About

Why I’m Running

My name is Timothy Grady and I’m running to be the next governor of Ohio because we need leadership bold enough to take us out of this crisis and into the future.

I believe in an Ohio that not only grows but thrives, an Ohio that creates opportunity for all, where anyone can come and build a life, where anyone can find the tools to improve themselves, I believe in an Ohio that strives always and everywhere for better; and I want to build that Ohio with a government and a movement committed to improvement, to integrity, and to opportunity.

As a lifelong independent and Ohioan I have seen the failures, the incompetence, and corruption of the Democratic and Republican parties, I have seen the left behind Ohio, I have seen the hollowing out of our small cities and communities outside of Columbus, I have seen the struggle of students, parents, families, and regular Ohioans; which calls me and calls all of us to stand up, to demand better, to fight for our future.

I stand for a new Ohio, that once again leads the country and the world in innovation and industry. An Ohio that builds. An Ohio that embraces its past and reclaims its future, a true Rustbelt Renaissance. This is our moment. No one is coming to save us, no one was ever coming to save us, but if we choose to save ourselves, if we choose to rise and to lead, we can build the Ohio we deserve.

Bio

Timothy Grady was born and raised in Richland County, Ohio. Since High School, he has been deeply engaged in the third-party, independent, and politically centrist movement. In 2018 he was the Libertarian nominee for state representative of Richland County before in 2020 masterminding the notorious Sam Grady campaign for state representative.

After reluctantly delaying in 2018 to help the Libertarian Party fill offices, in 2022 Timothy was finally able to fulfill his long held desire to run a satirical campaign for Governor of Ohio as a supervillain, the exquisitely named: Dark Horse. The campaign received the endorsement of notable artist, activist, and presidential candidate, Vermin Love Supreme.

In an election marked by such unseriousness as an incumbent governor nearly losing the primary to a fake farmer with a bad cowboy hat (Timothy’s is bigger) and the opposition party mustering less than 40% of the vote, Timothy managed 574 votes just as a write-in candidate relying entirely on one website and a video explaining how to spell T-I-M G-R-A-D-Y. These write-in votes distributed across the whole state demonstrated a hunger for someone, anyone, who could put together coherent sentences into policy and stand against corruption.

At this point, Timothy finally decided that someone had to stand up, act, and be the adult in the room; even if that had to be the irreverent, twenty-something, independent who disdains politics. Near the end of 2022, he joined the Forward Party to help bring a real choice to the country. By the following August, the National Forward Party had kicked him out of the party. In September he was elected chair of the United Ohio Party, formed by members of the Ohio Forward Party dissatisfied by the chronic inaction in Forward. In November, the United Ohio Party re-merged with the Forward Party and Timothy assumed the role of chair of the Ohio Forward Party from which he’d been booted three months before.

During his tenure as Chair of the Ohio Forward Party he oversaw renewed growth and interest in the party, the endorsement of numerous candidates, the development of a platform, and the party’s first state convention at which a new board was elected. Shortly after the 2024 elections, deepening disappointment with the National Forward Party led Timothy to announce his resignation which was made official in January, 2025. He remains committed to the cause of Forward, of building a new party and a new politics, and convinced that he can better serve that cause from outside the party leadership.

In 2021 Timothy graduated from Ohio University with a BS degree in Economics and from Stark State College with an AAS degree in Computer Science. He has worked as a political organizer and in anti-money laundering. Currently, he is completing a Master of Public Administration at Ohio State University, Glenn College of Public Affairs.