About 21 people gathered at a Quaker meeting house Saturday as part of an early effort to draft former state Sen. Nina Turner as the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor and to renew a grassroots progressive movement in the state.

The “Nina for Governor” event, held at the Athens Friends Meeting House in Chauncey, highlighted the divide in the Democratic Party that bubbled to the surface of last year’s election. Many attendees expressed frustration with both the national and state party.

“I think she can be a very powerful voice for the little man in Ohio,” Stephanie Hayes, an Athens resident who attended the meeting, said.