Ohio
Ohio bars transgender politician from House bid for not disclosing deadname
A transgender woman running for an Ohio House seat was disqualified for not using a birth name in election filings.
Vanessa Joy, a biological man who identifies as a woman, was the lone Democratic candidate campaigning for the seat in Ohio’s 50th district. While Joy’s campaign has gathered the sufficient signatures, the petition only used Joy’s new first and last names, which changed from those given at birth while also being adopted within the last five years; it was a violation of a 1995 election law.
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This law does not apply to name changes more than ten years old. However, a married name change does not make one ineligible.
“That law is unintentionally discriminatory to Trans people, but the main issue is that the 2024 Candidate Guide does NOT have any information about this requirement listed. Nor do the petitions themselves,” Joy said of the law in an Instagram post on Thursday.
Joy has since appealed the disqualification to the Stark County Board of Elections. The candidate claimed a campaign was born out of a desire “to break the Republican supermajority that has a stranglehold on human rights in my state.”
“While I understand that the spirit of the law was not intended to be discriminatory, it is, in fact, a discriminatory barrier for the LGBTQIA2S+ community at large,” the appeal reads. “Therefore, I feel my disqualification, despite being done by the letter of the law, was unjust.”
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Ohio’s 50th district has had the same Republican incumbent, Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus, since 2018. In 2020, Stoltzfus ran unopposed, and now, with Joy out of the race, Republican candidate Matthew Kishman will run unopposed.
There are at least three other transgender women running as candidates in the Ohio government. Bobbie Arnold, Arienne Childrey, and Ari Faber are also campaigning in Republican districts.
STRYKER, Ohio (WKRC) – An Ohio woman allegedly broke into her ex-husband’s home while he was sleeping and threatened to kill him before opening fire.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime, 31-year-old Amanda Heller broke into a man’s home on April 26. The man was identified as Heller’s ex-husband by local outlet WTOL.
After the victim woke up, Heller allegedly threatened to kill him before taking out a handgun and firing twice.
No injuries were reported in connection to the shooting, Law&Crime reported. Nobody else was in the home at the time of the incident, authorities reported.
Heller was arrested and charged with felonious assault, attempted aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, domestic violence, and improperly discharging a weapon at or into a habitation or school.
AI influencers are all over your feed
AI influencers may not change minds — but they can amplify division and inflame political tensions online.
We can’t believe our eyes
Re “AI political ads bring fears over ’26 election,” May 27: I fully support House Bill 185. It probably doesn’t go far enough. This is a prime example of “don’t believe everything you see on the Internet.”
I am being inundated with emails and text messages from organizations and people I do not know. I block them as spam, but it doesn’t seem to do any good. About the only way to combat this is to attend a live debate between candidates, but most people do not have the time to do that.
I use AI every day with caution. We need better ways of identifying AI-created falsehoods.
Edwin Heller, Dublin
Tell voters what’s real
Re “AI political ads bring fears over ’26 election,” May 27: I don’t think AI should be used in political ads, but there is no way to stop it.What we can and should do is require campaigns to certify that their ad did or did not use AI to generate or edit content that:
- Makes a real person appear to say or do something they didn’t say or do.
- Alters footage of a real event or place.
- Generates a realistic-looking scene that didn’t actually occur.
We grade movie content. Why not political advertising? The public needs a way to help distinguish truth from fiction.
Richard Wires, Columbus
Ban political ads, already
Re “AI political ads bring fears over ’26 election,” May 27: Political ads should be banned. Those using – AI-generated or not. I don’t trust anything I read online anymore, and especially political ads.
People read/see those ads, don’t research the information in them, and vote according to, oftentimes, the misinformation in those ads. The huge amounts of money being spent on ads is sinful!
Lyn Miller, Smithville
Food cuts hurt hungry families
While President Donald Trump and Republicans continually find new ways to enrich their billionaire funders and friends, they’ve made the largest cuts to SNAP in history, making it more difficult for over 40 million Americans, including 16 million children and 8 million seniors, to access healthy foods and forcing them to rely on the cheapest foods (usually the most ultra-processed}.
They’re especially hurting American children and setting them up for worse health outcomes than previous generations by making it harder for them to access healthy foods.
They’ve cut funding to support farm-to-school programs and food banks, passed the largest cut to food assistance in history, and are pushing to end the decades-old practice of putting fluoride in water to reduce tooth decay. Most appalling, they’ve even allowed food companies to use cancer-causing chemicals in snack foods targeted to children.
Meanwhile, they’ve allowed food companies to take advantage of inflation to raise prices to increase their profits. A Kroger executive suggested that inflation is good for business when he testified the chain has hiked the milk and eggs prices beyond the costs from inflation.
This is one more reason that we must do all we can to get Republicans out of office.
Russ Smith, Strongsville
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – The FBI was part of a search of multiple properties related to Stansley Mining on Friday, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed.
A Public Affairs Officer for the FBI Cleveland Division confirmed to the 13 Action News I-TEAM that authorities searched a business in the area of Siliva Road in Sylvania, as well as property in Ottawa County by State Route 590 in Benton Township.
Officials with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation told the 13 Action News I-TEAM that they executed a search warrant at the property in Benton Township. Ohio BCI’s environmental division and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency were involved in the search.
It’s unclear exactly what officials were looking for. The FBI spokesperson said there wasn’t additional information to share at this point, but added there is no threat to the public.
Stansley Mining is the entity that owns Rocky Ridge Development, a company at the center of extensive 13 Action News coverage after its South Toledo mining operation was improperly working in a residentially-zoned area.
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