Two Democrats running for Ohio governor skip voting, records show

Neither cast ballots in 2016 election, data indicates.

Democrat Jon COLUMBUS —

Heavey is serious about running for Ohio governor. He poured $1.5 million into his campaign, created a snappy website and hired a team.

“...I’m upset about Trump. And as a veteran with little tolerance for cowards, I’m here — quite frankly — because I’m mad as hell. Trump pretends to be ‘America First,’ when everyone knows PrimaDonny is a self-serving, draft-dodging coward,” Heavey says on his website.

But Heavey did not vote on Nov. 8, 2016 when Donald Trump was on the ballot. Why?

“That’s a fair question. The honest answer is that I didn’t feel either candidate represented my community,” said Heavey, a Cleveland Clinic physician and venture capitalist who holds degrees from Dartmouth, Vanderbilt and Yale.

But in skipping the top of the ticket, the Rocky River resident also took a pass on voting on U.S. Senate, Congress, two state legislators, state school board, three seats on the state supreme court, county prosecutor and 20 other judicial races.

“It is what it is,” Heavey said when asked about not voting on the down ticket races.

Voter records show that almost all the other candidates for governor consistently go to the polls.

The only other candidate with a spotty voting record is Democrat Larry Ealy, a former male stripper and truck driver.

Ealy could not be reached for comment on his Montgomery County voting record, which shows he last voted in 2014. That’s the year Ealy got 17 percent of the vote against Ed FitzGerald in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

FitzGerald, a former FBI agent, went on to lose in a landslide to incumbent Republican John Kasich. FitzGerald didn’t have a driver’s license for the better part of 10 years. But he did consistently vote, records show.