INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — In the city of Independence Wednesday, longtime Democrat Dennis Kucinich declared his own independence, announcing a run for Congress in the 7th District as an independent candidate.
“Washington, D.C. today is a house divided by partisanship, by special interest groups and by war,” Kucinich said. “Sharp divisions are seen within the parties and between the political parties, often producing gridlock which is damaging to our national security.”
It is a bold move for the man who made a career of them. Elected Cleveland's youngest mayor in 1977 at just 31. He served eight terms as a Democrat in Congress and made two tries at the Democratic nomination for president. The party system, like Washington itself, was much different then.
“I am uniquely able to reach in and to help to heal the partisan divide, to bring people together and to re-establish the sense of unity which is the essence of who we are as the United States,” he said.
It is polarization Kucinich knows will be on full display in a presidential election year. A debate he'll stay out of, saying he has friends who are for Trump, friends who are for Biden, and friends who are for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As for himself, Kucinich wryly added, "I'm for my friends."
While Congress has had Independents in recent years, they tend to be people who were elected as Republicans or Democrats and then switched to Independents after taking and eventually leaving office. A check shows the last member to actually run and win as an independent was Vermont’s Bernie Sanders when he was last elected to the House in 2004.
But Vermont is a state with only one seat in Congress, so that’s a statewide election. The last one to do it from a district, like Kucinich is attempting to do, appears to be Toledo's Frazier Reams, who did it back in the 1950s.
Kucinich told News 5 the difference for him will be that 45% of this district is made up of voters from when he was last in Congress, and to them, he says, "Judge what I say, I'll do by what I did."
“Years and years of proven ability to deliver are going to bring people to vote for me. They'll see my name on a ballot. There won't be any partisan designation but they know the name. And they know that whenever they needed something there's no matter too small, there's no matter too large I can't deal with."
The 7th district is Republican-leaning, with Miller winning the seat by close to 11 points in 2022. Miller told News 5, “My constituents are my first priority. I am proud of the work that my team and I have done for them on the ground in Ohio and representing them in DC during my first year in office. My focus will be to continue that hard work for the people of the 7th district.”
Kucinich will also have to face the winner of the March Democratic primary between Doug Bugie and Miller's 2022 opponent, Matthew Diemer.
He also has to win over voters like Sandy Gonsowski, a Democrat who said she would have voted for Kucinich as a Democrat. “(But) the only way we're going to flip the house is by getting more Democrats, and if Kucinich is running as an independent, he's going to dilute that vote,” she said.
