Ohio graduate student says he’ll make another bid for governor in 2026

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio State University master’s student said Wednesday that he’s making an independent bid for governor in 2026.

This marks Timothy Grady’s second go at the office. The 28-year-old who says he advocates “new economic thinking” and systemic political change ran what he describes as a “largely satirical” write-in campaign in 2022. He earned the endorsement of performance artist and activist Vermin Supreme and finishing fourth of six candidates with 574 votes.

This time, he’s entering a race that includes billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who is backed by Trump and the state Republican Party, Appalachian entrepreneur Heather Hill, and Democrat Amy Acton, a former state health director who led Ohio through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grady said in a news release that he is “still not the candidate Ohioans deserve,” but, “In the current field, I can confidently say I’m the best candidate for the job, because our toxic politics otherwise keeps good people out.”

A native of northern Ohio’s Richland County, Grady is working toward a master’s of public administration at the university’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs. He recently chaired and led a reorganization of the Ohio chapter of the Forward Party, a centrist political movement founded by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.