A significant number of our neighbors go to bed hungry. Advances in agricultural technology coupled with creative governmental policies could turn northwest Ohio into a haven of nutritious, inexpensive food for our neighbors and beyond. Northwest Ohio is an agricultural powerhouse. It's important that we harness that power. As long as we import food or transport it from distant states, tariffs, water scarcity, and the high cost of fuel will drive grocery prices even higher. The solution lies in our own backyard.

Outdated zoning, arcane local rules and complicated incentives have put a stranglehold on affordable housing development in Ohio.  Large developers with the capital and sophistication to navigate these obstacles are not interested in rural areas and small developers are often faced with the unwillingness of banks to finance them. Other regions of the country have solved these problems through more efficient land use and state-sponsored loan guarantees that make banks more willing to lend.

The elimination of ACA subsidies and the ongoing cuts to Medicaid will cause a wave of insurance premium increases that will ripple through our state for years to come. As the pool of insured people shrinks, costs will be redistributed in a vicious cycle to those who remain. Even large organizations such as unions, corporations, and governmental entities will feel the pain. There is a secondary effect of this problem: More and more people will become vulnerable to financial ruin in the event of an accident or an illness. There are workable solutions. In some states virtually all citizens are covered by healthcare, but it will take political will to achieve this for Ohio. I will make it a primary objective of my service to safeguard Ohio's public against the devastation of unaffordable, out-of-reach healthcare.   

Billions of tax dollars are being diverted from our public schools to non-traditional educational systems. Charter schools and private schools are a mixed bag when it comes to educational outcomes, and the voucher system is little more than a subsidy to the well-to-do at the expense of the rest of us. In northwest Ohio, our public schools are a point of pride and a centerpiece of our communities. As a state representative, I will work to fully fund our public schools and to give them the flexibility to react to local needs. We must build upon what we have and not abandon our schools to for-profit organizations or organizations more interested in indoctrination than education.

The greatest threat to our democracy is the systematic dismantling of reasonable, convenient access to the voting booth. Indiscriminate purging of registered voter files, the reduction in early voting days, and the elimination of same-day registration and voting have had a chilling effect on the ability of many to vote, particularly minorities and the elderly. The SAVE America Act is now taking aim at women. Dressed up as safeguards, these changes are thinly disguised attempts to impede voters who may typically vote as independents. They are barriers to the fundamental foundation of our republic: the right to vote.