Thomas R. Chandler

Thomas R. Chandler (born circa 1954) is an Ohio medical technician who has been a perennial candidate for the Ohio House and the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat. Chandler served on the Ohio Democratic Party's State Central Committee in the 1990s but Chandler is now a Republican.

Chandler, a resident of the California neighborhood of Cincinnati, graduated from New Richmond High School and attended the University of Cincinnati. He worked at Cincinnati's Jewish Hospital as a lead material specialist from 1973.

Chandler was a candidate for the United States House of Representatives in the Second District in 1992, running unopposed for the Democratic nomination in the June 2 primary election. That day he elected Democratic State Committeeman for the Second Congressional District. The vote was 9,856 for Chandler, 4,442 for attorney Rupert E. Ruppert, and 6,858 for Terry M. Tranter.

The heavily Republican Second District included all of Clermont, Adams, and Brown Counties, and parts of Hamilton and Warren Counties. The Dayton Daily News wrote "Veteran Bill Gradison is being perfunctorily challenged by Thomas Chandler, who admits to having happily voted for Rep. Gradison in the past. The Democrats wanted to put somebody on the ticket." Chandler supported raising taxes to lower the budget deficit, was pro-choice, and opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and school vouchers. On November 3, Chandler lost to Gradison, a congressman since 1975, by a vote of 75,924 to 177,720, with write-in candidate Emily Roughen Wood receiving seven votes. Gradison hugely outspent his opponent, $74,652 to $290. On the same day he lost his congressional bid, he was chosen an elector for Ohio and cast his votes on December 14 for Bill Clinton and Al Gore.