COLUMBUS, Ohio – A former state lawmaker from Western Ohio says he’s challenging Secretary of State Frank LaRose in next year’s Republican primary election to be Ohio’s top elections official.
John Adams, of Shelby County, is seeking to challenge LaRose from the political right. He’s running on an “elections integrity” platform, a sweeping term often used by those who believe elections are marred by fraud, even though studies repeatedly have found it to be rare. The issue especially has taken hold on the political right after former President Donald Trump claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him, a claim rejected by his own justice and homeland security departments, some top Republicans and dozens of state and federal courts. (Trump won in Ohio by about 8 points.)
“After last year’s election cycle, sometimes you just have to do something,” Adams said in an interview. “If you look at the landscape, you see there is a distrust from the voters on our elections process. And I think that’s fair, based on what the polls are saying, that there’s angry voters out there.”
LaRose has called Ohio’s 2020 election “fair and honest,” and following the November election, generally criticized what he said was an increased trend of people challenging elections when they don’t like the results. LaRose said in July that voter fraud is “exceedingly rare” as his office referred 13 votes -- out of the 5.9 million votes cast -- from last year’s election for further investigation as possibly fraudulent.
Adams, who’s never run statewide before, left the legislature at the end of 2014 due to term limits, and then lost a 2016 Ohio Senate primary to now-Senate President Matt Huffman. He’s a former Navy SEAL who owns a furniture store in Celina, and said he’s spent much of his time since leaving office tending to his business interests.
LaRose is a Hudson Republican who moved to Columbus after he was elected Secretary of State in 2018. Besides Adams, Democrat Chelsea Clark, a suburban councilwoman from the Cincinnati area, also has announced a bid for secretary of state. Despite his lack of high-profile challengers, LaRose recently has flexed his campaign operation’s political muscles, announcing campaign chairs in all 88 counties, and recently reported more than $1 million in his campaign’s bank account.
“Last year under Secretary LaRose’s leadership, Ohioans came out in record numbers to have their voice heard in the presidential election,” Alex Pavloff, LaRose’s political director, said in an email. “The result was the most secure, most accessible, and most successful election in state history. Any challenger is welcome to take whatever misguided swipes they so choose at his successful record, but Secretary LaRose is going to continue running proudly on that strong record of accomplishment.”
Despite the uphill battle of challenging an incumbent, Adams said his hope is to give voters a choice.
“Word of mouth, grassroots will go a long way. But in the end it’s still going to take dollars. We know that. And hopefully we’re there at the end,” he said.
More specifically, Adams said his concerns with LaRose include last year’s delayed primary election, a move LaRose supported, as well as the fact that LaRose’s office joined dozens of Ohio’s counties last year in accepting grants from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that paid for personal protective equipment, polling-location rental and other over related expenses.
The move led Ohio lawmakers to block LaRose and other elections officials from accepting similar grants in the future, although the language is written so broadly that depending on how it’s enforced, it also could bar more routine voter-outreach efforts.
Adams also said he supports a tougher voter ID requirement than Ohio’s current law. As it stands, Ohioans need a photo ID to register to vote, but can use a utility bill to prove their residency at their polling place. Adams said voters should be required to show photo ID on Election Day too.
“Anybody you talk to, you can’t do anything in this country without an ID … And why don’t we require one for voting boggles everybody’s minds out there, other than legislators, who can’t seem to tighten it up,” Adams said.
Adams also referenced LaRose’s involvement with Kids Voting Ohio, a civic group that aims to promote civic engagement among young people. The group has on its website materials promoting anti-racism, a buzzword that has gotten wrapped up into the broader debate about “critical race theory,” an academic concept which examines the degree to which racism is baked into America’s institutions.
LaRose was part of Kids Voting Ohio’s board, but quit around the same time The Free Beacon, a conservative news website, published a story about LaRose’s involvement with the group. Other organizations represented on the group’s board include the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio School Boards Association.