COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Democratic leaders are in support of Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden as their presidential candidate, but some Republicans argue that the Dems are being "unfair."
"Our president Joe Biden fights for the American people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation," Harris said in her first appearance since the president dropped his reelection bid.
But it's time for a new Democratic leader.
"We can just finally have a sigh of relief and know that we are all moving forward," state Rep. Juanita Brent (D-Cleveland) said.
After Biden ended his campaign Sunday, Ohio Statehouse leaders like Rep. Juanita Brent are standing behind Harris as the new choice.
"We have an opportunity to support the first black woman to be a major nominee for our party of serious consideration," Brent, the vice president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, said.
Her view is joined by both House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood).
"I'm excited about her candidacy," Russo said. "I think that she is going to inject some energy in this campaign, particularly for young voters, for voters in many of our communities. I'm excited about how unified the Democrats have become in the last 24 hours."
Antonio posted a picture of her with Harris to social media, with a caption simply stating, "I said Kamala!"
But some Republicans like state Rep. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) say this isn’t fair to the Ohioans and Americans who voted for Biden in the March primary.
"They're the ones who are disenfranchising millions and millions of voters by discounting their vote and taking him down," Bird said. "This is a coup from the left to take down their candidate."
He believes that the Dems are hypocritical.
"The Left constantly cries about, 'Oh, democracy is under attack' and 'President Trump is going to attack democracy,'" he said. "But they've not carried out the will of the people who voted for [Biden]... It's undemocratic."
State Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) feels the same, and he is calling for the party to slow down and hear from the citizens.
"It's undemocratic for the Democrat party to just have a hand-picked person by the elites, by the donors," Williams said. "Do a couple of town halls leading into the convention and then your top three, your top four go to the convention, give speeches."
In a speech Republican vice presidential candidate and U.S. Senator JD Vance gave Monday in his hometown of Middletown, a city of 50,000 between Cincinnati and Dayton, he argued Democratic leadership was "corrupt."
"This entire system of ours is about, you got to persuade voters, you got to win their votes," Vance said. "You don't decide who the president is in smoke-filled rooms with billionaires and senior elected officials."
No one has officially chosen Harris yet, Brent said.
Democratic delegate coordinator state Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) argued that the Republicans don't know the DNC rules, which differ from RNC.
"With Joe Biden dropping out, all delegates are theoretically free agents and can now vote for whomever they think is best," DeMora said. "It is an open convention because nobody is pledged to vote."
It isn't as much about the legality as it is about the idea of having a fair election, Williams said.
"That's not a Democrat process, that's not having a primary where the voters are listening to debates and they go to the polls and they decide themselves on who they want to be their nominee," the Republican added.
We went out to talk to voters in Cleveland and Columbus, Democratic strongholds. Each voter told us they were either supportive of Harris or they "didn't care," as long as the individual could "beat Trump."
The most wary person we spoke to, Northeast Ohioan Ken Kuehls, still backed the party.
"I'm not sure if our next choices are any good, but gotta go with it, right?" Kuehls said.
RELATED: Biden is out — what happens next for Ohio?
Some Statehouse Democrats argue that the GOP is just mad because Harris is a bigger threat to Trump than Biden was. Bird denied this.
"Morgan, it's because they've known for the last 3.5 years that he wasn't mentally and physically capable of doing this job — they've known it all of this time and yet they went ahead and ran him in primaries knowing he couldn't do the job," Bird told me, adding that he was an incumbent and no one could run against an incumbent. "Then when their polling shows that he can't win against Donald Trump, they're desperate to find some other way to somehow eke out a win when they're getting ready to lose."
It is a bait-and-switch, Williams argued.
"We were called the ones that were trying to be totalitarian dictators," Williams said. "Now we're looking at a party that gets to hand-pick their successors. You tell me what that looks like."
All Democrats we have spoken to over the past 24 hours were unbothered by the accusations from the GOP.
"We can just focus on unifying for our DNC convention and unifying behind one candidate so we can beat Trump and JD Vance this November," Brent said.
DeMora was entertained, taking time to insult both Trump and Vance.
"Whoever our nominee might be, whether it's the vice president or if someone else comes out of this process, they're a much better candidate," DeMora said. "They're not felons, they're coherent public servants who are going to serve the people of the United States honorably and legally."
It is laughable that Ohio Republicans would complain that Dems are being anti-Democratic, he said.
"We have the most corrupt Statehouse in the United States," DeMora said, citing Republican leaders who sold out the Statehouse in exchange for bribery legislation that citizens are still paying for.
Ohio Democrats have previously cited state Republicans as going against democracy for the following: Going against the will of the voters on anti-gerrymandering reform they passed, going against a bipartisan Ohio Supreme Court that rejected said gerrymandered maps seven separate times, trying to subvert the people's voice on abortion, marijuana and voting access (special election to make the constitution harder to amend), failing to pass constitutional funding for public schools for decades and a seemingly endless list of other fights Democrats lose time and time again (they say because the district maps are gerrymandered).
Also, the Republicans are supporting a man who tried to steal the 2020 election, DeMora added.
"He's been lying about it and he still doesn't agree that he lost the election," the Democrat said about Trump. "His entire life is built on lies."
Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters, a delegate, endorsed Harris Monday morning, so the other 143 delegates will likely follow suit — but only because parties tend to coalesce around one candidate, DeMora said.
A virtual roll call was supposed to be held to nominate Biden to Ohio’s ballot the first week of August ahead of the DNC. But thanks to a new law passed in May — due to the state's unrelated Biden Ballot Debacle — Democrats have until Sept. 1 to certify another candidate. The DNC starts on Aug. 19.
Susan Tebben contributed to this story by providing quotes from Democratic leaders.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
