For Constance Gadell-Newton, the stakes are higher than one office.

Most gubernatorial candidates are running for one obvious reason: to become governor.

But for Green Party candidate Constance Gadell-Newton, the stakes are higher than one office.

The 38-year-old candidate is also running to preserve her party's status as a recognized minority party in Ohio. If Gadell-Newton fails to get enough votes, the Green Party will lose ballot access for Ohio elections.

Without 3 percent of the vote this November, the Ohio Green Party would cease to exist – on voters' ballots at least. Candidates' names wouldn't appear alongside Republicans and Democrats running for office. Without that recognition, they would have little hope of electing a Green Party candidate for any office.

The Green Party's Threatened Status in Ohio

Minor parties – basically any political party that isn't the GOP or Democratic party in Ohio – must win at least 3 percent of the vote in a presidential or gubernatorial election to remain on voters' ballots for the next four years.

That's because the GOP-controlled Ohio Legislature passed stricter laws on minor parties in 2013. Libertarians decried the changes as the “John Kasich Re-Election Protection Act" after they were kicked off the ballot. But the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the requirements.

Throughout the changes, the Ohio Green Party had enough votes to keep its status as the state's sole minor party. In the 2014 governor's race, Green Party candidate Anita Ross received about 3.3 percent of the vote, securing Ohio's Green Party's status until 2018.

That meant presidential candidate Jill Stein could appear as a Green Party candidate in the 2016 election. In contrast, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson was listed as an independent.

Getting back on the ballot wasn't easy for Libertarians. They recently submitted 60,294 signatures to regain minor party status. (They needed 54,964 valid ones.) The political party was reinstated on July 12, giving them just one week to field statewide candidates for the November election.

Green Party leaders are hoping to avoid that trouble. But Stein got less than 1 percent of the vote in the 2016 election, failing to extend the party's status to 2020. So the party's future falls to Gadell-Newton.

"I do think that the 3 percent is winnable and likely to happen," said Gadell-Newton, a co-chair of the party. "It's going to take a lot of work, so we're not taking it for granted."

Growth in Ohio

Although the Green Party is still a fringe political group in most areas of the U.S., Gadell-Newton said the party is focusing on growth and is expanding in Ohio.

Chapters are well-established in Ohio's big cities like Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo, Gadell-Newton said. But there are no current Green Party officeholders in Ohio – not one city councilperson or school board member statewide.

Gadell-Newton first ran for office in 2016, when she challenged incumbent Democrat Kristin Boggs and Republican David Todd for a Columbus-area seat in the Ohio House. She was able to garner just under 7 percent of the vote.

Some of her supporters in that race asked her to run for governor, she said.

In Ohio, the odds are heavily stacked against Green Party candidates. Just 4,368 Ohioans voted in the 2018 Green Party primary, versus the 730,245 who voted in the Democratic primary and 875,300 in the Republican primary, according to data from the Ohio Secretary of State's office.

"We've seen a lot of growth within the past couple years," Gadell-Newton said, noting that in a three-way race, only 34 percent of the vote is needed to win.

Gadell-Newton's campaign platform

The race's self-proclaimed most progressive candidate, Gadell-Newton first got involved with the Green Party after graduating from Pennsylvania State University's law school in 2008. She worked on some of the legal filings to change the Green Party's official party status.

She was born in Belleville, Illinois, and moved to Ohio at the age of 4. She went on to graduate from Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus and then from the Ohio State University.

Gadell-Newton said the most important issues for her in the race are centered around Ohio' criminal justice system, including eliminating penalties on cannabis, sex work, drug possession and non-violent gun possession. She also wants to shut down Ohio's for-profit prisons.

"I do believe that I can be a peacemaker as I'm working with the legislature, so I'm hopeful I can work with both sides of the aisle to find consensus on some of these issues," Gadell-Newton said. "I'm an attorney so I have to work with people of various different backgrounds and political perspectives."

Gadell-Newton is running alongside Brett Joseph, a lawyer and adjunct instructor at Lorain Community College and Hiram College. He is more focused on farming issues and the environment, Gadell-Newton said, which balances out her focus on social justice issues.

Gadell-Newton described the Green Party as an "anti-corruption" party. Party rules dictate that candidates cannot take donations from corporations, so her campaign is bolstered only with donations from individuals.