Former congressman, Cleveland mayor files to run for House seat in Ohio

Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) filed Thursday to run for his old congressional seat in suburban Cleveland, where he is set to face Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) as an independent candidate.

Kucinich, 76, served Ohio’s 7th Congressional District from 1997 to 2012, when he lost a primary to Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) after redistricting. He previously served as Cleveland’s mayor in the 1970s.

The deadline to file for the Democratic primary in the race passed last month, but the independent deadline is not until March.

During his stint in Congress, Kucinich launched two long-shot presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008. He was the chair of the House Progressive Caucus and notably voted against the Iraq War.

In recent years, he lost the Democratic primaries for the 2018 Ohio gubernatorial election and the 2021 Cleveland mayoral election.

Kucinich was most recently the campaign manager for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-shot presidential campaign. He left the campaign in October when Kennedy decided to run as an independent rather than a Democrat.

Miller, a first-term congressman, was a Trump White House aide before entering Congress. He handily defeated Democrat Matthew Diemer in 2022 by an 11-point margin. Diemer is again running in the 2024 Democratic primary.

“Congressman Miller’s focus is on serving the people of Ohio’s 7th Congressional District and he will continue putting his energy into effectively representing them at home and in Washington,” Miller spokesperson Tiffany Boguslawski told The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The Hill has reached out to Kucinich and Miller’s campaigns for comment.