Business mogul Donald Trump has stood on the debate stage for the Republican Party in Ohio, and he has filed to run in the state’s primary. In Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office, that is enough to disqualify Trump from running as a third-party candidate, according to a Monday report from Cleveland.com.
Trump has threatened the Republican Party countless times that if they don’t treat him fairly, he is going to launch an independent campaign. Now, a spokesman for the secretary of state told Cleveland.com that it won’t be an option for Trump in Ohio.
According to Husted’s spokesman, a candidate can only run as a third-party candidate in Ohio if they “disaffiliate” from another party in “good faith.” The spokesman says that Trump is too far entangled in the GOP primary to back out as a Republican now.
“Since Donald Trump has filed a declaration of candidacy with our office as a Republican, has filed with Federal Election Commission as a Republican candidate, and voluntarily took part in the Republican presidential debates, the first of which was held in Ohio, there is no way for Mr. Trump to disaffiliate from the Republican Party ‘in good faith’ during this election cycle,” Husted spokesman Joshua Eck told the Plain Dealer.
If Trump really were ineligible to run as a third-party candidate in the key swing state of Ohio, it would undercut his leverage with the GOP at large and seriously undermine his ability to launch a credible third-party campaign.
