50, was disqualified from the race by the Stark County Board of Elections under the 1995 law. Joy, who is transgender and changed her name in 2022, has said she was unaware of the law, which was not mentioned in the Ohio secretary of state’s 2024 candidate guide and has not been included in previous candidate guides in recent years. Nor did the candidacy petition forms Joy filled out include any mention of the law or space to list any name changes.

Two other transgender Democrats also had their candidacies for Ohio state House seats challenged under the same law. But both Bobbie Arnold and Arienne Childrey have since been cleared to have their names appear on the November ballot.

On August 15, the bipartisan Mahoning Board of Elections held a hearing on Anderson’s complaint, resulting in a 2–2 split. The complaint has been sent to Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, for a tiebreaking vote. According to WOUB, a spokesperson for LaRose would not say last week when the Ohio secretary of state would issue a decision.

Anderson told WOUB that he thinks it’s unlikely that LaRose will disqualify Fischer. “It’s a Republican that is trying to win back favor among his own party,” Anderson said.

Fischer has characterized the challenge to his own candidacy as “childish” and “petty political nonsense.”

“It’s fundamentally undemocratic to try and deprive the voters of a choice in November on a technicality,” he said.

At the same time, Fischer has had little to say about the challenges to Arnold and Childrey’s candidacies or Joy’s disqualification, telling multiple outlets that he is unaware of the details of those cases. According to WOUB, he did however seem to agree with Anderson that the law in question should be clarified.

“I don’t believe those individuals were necessarily trying to deceive the voters,” Fischer said of Arnold, Childrey, and Joy.

In late May, Democratic state Reps. Michele Grim and Beryl Brown Piccolantonio introduced a bill that would prevent future candidates from being disqualified under the 1995 law. H.B. 467 would amend the existing law so that candidates would not have to disclose their recent legal name changes if the name change was approved by an Ohio court. The bill would also require candidate forms to include space to list previous names used within the last five years and require the Ohio secretary of state to include information about the name change requirements in candidate guides.

“If someone has gone through the process to legally change their name, there is absolutely no reason they should be required to disclose prior names,” Piccolantonio said of Fischer’s case. “This situation with my colleague is no different than the situations that occurred at the end of last year/beginning of this year for candidates.”

Of course, the existing law has not been equally applied, with Joy disqualified while Arnold and Childrey have been cleared to appear on the November ballot, and Piccolantonio could not explain why Fisher should remain on the ballot while Joy’s candidacy was blocked. “I guess I just don’t have an answer to that question,” she said. The situation, she said, illustrates why her law needs to be passed.

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