John W. Griffin

Who was John W. Griffin?

John William Griffin was an Ohio farmer and a perennial candidate over the last forty years for various local, state, and federal offices in Ohio. While he lost far more political races than he won, at the time of his death he was a duly-elected member of the Ohio State Board of Education. A resident of Miami Township in south central Montgomery County, Ohio between Miamisburg and Germantown, he irritated party and education officials with his bids for office and had been the subject of scathing articles in the Dayton press.

Griffin was the son of Francis and Genevieve Griffin. He graduated from Jefferson Township High School and attended the University of Dayton. Griffin was a Roman Catholic and a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Griffin won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Representative from Ohio's Eighth Congressional District in 1976, 1980, and 1982, each time losing to Republican incumbent Tom Kindness. In 1978, Griffin ran for Congress again, winning the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican Tennyson Guyer in the Fourth District. He was again unsuccessful.