Progressive Morgan Harper is urging the local Democratic Party to refrain from endorsing a candidate in the primary race for Ohio's 3rd Congressional District, where she's challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty.
Beatty hasn’t faced a primary challenger for the heavily Democratic seat since winning it in 2012.
Now, Harper is refusing to participate in the process to earn the Franklin County Democratic Party's endorsement. She says the party shouldn’t put a thumb on the scale by backing one candidate or another.
“I’m doing this because we as a community need to be coming together and learning about the two Democrats that are running in this race and the policy differences between us and that’s what the party should be spending resources on," Harper says.
Harper says the party should be organizing debates between her and Beatty, “instead of spending resources and time issuing marketing material that only features one candidate and really misleading people into thinking they don’t have choices on March 17, 2020.”
Harper argues that in 2012, the last time there was a contested primary, the party declined to endorse a candidate in the four way race.
In an email, Franklin County Democratic Party chair Michael Sexton said the party still intends to issue endorsements for all federal races in January of next year, and he encouraged Harper to participate.
"I look forward to a successful 2020 with a diverse team of candidates to continue the blue wave in Franklin County," Sexton said.
