Updated: January 2, 2013, 3:48 PM.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is getting a primary challenger.
Ohio Tea Party leader Ted Stevenot plans to announce his candidacy for governor on Jan. 7. Stevenot’s decision to challenge Kasich follows the Ohio governor promoting the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare in Ohio. Stevenot has strongly criticized Kasich for highlighting the expansion.
Stevenot is the former president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, a tea party group in the state. According to an announcement on the coalition’s website, Stevenot will announce his candidacy on Jan. 7 at a press conference where he will also introduce his running mate, Brenda L. Mack, who served as the president of the Ohio Black Republicans Association.
To appear on the Republican primary ballot on Feb. 5, Stevenot and Mack have to collect at least 1,000 signatures for the candidacy, according to Politico.
“Ted is serious about running. It is all about giving people a choice in this election, and in the case of Ted, a conservative choice,” Ohio Tea Party leader Tom Zawistowski told the Daily Beast of Stevenot’s candidacy. Zawistowski helped circulate Stevenot’s announcement. “I don’t think many conservative Republicans, who vote in primaries think that John Kasich has been a conservative at all.”
In a separate interview with ABC News Zawistowski was even more direct.
“He’s literally not a conservative, whether it’s his attempt to tax the oil and gas industry or Medicaid expansion,” Zawistowski said according to ABC News.
Stevenot’s latest candidacy is actually the latest skirmish in an ongoing war between establishment Republicans and tea party Republicans in Ohio. In 2013 Kasich passed up Zawistowski for Matt Borges when selecting a Republican Party chairman.
“We are excited to support John Kasich in his reelection,” Borges told the Daily Beast. “I am optimistic about the governor’s chances for victory in November and we are going to work hard to make that a reality.”
