TOLEDO — A routine morning on the campaign trail turned grim Thursday when two statewide Libertarian candidates discovered a man’s body in the Maumee River near downtown Toledo.
Gubernatorial candidate Don Kissick and secretary of state candidate Tom Pruss were preparing to film a campaign video at a park across from downtown Toledo when a teenage boy approached them, saying he thought he had seen a body in the river.
“It’s a little jarring,” Pruss told the statehouse bureau. “You’re just mere feet away from a body floating in the river.”
Pruss called 911, and both candidates stayed with the teenager until police and the boy’s parent arrived. The candidates said their campaign plans were set aside while officers worked the scene.
Before the discovery, Kissick had been in Toledo for a radio interview, and the pair had stopped at the Lucas County early voting location. Pruss said he had witnessed arrests on the campaign trail before — “but finding a body wasn’t on my bingo list.”
The candidates also pushed back on dark jokes about the discovery circulating online, noting the man’s loved ones could see them. “Sometimes people have to understand that this was a human being,” Pruss said.
