Independent Candidate for Congress, in Ohio’s 10th congressional district, Michael Harbaugh’s signatures were certified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections on Monday, April 8, 2024. This is real news. You read it here first, seeing as the Dayton Daily News doesn’t know what news is anymore.

Harbaugh accomplished the near impossible, turning in enough signatures to get 3000 approved by the Montgomery County Board of Elections that finds fault with at least 20% of all petitions turned in by challengers- and sometimes as high as 50%. His signatures, collected in the three counties that encompass OH-10, all of Montgomery and Greene and a part of Clark, involved all 3 boards of elections. In a conversation on March 28th, he lamented that Greene County was dragging their feet. He claimed only 2-3 signatures per petition (Form 2-E) were getting thrown out according to sources in the BOE. The petition has 32 lines to sign.

Harbaugh, 39 lives in Kettering and is an Ohio University grad. He owns a food truck, and announced his candidacy on Reddit. He has a Ballotpedia entry, a website, and has raised about $3K reported. He also has some past legal issues that will come up and more than likely be ignored by voters.

Congressman Mike Turner will not debate him, or Cox, unless either raises at least half a million. At least that’s been the 20 year history of this seat, since it was abdicated by former Congressman Tony Hall, a pro-life Dem who saw the writing on the wall of redistricting by the Ohio legislature that had been bought by the Koch Brothers. Turner was again aided when they took out Congressman Steve Austria through the redistricting process when Ohio lost a Congressional seat due the 2010 census.

The question of if Cox and Harbaugh will debate, or even attend a forum will be interesting. Cox was evasive at best in the only primary forum, hosted by the South Dayton Dems.

The real question is will one of the national attempts at a third party decide to back him- ie The Forward Party, The No Labels Party. It’s been a long time since anyone has attempted this, although a libertarian or two has slipped on the ballot in the past to no effect.

He posts a “11 laws to introduce on Day 1” on the front page of his site. It’s pretty obvious he doesn’t quite understand how things work in DC. I am only posting these for posterity and in case they change over time (you really should do your own homework and look at his site:

11 Laws to Introduce Day 1

1. Ranked Choice Voting and Term Limits to stop career politicians
2. Get Dark Money out of politics, End Citizens United
3. Make it a felony for members of Congress and their spouses to Buy/Sell Stocks while in office and 1 year after leaving office
4. Members of Congress lose their Federal Health Insurance until they pass universal Healthcare Coverage for all Americans
5. Tax breaks and grants/loans small-medium size family farms
6. All States need to use paper ballots to protect their elections
7. Spending cuts and transparency reforms to the corrupt military defense contractor system ripping off taxpayers
8. End the War on Drugs and implement a Harm Reduction/Healthcare Strategy like in Switzerland
9. Give Americans $100 tax break to vote and make election day a paid holiday
10. Pay immediately the pensions + damages + interest to the 20,000 non-union Delphi workers screwed out of their retirement during the Bankruptcy of GM in 2009. Attach it as an amendment to must pass Federal spending legislation
11. Pay all medical bills and buy homes at double market value to compensate every victim in East Palestine, Ohio for the train derailment that poisoned the entire town

https://www.harbaugh4congress.com/

Considering neither party believes in true presidential primaries, at least it’s nice to have a choice for Congress. We’ll have more on Mr. Harbaugh as time and funds permit.