We WIN When . . .  

We understand what it is to be a Democrat in 2022 

By: Crystal G, WIN President and WIN Leadership

     It means coming back to the table time and time again until legislation can be passed to help the American people recover from this pandemic. It means staying focused on the work that remains to be done for the common good, while celebrating the significant work already accomplished. Democrats invest in infrastructure, meaningful employment, quality education, and the American people. We cheer for the wins and we mourn the losses. Democrats agree to disagree and listen with open minds. We support our neighbors, not only our family and friends. Democrats show up ready to lend a hand. We work together to make life easier for all of those around us and we understand what actual assistance truly is...read more

Elect Gun Sense Candidates in Ohio – Starting with Nan Whaley!

By: Kristine W, Ohio Chapter Lead, Moms Demand Action

     As nearly everyone knows, the upcoming midterm election is critical for defending our country’s democracy and freedoms. To that end, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America volunteers are going all out to knock on doors, make phone calls, write postcards, and amplify the message for Gun Sense Candidates up and down the ballot. 

     The Gun Sense Candidate Distinction lets voters know which candidates will stand up for gun safety if elected to office. Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers across the country have been distributing questionnaires to candidates to ensure that those with the Gun Sense Candidate Distinction will advocate for safer communities...read more

Cheryl Stephens: With Nan Whaley, Proven Leadership for Ohio! 

By: Mel M

Up is down, less is more, and gun safety can be achieved through legislation that puts more guns into the hands of untrained people.  We must be in Republican Ohio.

     But it doesn’t have to stay this way! On Friday I had the opportunity to listen to Cheryl Stephens, candidate for Lieutenant Governor of the State of Ohio, talk about the vision that she and Nan Whaley share for our state.  We do have an alternative that will take us out of the land of nonsense...read more      

Candidate for Ohio State Supreme Court Chief Justice Jennifer Brunner: “Courts Belong to the People”  

By: Melinda B  

   Ohio born (Springfield) and educated (Miami University and Capital University Law School), Candidate for Ohio State Supreme Court Chief Justice Jennifer Brunner has a vision for an Ohio justice system with “accountability, openness, and fairness to all.”

     Already a Justice on the Ohio State Supreme Court, Brunner has the outstanding experience needed to press for this vision, having served previously as Franklin County trial court judge and Ohio’s first woman Secretary of State. As Secretary of State, she received the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for reform of Ohio’s voting system.

     If elected as Chief Justice, Brunner will work to implement the recommendations from the Ohio Commission on Racial Fairness 1999 Report – many of which remain unaddressed! Central to this effort will be the convening of a diverse task force to establish a permanent commission on Fairness and Equality in Ohio’s Courts...read more

Judge Terri Jamison, Candidate for Ohio State Supreme Court Justice 

Co Authored by Melinda B and Crystal G

Growing up in a small West Virginia town, Judge Terri Jamison worked as a coal miner, much like the first female judge in the state of Ohio, Florence E. Allen. We learned at our Women’s Issues Network’s 2022 Women’s History Month event about the grit and integrity that it took for Florence Allen and the women who have followed in her footsteps to reach levels of judgeship in a male dominated profession. Judge Jamison is no exception. She made her way from West Virginia to Columbus, Ohio, started a business of her own, and then worked her way through law school. She began her legal career as a public defender in Franklin County, Ohio. She was elected in 2012, and reelected in 2018, to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations and Juvenile Branch. It comes to no surprise that she has continued pushing that glass ceiling by being elected to the Tenth District Court of Appeals for the State of Ohio in 2020...read more

Judge Marilyn Zayas, Candidate for Ohio State Supreme Court Justice 

By Crystal G

     Judge Marilyn Zayas’s many accomplishments, both professionally and personally, establish her as an outstanding candidate for Ohio State Supreme Court Justice.  After earning a computer science degree, she left this behind to pursue a challenging career in law. She built her own law firm here in Ohio and fought for the most vulnerable. In 2016, she was elected to the First District Court of Appeals of Ohio, serving as Ohio’s only Latina judge on any district court of appeals statewide.  Her reputation for fairness opened invitations to sit on different district courts of appeals throughout the state, as well as being hand selected to sit on the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio for a recused judge. Her commitment to faithfully apply the law has been clear in the way she conducts herself in and outside the courtroom...read more 

Countdown to Election Day 

By: Clark County Democrat Party Chair, Austin S  

    I want to share the transcript of a video shown at the ODP “Family Reunion,” narrated by a Dayton native, actress Allison Janney. May this inspire you as we count down to Election Day! 

Never Bet Against Ohio

They counted us out.

They say we can’t win and that Ohio is a lost cause for Democrats.

They want you to believe that Rural Ohio is gone and that the suburbs are theirs for the taking...read more

Taylor Sappington, Candidate for Ohio Auditor of State

By: Libby B   

Ohio Auditor of State is an elected executive position in the Ohio state government. The auditor serves as a watchdog, ensuring that the state and its more than 5,600 entities are using tax dollars efficiently and effectively. The office conducts both fiscal and performance audits of all public offices in Ohio, including those in cities and counties, to protect from potential fraud or abuse. The auditor is publicly elected every four years and may serve a total of two terms. Democratic candidate for Ohio ...read more

Candidate Profile, James Duffee

 1. Your name as it will appear on the ballot:

        James Harvey Duffee

2. The office for which you are running:

        Representative, Ohio House District 71

3. Why you are running for this office: 

        When I first considered running for office, my intention was to work to improve the health outcomes for women and children in Ohio, and to advance policies to reduce family poverty and its long term effects. Following the redistricting scandal, the mass shooting in Uvalde, and the Dobbs decision, my focus expanded to assuring fair maps/free elections, protecting reproductive freedom, and passing common sense gun safety regulations.  My website goes into more detail (www.drjimduffee.com), but my three areas of concentration are encapsulated by the slogan, for a healthy, safe, and just Ohio...read more 

Candidate Profile, Regina Richards

 1. Your name as it will appear on the ballot:

        Regina R Richards

2. The office for which you are running:

       Clark County Court of Common Pleas, General Division

3. Why you are running for this office:

       I feel dutybound to run for the open seat on the Clark County Court of Common Pleas, General Division...read more

Candidate Profile, Tracey Tackett

 1. Your name as it will appear on the ballot:

        Tracey Tackett

2. The office for which you are running:

       Clark County Commissioner 

3. Why you are running for this office:

       I am invested in Clark County. I have a sincere desire to see Clark County improve for ALL of its citizens regardless of location, income, livelihood, or political affiliation...read more

Small Ideas to Promote Big Changes 

By: Jessica H  

 Flooding on the east coast, fires on the west coast, and glacial melting across the globe.  These are alarming daily headlines that can make climate change seem distant and untouchable.  But have you noticed the overgrowth of poisonous hemlock as you drive through the Miami Valley?  How about the invasive vines strangling our native trees?  Did you know that according to a recent study of the evolution of trees, the planet has lost 50% of the species of trees it had in 1970?  The skies across the Miami Valley this past week were even clouded by smoke from the current wildfires in the west. As dire and immense as the environmental crisis is, nothing about it is distant or untouchable.  Some of the solutions to fighting it may be as close as our own backyard...read more

A Democratic Passion That Burns Bright 

By: Austin S  

      The theme of this month's newsletter is a very broad “What Democrats have done.” While I could go through and list the numerous policies that Democrats have spearheaded, bettering the lives of millions across the country from the days of FDR to Biden, Melinda and Crystal have assured me that I do have a word limit. So I want to think in a much more personal manner: What have Democrats done for me? I could highlight the relief I feel about student loan forgiveness amongst many things. More than this, however, I want to reflect on what this party and the people within it have done for me...read more  

WHY I AM A DEMOCRAT

By: Becky W  

           The values that the Democratic Party represents were strongly held by my parents. They grew up during the Great Depression in Clark County.

     My mother’s family, especially, suffered during that time. One of eight children, she witnessed first-hand as her father, an unskilled laborer, went from one temporary job to another in order to feed his large family. She marveled at how her mother could turn a few meager food items into a meal big enough to feed an army. As a young child, my mother always wore hand-me-downs. The family lived in a rented, drafty old farm house where a pot-bellied stove was the only source of heat. Bricks were laid on the stove during the winter, then wrapped in cloth to be placed at the end of the children’s beds at night for warmth. In the morning, the ice that had formed in the wash basins would have to be broken in order to wash up for the day.

     My father’s family lived in the city and were a bit more well off, but he quit school in the 9th grade in order to get a job to help out. Throughout his life he always lived in fear of not having a job...read more

WHY I’M A DEMOCRAT

By: Karen D  

           I grew up in an upper middle class family in Indiana.  I attended Wittenberg University here in Springfield, Ohio, and began my college years in the fall of 1963.  Because in the 1960s no one could vote until they turned 21, I did not vote in the election when JFK became president.  My parents did not vote for him; in fact, they were both staunch Republicans, and my mother worked at the election polls for the Republican party.  But against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination during my college years, followed by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the subsequent race riots, I was forced to consider what was “right” and “wrong” about our government before I voted for the first time.  Which candidates would represent the values that I held?  My private college education taught me to think for myself, to think critically, and to make considered decisions about what I wanted in a government...read more     

Blontas M. "Winkie" Mitchell

Blontas M. (Winkie) Mitchell (71) was surrounded by her loved ones when she was called home by the Lord on the 3rd of September 2022. She leaves behind her loving son, Jason W. Mitchell...read more here

Relevant Reads for Progressives

THEME: DEMOCRACY VS. AUTHORITARIANISM

By Rebecca (Becky) W

Non-Fiction:

Title:  After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We’ve Made | Author: Ben Rhodes | Publication Date: Random House, 6/1/21

  A former White House aide to Barack Obama, author Ben Rhodes wanted to find out why the United States is now teetering on the brink of losing its democracy. To do so he traveled to dozens of countries around the world, speaking to their politicians and activists who are confronting the same type of nationalism and authoritarianism that is tearing apart the U.S....read more

Legislation Watch   

DeWine Did Nothing

We would like to spotlight the law enforcement reforms that DeWine had promised Ohioans but he did much less than expected. Just before this newsletter was set to be published we have learned that DeWine not only walked away from these reforms but he did not even get legislation written...click here for the article 

The hold on the Heartbeat Bill in Ohio has been extended

The affidavits were filed in Cincinnati as part of a lawsuit aimed at stopping enforcement of Ohio’s strict new abortion law, which it temporarily did last week. Originally paused for two weeks, on Tuesday the enforcement delay was extended to as least Oct. 12th 2022...click here for the article