WASHINGTON, DC – In remarks Monday evening before a dinner meeting of The Ripon Society, two Republican members of the congressional delegation from Ohio talked about some of the key challenges facing the people they represent back home and the political environment in the Buckeye State heading toward the November election.
The members were U.S. Reps. Mike Carey and Mike Rulli. Carey was elected in 2020 and represents the 15th District of Ohio, while Rulli now represents the state’s 6th District after winning a special election this past June. Both have business backgrounds, and both opened their remarks by touching on the importance of bringing the same pragmatic decision making that is required in the private sector to their jobs on Capitol Hill.
“Every single bill I introduce I try to have a Democrat co-sponsor,” Carey stated in discussing his approach to lawmaking. “I want to make sure – no matter what bill I have – that it does have bipartisan support. I’ve been able to partner with a lot of the people in the Ohio delegation. And if you look at our delegation, we have a very good tight working group.”
Rulli – who served nearly five years in the state legislature before his election to the U.S. House this summer – agreed and seconded this approach.
“I was the first Republican ever elected to the Ohio Senate from Youngstown,” he said. “I had 43% of Democratic votes because when I talked to somebody, I never asked, ‘Are you a Republican?’ I asked, ‘How are you? What’s going on in your world?’
“We are going to move forward with a logical approach to policy where we look at both sides and we make sure that the other side is represented. We might have to bend a little bit, and we might have to craft something that everyone can embrace. I think if we don’t do that, the Republic can’t survive. I’ve made it clear that I will work with any Democrat.”
That type of pragmatic approach, Carey added, is one of the reasons he relaunched the Congressional Civility and Respect Caucus with Democratic Congresswoman and fellow Buckeye Representative Joyce Beatty (OH-03) last year.
“You’ve got a Trump-endorsed Republican,” Carey remarked, “and you’ve got the former head of the Congressional Black Caucus. And what we try to do is we try to stick to my hero John Boehner’s phrase of, ‘We can agree to disagree, but we don’t have to be disagreeable.’”
Following their opening remarks, Carey and Rulli took a number of questions, including one about the upcoming election and the priorities they are hearing that are most important to the people they represent back home.
“It’s inflation – that’s probably the biggest thing I hear,” Carey stated. “And I get a lot of people talking about the border. Mike Turner represents the city of Springfield. We’ve all seen this on the news lately. There are 20,000 Haitian refugees that have come in under protective status into a city of 60,000. So now you have 20,000 people who don’t speak the language, who are overrunning the city of Springfield. I don’t represent Springfield, but I represent all around Springfield. So that is a big issue. It’s parochial to that region of the state. But again – it’s high costs, it’s inflation.”
Rulli – who spent his career as a grocer and continues to work in his family’s grocery store on weekends when he is home – echoed his colleague’s remarks, speaking passionately not only about the high prices and how they are impacting American lives, but why inflation is going to be the most important issue in the election this year.
“Last Saturday, I was on the register for about four hours,” he recounted. “And I love getting on register. The one store I’m at all the time, we have like 14 checkout lanes. So I always go to the one that’s right after the express lane, because that’s where the big orders are. And I’ll get on there at about 10:30, and I’ll stay until about 2:30, which is the highlight of the day. And I’ll just ring out like four or five hundred orders. And I’m really good at it.”
“Single moms come into my store, and where they used to buy a gallon of milk, they’re now buying a half gallon. They used to buy Tide, and now they’re buying a generic Tide. They used to buy Bounty, and now they’re buying a generic Bounty. Not only that, but they get to the register and it gets to the end and they say, ‘Stop at $80.’ They got 130 bucks worth of stuff. And they have a bunch of little kids. That’s what’s going on. And anyone can tell you whatever they want to tell you. The same life you had five years ago costs you ten or twenty thousand more than it did. And they don’t know what to do. You’re going back to school. They don’t know how to get their kids’ clothes. I mean, it is really bad.”
“And you know, if my side wants to stay in power, we need to get that narrative out there. Your life is not better than it was five years ago … I truly feel this entire election is about inflation. And you know, I could go in there and I could talk about grocery prices. It’s one and a quarter net. You only get $1.25 out of $100 you sell. Insurance alone is up 53% over two years ago – not only for my health insurance, but my insurance for my inventory. You know, these stores have millions of dollars worth of inventory. It all needs to be insured. Your refrigeration needs to be insured. The actual building needs to be insured. That’s a brand-new cost. Plastic bags used to cost me three and a half cents. They cost me 11 cents now. A brown bag used to cost me 29 cents. It costs me 61 cents now. A cloth bag used to cost $1.50. It now costs $3. Everything is up. The same life that we had five years ago is so much more expensive. This election is about inflation.”
To view Carey and Rulli’s remarks to The Ripon Society Monday evening, please click the link below:
