The Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday turned away an urgent petition from Samuel Ronan, preventing the former Democratic National Committee chair hopeful from appearing in Ohio’s Republican congressional primary. State officials had already removed him, alleging he falsely presented himself as a GOP candidate. The justices issued their decision without explanation, and no member of the court publicly dissented—typical for emergency rulings handled through the court’s shadow docket. Ronan had entered the race for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District, aiming to challenge incumbent Mike Carey after filing as a Republican ahead of the primary. In his official paperwork, he affirmed he was a Republican and agreed to uphold the party’s values. The Franklin County Board of Elections initially approved his candidacy in February. However, controversy quickly followed. A Republican voter formally objected, claiming Ronan was not truly affiliated with the party. Critics pointed to his earlier, unsuccessful run for leadership of the Democratic National Committee as evidence that his claimed party switch lacked credibility. The county election board ultimately split along partisan lines over whether he should remain on the ballot. That deadlock led Frank LaRose to intervene, casting the deciding vote to remove Ronan. Ronan challenged the move in court, but Sarah Morrison upheld the state’s action. She ruled that preserving election integrity outweighed any constitutional concerns raised by Ronan. “It cannot be the case that a State must allow a candidate on a partisan ballot even if he lied about his party affiliation simply because the First Amendment is implicated,” the Trump-appointed judge wrote. A federal appeals panel later refused to reinstate his candidacy. Ronan then escalated the case to the Supreme Court, joined by Ohio voter Ana Cordero, who said she wanted the option to support him in the Republican primary. “The First Amendment violation in this case warrants immediate injunctive relief,” they wrote in their emergency filing. They contended Ronan’s removal stemmed “based solely on the content of his political speech” and rejected claims that he misrepresented his party affiliation. “But Applicant Ronan did not lie,” they maintained in the high court application. In response, the office of Dave Yost argued there was a fundamental flaw in Ronan’s attempt to run as a Republican: “He is a Democrat.” In their final submission to the justices, Ronan and Cordero cautioned that allowing the state to exclude him could set a troubling precedent for future candidates. The Supreme Court on Thursday shut down an attempt by Samuel Ronan, a longtime liberal Democrat, to force his way onto the Republican primary ballot for a congressional seat from Ohio. https://t.co/Vm43aAPTC2 — The Washington Times (@WashTimes) April 9, 2026 The ruling is considered unanimous because no justice issued a public dissent: Yes, it was unanimous. On April 9, 2026, the Supreme Court issued a one-line order denying Samuel Ronan’s emergency application for an injunction pending appeal (No. 25A1096, Ronan v. LaRose). The full text of the order states: “The application for injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Kavanaugh and by him referred to the Court is denied.” No opinion was issued explaining the reasoning (standard for shadow-docket emergency relief), and none of the justices noted any dissent. This is how the Court routinely handles such last-minute election-related requests when it agrees to deny relief: the denial is treated as unanimous unless a justice publicly records a dissent. Multiple news outlets covering the order (including those that linked directly to the PDF) confirmed no dissents were noted. In short: the full Court (9-0) refused to order Ohio officials to put Ronan back on the Republican primary ballot for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District.