Pastor Niel Petersen won’t make fall governor ballot
A Dayton-area pastor who hoped to unseat Gov. Mike Dewine didn’t collect enough valid signatures to make the November ballot, the Ohio Secretary of State’s office announced Monday.
Niel Petersen, a pastor at Harvest Revival Center in Brookville, previously announced a gubernatorial bid “to rid the Republican Party of the RINOS (Republicans in name only)” but he fell short of collecting the 5,000 needed signatures. He instead had 4,445 valid ones.
Democrats had hoped that Petersen would pull votes from Dewine, which would benefit their candidate: former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
A USA TODAY Network Ohio/suffolk University poll had Petersen, listed as an independent, winning 10.6% of the vote. The poll’s margin of error was plus of minus 4.4 percentage points.
Two other candidates did not make the ballot: gubernatorial candidate F. Patrick Cunnane and U.S. Senate candidate Kelli Prather. Cunnane had enough valid signatures but he voted in the May primary, which barred him from running as an independent. Prather collected only 1,058 valid signatures.
Terpsehore Maras, a former President Donald Trump backer, election conspiracist and blogger, did make the ballot, running for Ohio Secretary of State against incumbent Republican Frank Larose and Democrat Chelsea Clark. She collected 5,010 valid signatures.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.