POLITICS

At least one Republican plans to file against Trump in Ohio's GOP primary

Cincinnati Enquirer

Ohio will not cancel its 2020 Republican presidential primary election, but Ohio Republican Party officials are supporting only President Donald Trump in the run-up to the March 17 election.

Two candidates have emerged to challenge Trump: former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld and former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh.

Both candidates reached out to the Ohio GOP for more information on how to file, party spokesman Evan Machan said. The filing deadline is Dec. 18.

Machan questioned whether the campaigns had the infrastructure to qualify for the ballot, which involves submitting signatures of Republican voters and slates of delegates.

"We don’t know if they have anybody in the state collecting signatures," Machan said. "We’re firmly behind the president."

A Republican National Committee spokesman said Trump has delivered a long list of accomplishments for conservatives and any challenge to his nomination is "bound to go absolutely nowhere."

The most recent poll of Ohio Republican voters, from October, showed Trump cruising in a Republican primary. The Emerson College poll showed Trump with 87 percent of the vote.

Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld speak on a panel together during Politicon in October in Nashville. Sanford has since dropped out of the GOP presidential primary race.

Weld plans to file to be on the primary ballot in Ohio, a campaign spokesman told The Enquirer in an email. That includes completing paperwork for delegates and alternates and collecting signatures of 1,000 Republican voters.

"Gov. Weld has several hundred donors already from Ohio, and we are not without 'infrastructure'," Weld spokesman Joe Hunter said.

The Walsh campaign did not respond to questions about its plans in Ohio.

Both Walsh and Weld have qualified for Republican primaries in a handful of states, most recently in Florida.

GOP officials in several states have voted to skip holding primaries or caucuses to show support for Trump. Among those states: Alaska, Arizona, Nevada and South Carolina.

But that's not an option in Ohio.

Canceling presidential primaries when a popular incumbent is running is fairly common – but usually the candidate is unopposed.

Republicans canceled primaries in in 1992 and in 2004 when President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush, respectively, were seeking re-election.

Democrats canceled contests in 1996 for President Bill Clinton and in 2012 when president Barack Obama ran for re-election.