A little-known candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives is asking voters to speak up on Gaza by sitting out the primaries.
Cleveland Canova is the only Democrat running to represent District 56 in the Ohio House of Representatives, which includes Lebanon, Mason and the central and southwest reaches of Warren County. Depending on how the primaries shake out, Canova will face one of three Republican challengers in November: incumbent state Rep. Adam Mathews, former Mason mayor Kathy Grossmann or first-time candidate Heather Salyer.
Canova moved to Cincinnati from Louisiana in the early ’90s, teaching American history at Hughes High School and coaching football. As the only Democrat running for the District 56 seat, Canova is asking voters to stay home for a primary boycott on March 19 to send a ceasefire message to Congress and President Joe Biden.
“I know it seems counterintuitive to say, ‘Hey, I’m running for office, but don’t vote for me,'” Canova told CityBeat. “But morality is morality, and I prefer to be on the right side of history.”
Biden’s remarks on the situation in the Middle East during the March 7 State of the Union address did not satisfy Canova. He thinks Biden is too supportive of Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza, saying the bombing has far exceeded what’s necessary to bring Hamas to justice for the Oct. 7 attacks.
“We are the most highly technically advanced military on the planet, and Israel is getting those weapons from us,” Canova said. “When you look at Gaza, it looks like World War II technology is being used to bomb city blocks. The excuse in the State of the Union last night was that [Hamas] is hiding. Are you suggesting that our technology can be duped and fooled by people hiding in buildings? That’s just not acceptable. So to me, 30,000 dead at this point and injured is unacceptable.”
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Withholding your vote, Canova said, is the most powerful form of protest people can make right now, and he wants his Republican challengers to call on their party to do the same.
“Voting is the people’s currency. The vote only has leverage when the vote is needed, and there’s only going to be two opportunities for that. There’s gonna be an opportunity in the primary, which is March 19 in this state, and of course, November. But I don’t think we want to see another seven months of what’s going on currently in Gaza,” he said. “I’m urging candidates both Republican and Democrat to tell their constituents stay home on March 19. We know we have a short window of time to get this message across to the people in power that can change this.”
During a March 2 pro-Palestinian protest in downtown Cincinnati, Canova said it appeared he was the only political candidate in attendance. He said young people have captured the same spirit for Gaza that he saw as a young child during the Vietnam War.
“Vietnam was so unpopular and caused such civil unrest in the United States because it was one of the first televised wars,” Canova said. “And that’s what we’re seeing now. We’re seeing social media, particularly TikTok. You’re seeing the play-by-play of war and the play-by-play of this tragedy unfold. You’ve got a generation of millennials who grew up [watching] war, and they’re tired of it.”
Collective action to send Biden officials a ceasefire message has already crept into early voting. Hundreds of thousands of voters across the country cast a ballot for no candidate or different versions of “uncommitted” during the March 5 Democratic primaries. The movement came just a week after 100,000 Michigan voters selected “uncommitted” to send a message to Biden over his handling of the situation in Gaza.
Election Day for primary voting in Ohio is March 19 at designated polling locations. View your sample ballot and find your polling location on the Ohio Secretary of State’s website.
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This article appears in Mar 6-19, 2024.
