An Ohio law on candidate names enacted in 1995 has made way for a string of challenges to Statehouse candidacies this election cycle, nearly three decades after it was enacted, and the latest is in front of Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
Though seldom enforced, state law requires disclosure of any former names a candidate has used in the past five years on both their candidacy statement and nominating papers, according to the Ohio Revised Code.
In January, three candidates—all of whom are transgender women and running as Democrats—faced objections for not using their deadnames, or their names prior to transitioning, on their paperwork. Two of the candidates, Arienne Childrey in the 84th Ohio House District and Bobbie Arnold in the 40th District, were certified by their county boards of elections. But Vanessa Joy, in the 50th District, was blocked from the ballot.
Now the Mahoning County Democratic Party is calling into question 28-year-old Rep. Tex Fischer’s (R-Boardman) candidacy, asking whether it violated that same mandate.
“I'm just trying to see whether the law actually applies equally or if it’s like everything else we've seen out of Columbus,” party chair Chris Anderson said Tuesday in an interview, “where it's just … one set of rules for Republicans to follow and then one set of rules for everybody else.”
Fischer goes by Tex, but his legal name is Austin James “Texford” Fischer. He tacked on Texford in 2020.
“There was an older gentleman at church who just started calling me Tex and I thought, you know, I like that more than my given name, so I'm going to roll with it,” Fischer said in an interview Wednesday.
A friend suggested Texford in 2020. “One of them just basically said, ‘You should say Tex is short for something, have a little fun with it,’” he said.
Fischer was appointed to take over now-Sen. Al Cutrona’s (R-Canfield) House seat in late June, ending a series of musical chairs. Republican former U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson had resigned from Congress to lead Youngstown State University, former Sen. Michael Rulli won Johnson’s seat and Cutrona was appointed to Rulli’s seat. Now Fischer is running to retain that seat in House District 59 against Laura Schaeffer, a Democrat.
But Anderson, in a letter sent to the Mahoning County Board of Elections last Monday, asked members to boot him from the fall ballot—arguing he did not properly include his earlier name, without Texford, on his party nomination. The objection can be read here.
Following a 90-minute hearing last Thursday, the board divided 2-2 along partisan lines, passing the tiebreak vote to LaRose.
Anderson said he doesn’t think LaRose will be won over. “It's a Republican that is trying to win back favor among his own party. I mean Christ, the guy got third in the (U.S.) Senate race, in his own neighborhood,” he said.
Fischer called it “childish.”
“You can call me whatever name you want to call me,” Fischer said. “But at the end of the day, if you want to beat me, I want you to beat me about the ideals that I believe in, the work that I'm doing in the house, and not on sort of petty political nonsense like this.”
As for the cases involving Childrey, Arnold and Joy, he said he wasn't aware of all the details but sees a different situation. Fischer changed only some of his name, he said. Anderson and Fischer both said the law could be clarified.
“I don't believe those individuals were necessarily trying to deceive the voters,” Fischer said.
A spokesperson for LaRose confirmed Wednesday the office had received necessary information from Mahoning County but couldn’t say when LaRose would issue a decision.
