Dario Hunter

At a presidential debate at Ball State University, Hunter addressed systemic racism in healthcare stating, "We need to invest in making sure that we have a better healthcare infrastructure including in underserved minority communities.... We need more measurable, assessable standards for accountability to deal with the inequality in care and we need consequences.” In January 2020, at a Green presidential candidate forum in Charlottesville, Virginia, Hunter stated "We need to slash the war budget... [W]e need to invest instead in peace. We need to invest in a Department of Peace for active peace building across the globe." Hunter stated that this policy goal would "lay the groundwork for how we will be instrumental as a nation in helping to save this planet - shoulder to shoulder with other nations...."

Hunter ran for re-election to the Youngstown Board of Education in 2019. He was not re-elected, placing less than one percent (0.53%) behind the fourth elected candidate.

On January 21, 2019, Hunter officially announced the formation of an exploratory committee to prepare for a potential run in the 2020 Green Party presidential primaries. Hunter stated that America's divisions and inequalities demanded "a real national conversation about how to change the direction of this country."

On February 18, 2019, Hunter officially announced his candidacy for the Green Party nomination during an event held in Pittsburgh. The New Republic referred to Hunter as "as diverse as candidates come..." Hunter stated to that publication, “If we want to cut through the lack of attention given [to Greens], we need someone who has a loud and clear voice and a tough skin." “It takes a tough skin to be an openly gay black son-of-an immigrant Jewish rabbi.”

Speaking to press in Carbondale, Illinois in June 2019, Hunter criticized what he saw as the use of children as "political pawns" in addressing immigration issues at the border. He called for better access to healthcare, a Bill of Rights for people of color, and vowed to end privatization in school districts. In Springfield, Missouri in August 2019, Hunter outlined an expanded Green New Deal - called the Green Path Forward - including an effort to improve diplomatic relationships with other countries, such as rivals like China and Iran, end war, stop the outsourcing of pollution and deal with environmental crises other than carbon emissions such as plastic pollution.

In 2018, Hunter sued the Ohio Department of Education in the Ohio Supreme Court for failing to provide public records on an investigation into Youngstown's CEO for alleged inappropriate conduct. The Department of Education settled with Hunter, providing the records and paying towards his costs.

In 2017, Hunter filed a lawsuit against the Youngstown City School District in the Ohio Supreme Court for failing to provide public records. His request focused on a company contracted to hire principals for the district. The district settled with Hunter, providing the records and paying him costs. Hunter planned to donate the $100 awarded for court fees to the Boys and Girls Club.

Hunter was a Democratic Party candidate for Youngstown City Council in the 2015 primary election, where he placed third, garnering 2.9% of the vote. In the 2015 general election, he won a seat on the Youngstown Board of Education, receiving 5.0% of the vote as a write-in candidate. In May 2018, he joined the Green Party, becoming the only Green elected officeholder in Ohio.

Hunter converted to Judaism, first through the Reform movement and then through an Orthodox process. When he was an Orthodox Jew, Hunter described himself as a "socially liberal conservative" and noted that he had previously engaged in "pro-Israel political activism." He was ordained as a rabbi in 2012 by the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute in New York City. As a rabbi, he later described himself as "very liberal and open minded."

Dario David Hunter (born April 21, 1983), also known as Yisroel Hunter, is an American lawyer, rabbi, educator, and politician. He is the first Muslim-born man to be ordained as a rabbi.