Heather Hill Campaigns in Adams County as Moats Withdraws from Ticket

Heather Hill made her Adams County pitch to the Adams County for Christian Values group in West Union just as her statewide ticket was collapsing into a ballot fight that could determine whether Republican primary voters can even cast a counted vote for her.

Hill thanked the group for the opportunity to address it, bringing her campaign into a county seat community where Adams County government records show the county has long anchored civic life in West Union and where the Adams County Government Annex has appeared in local event listings. The stop put Hill in front of a socially conservative audience in a county founded in 1797 and listed by county records at 27,710 residents in the 2022 census.

The appearance came during a chaotic week for Hill’s bid for Ohio governor. Stuart Moats, her running mate for lieutenant governor, filed withdrawal paperwork with the Ohio Secretary of State on April 22. After that filing, state election officials said Hill no longer qualified to receive votes in the May 5 Republican primary, and boards of elections were notified that votes cast for the Hill-Moats ticket would not count.

Hill responded by suing Secretary of State Frank LaRose and asking the Ohio Supreme Court to overturn the ineligibility ruling. The dispute turned her campaign stop in Adams County into more than a routine outreach visit. For voters, it raised a basic question about whether a ticket still on the ballot could actually remain in the race once the lieutenant governor slot was vacated.

Hill has been described in coverage as a former Morgan County school board member running as a long-shot Republican outsider. Moats, her former running mate, has been described as a reality TV star and businessman from Beavercreek, Ohio, and campaign materials also identified him as a military veteran and conservative. Their alliance was supposed to broaden Hill’s appeal across the GOP electorate. Instead, it became the center of a legal and administrative showdown days before voting.

For Adams County, where local political life often runs through church groups, county offices, and the West Union corridor, the episode underscored how quickly a statewide campaign can become a question of ballot validity, election administration, and whether a candidate’s name will translate into an actual vote count.