Why I'm voting for a leukemia doctor as Ohio's next Secretary of State
Dr. Bryan Hambley's campaign has been a breath of fresh air within the Ohio Democratic Party. More importantly, he has the humility to know his biggest weakness.
I was skeptical of Dr. Bryan Hambley at first.
Oh, look at me! I’m Dr. Bryan Hambley. I’m a handsome, renowned oncologist with a loving family and a full head of hair, and for my next trick, I’ll glide into the Secretary of State’s office as a Democrat in Ohio!
Fuck you, Dr. Hambley! Or so I might have thought in January 2025.
I expected a vanity campaign from a bored, albeit well-intentioned doctor who would soon expose himself as a novice unfit for primetime.
Fortunately for Ohio, Hambley’s campaign has been the opposite of that.
Hambley has proven himself a prodigious fundraiser, raising roughly $835,000 according to the latest filings—a staggering sum for a first-time candidate that refused to accept a dime of the corporate PAC money that has polluted American politics.
A critic might note that number, though impressive, includes roughly $150,000 of Hambley’s own money.
While correct, that only proves Hambley is also the rare type of rich guy who’s willing to put his money where his mouth is—a stark contrast to Republican gubernatorial candidate and alleged billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy spending $12,000 in donor money to play pickleball with two repellent YouTubers at a luxury resort in Costa Rica.
But a pile of money only goes so far, especially for a first-time candidate trying to cover a state as massive as Ohio. Hambley, however, has barnstormed the state for the past 16 months in the requisite American-made Jeep.
According to his campaign, Hambley has visited 77 of Ohio’s 88 counties. It’s an impressive number to anyone who has driven around Ohio. But as someone who has waged an electoral campaign within a measly 1.5 counties, as I did in 2018, that number is mind-blowing.
It speaks to the dedication and genuineness that Hambley has brought to his campaign. Every political campaign is an act of ego, but Hambley’s willingness to travel across the state to speak in rooms of every size to engage potential voters shows how deeply he cares about fixing Ohio’s problems, which no reader of The Rooster needs a refresher on.
That direct action and follow-through is something that the Ohio Democratic Party has lacked in recent years. And looking back, it’s something that was somehow even more needed in January 2025, when nobody thought Dr. Amy Acton had a chance at being Ohio’s first woman governor.
Arrest Mayor Suburbs! Exclusively available through our Franklinton-based friends, the Supporter Supply Company.
Former Senator Sherrod Brown, the longtime de facto shotcaller of the party, dragged his feet through most of last year and was ready to supplant his hand-picked candidate in Acton at the top of the ticket right until Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer persuaded him for one last swing at Washington D.C.
The indecision trickled down to the rest of the ticket, which the party, led by Brown’s hand-picked chairwoman, Kathleen Clyde, struggled to fill until a couple of weeks before the filing deadline earlier this year.
Hambley didn’t wait for Sherrod to decide. He didn’t wait to see whether crypto pervert Tim Ryan would enter the fray. He didn’t try to broker a backroom deal for a lesser seat of power, either.
He saw a problem; he diagnosed it, and he swiftly set about trying to cure it.
Hambley’s campaign has shown that he has a complete political worldview and understands how Ohio’s gerrymandered legislative maps bleed into everyday problems like rising healthcare costs, inadequate funding of publication and one of the most regressive tax codes in the country.
The biggest knock against Hambley from critics is that the Ohio Republican Junta will be able to snooker a political newcomer. And to be fair, I considered that concern in recent months during a mental process that, at times, had me wishing I could cast two ballots.
But this is Ohio, where the Republican Junta would put the screws to Jesus Christ of Nazareth if He returned with a (D) next to his name. Hambley wouldn’t be running if he thought our current overlords were honorable and acting in good faith.
Still, I am a believer that experience matters in government. Now more than perhaps it ever did. And if Hambley were going to be the sole person running the show, my vote would go the other way.
However, after my appearance on his podcast, I gave Hambley the kind of honest (and unsolicited) advice that has become the hallmark of The Rooster.
He must hire a stone-cold assassin of a lawyer as his second-in-command. In the figurative sense, but maybe in the literal sense, too.
Look at our current oaf of a Secretary of State, Frank LaRose.
He at least had the sense to tap former Senate President Larry Obhof as his No. 2 in the office.
Obhof, a barred attorney by day, was the one who, according to multiple sources, coordinated with Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters to ratfuck the ballot language for the anti-gerrymandering Constitutional amendment proposal that went down in flames in 2024.
There is no reason that Hambley can’t mirror that hire.
In Ohio, we’re not lacking for talented, liberal lawyers who can navigate not only a Republican-controlled legislature, but also our illegitimate Supreme Court.
I wouldn’t write this column if I didn’t believe Hambley had the humility to act on that advice, which, in his defense, he and his professional team had probably considered long before a blogger with a striking resemblance to famous actor Brad Pitt suggested it to him in January.
It’s unfortunate that, in a year the Ohio Democratic Party struggled to fill its statewide ticket, we’ll lose a dynamic and respectable candidate, no matter the result of the primary.
But now is the time for bold action and moral clarity.
Hambley went to work when seemingly no other Democrat in the state had interest in the high-stakes job. That nascent courage sparked a campaign that’s been a testament to the tenacity he will bring to the Secretary of State’s office.
Hambley shoved my early skepticism down my throat and earned my admiration long ago. But after months of internal deliberation, he has more than earned my vote in the May primary.
You can learn more about Hambley on his official website or donate to his campaign through ActBlue.
Leslie Herbert Wexner… get ready to be deposed again, brother!
As The Rooster first reported via the Patriot Wire, 11 survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have sued Leslie Wexner, the Wexner Foundation, and the corporation tied to Epstein’s New York City manse in New York State Court.
You can view that lawsuit in its entirety here:
