Ohio is about to see the rarest of circumstances in May 2026 — a contested Democratic primary for a statewide office, in this case for Ohio Secretary of State.
As of Thursday morning, there were two declared candidates to become Ohio’s next chief elections officer, when State Rep. Allison Russo, the former Ohio House minority leader, announced her candidacy.
Very interesting for a party that, as of today, has zero announced candidates for two other statewide offices, treasurer and auditor.
Russo, a 48-year-old from the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington, made it clear she is running because the current Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is term-limited out and is now running for state auditor, has caused “a rising mistrust in Ohio’s electoral system.”
Ohio Republicans are playing musical chairs with statewide offices this year. As LaRose campaigns for auditor, term-limited state treasurer Robert Sprague is running for secretary of state.
LaRose and the Republicans in the legislature, Russo said, “have been using the office for partisan gain and making it harder for Ohioans to vote.”
And LaRose, with his myriad directives to the 88 county boards of elections, “has caused a lot of frustration among the people who actually run the elections in our counties. The morale of election workers is very low right now. And that should not be the case. They work hard to assure safe and secure elections."
That’s also pretty much what her primary opponent, Bryan Hambley, a 40-year-old oncologist from Loveland, has to say about the 16 years where LaRose and Jon Husted, now an appointed U.S. Senator, have run elections in Ohio.
Hambley, an oncologist with UC Health, has long been active in Warren County’s Democratic Party, but what drove him to declare his candidacy for Ohio Secretary of State back in January — more than a year before the Feb. 2026 filing deadline — is what he says LaRose has done to confuse voters through deceptive ballot language.
Hambley says on his website that LaRose’s office has twice written confusing ballot language through the Ohio Ballot Board, which LaRose controls.
In 2023, the ballot board approved misleading ballot language for the reproductive rights amendment, and in 2024 "purposefully misconstrued the outcome for the anti-gerrymandering initiative," Hambley said.
In 2023, the abortion rights amendment was approved by voters, but, in November, the Citizens Not Politicians amendment was defeated.
“No Secretary of State should use their authority over ballot language to voters to get the result they want,” Hambley said.
Russo agrees. But she says her experience in state government gives her an advantage.
“I am running because I think I am the most qualified person for this job,” Russo said.
“When it comes to the integrity of elections, if you have a president pushing out bizarre ideas like Trump did, suggesting that we end voting by mail, we need a secretary of state who will push back hard,” Russo said. “I believe this office should be nonpartisan, but I will always stand up for people’s right to vote. Voting is a right, not a privilege.”
On Wednesday, WVXU caught up with Hambley as he was driving to a campaign event in Chesterland in Geauga County — it was, he said, his 136th campaign event since declaring his candidacy.
“We are in every corner of the state,” Hambley said. “We are in this race to stay. Our goal is to win not only the primary but the general election as well and take over that office for the people of Ohio.”
And so begins the contest between the Democratic insider and the Democratic outsider. But that is the only thing that separates Russo and Hambley.
On the issues, there is little space between them.
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