COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tea party leader Ted Stevenot has filed initial paperwork to challenge Gov. John Kasich in the Republican gubernatorial primary, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.

Stevenot, the president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition and co-founder of the Clermont County tea party, submitted a designation of treasurer form on Monday with the secretary of state – the first formal step toward running for governor.

Despite the filing, Stevenot still hasn’t finalized a campaign against Kasich, according to multiple tea party leaders. Tom Zawistowski, Stevenot’s predecessor as head of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, said it’s a “50/50” chance that Stevenot would run.

But tea party leaders have talked for months of finding someone to run against the governor, whose support of Medicaid expansion has angered many conservatives in the state.

“You want people to have a choice. And the problem is the [Republican] Party wants nobody to run – they want the governor to have a clear pass,” Zawistowski said.

Stevenot’s running mate would be Brenda Mack, the former president of the Ohio Black Republicans Association, according to several tea party sources.

Stevenot didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday. Mack declined comment and told a reporter to call back next week.

A Kasich spokesman referred comment to the Ohio Republican Party, which didn't return a phone call Tuesday.

Ohio State University political science professor Paul Beck said while Kasich will almost certainly win the GOP primary, a tea-party primary rival could force him to talk about Medicaid expansion and other issues that he would prefer not to discuss.

"It might put Kasich in the position where he has to make a hard choice between trying to cater to his (political) base or trying to run a broader general election campaign," Beck said.

Kasich's sensitive about alienating his base, having been elected in 2010 with less than 50 percent of the vote in a Republican-friendly year, Beck said.

For the 2014 election, many conservatives disillusioned with Kasich are already looking at backing Libertarian Charlie Earl for governor, though a newly passed ballot-access law has set up a number of roadblocks for his campaign.

With Earl possibly waiting in the wings, Beck said, "The tea party candidacy in the (Republican) primary could, in some ways, set the stage for the same issues to kind of come to the fore in the general election."