Folks, last week, I took the stage in Cincinnati to give a speech marking less than 100 days out from Election Day, and I wanted to share my remarks with you below. I’m more inspired than ever by the grassroots movement we’re building here in Ohio. If you can, please make a donation to my campaign so we can hold more events like this across the state and keep spreading our message to persuadable voters.

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(You can watch my speech here.)

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Here’s what I said:

Hello Cincinnati!

So much excitement in this room tonight – and I feel the same enthusiasm in Marion and Toledo and Cleveland and Mansfield. 

In cities, in suburbs, in small towns, and in farm country, we’ve seen people showing up like never before – Angry. Frustrated. Demanding change. 

They know the system is rigged – more than ever. 

The stock market is up. Corporate profits have soared. Executive salaries have exploded — right now, the average CEO makes $17 million a year. That’s bad enough – what’s worse is that CEOs are making 300 times what their average worker makes.

Ohio workers are more productive than ever. You work harder than ever. But no matter how hard you work, your pay is not keeping up and you can’t get ahead. 

Families see more money going out the door, and not enough money coming in to pay for utilities, health care, groceries… everything. Big banks pile on fees for every little thing… then they shower their executives with big bonuses. 

Insurance companies take your premiums every month – then they do everything they can to refuse to cover the care you need… after they put you on hold for what seems like forever.  

Drug companies force you to pay more than people overseas pay for the same drug, the same dosage, and the same packaging, then rake in the profits. 

Big corporations gobble up energy to feed their data centers. They devour your land. They suck up your water. They leave you with the bill.

And no one in Washington is standing up to these corporations who game the system and raise your prices. Instead, politicians – people who are supposed to work for YOU – are cashing in. 

When they’re in office…they play the stock market. When they leave office…they become lobbyists. 

Speaking of…there’s Jon Husted. Special interest Jon in Columbus, now special interest Jon in Washington.

He says struggling Ohioans don’t know how to, quote, navigate the “real world.” He says you just need to make more money. That you just need to do more work. 

And most insulting of all, he says your work ethic is just broken.

Go to Cincinnati Children’s. Talk to a nurse on the night shift… or an orderly pushing a wheel chair… or a worker changing the sheets. Go tell them they need to work harder. 

Or go to Frederick Douglas Elementary. Talk to the cafeteria worker preparing food for hundreds of children. Or the school custodian who cleans up after them and cleans the building. Or the teacher who dips into her OWN POCKET to pay for school supplies. Tell them they need to make more money. 

Talk to the workers here at the bar, on their feet all day, and then tell me – no. Tell them – their work ethic is broken.

Everyone in this room – think about your own jobs. How dare Jon Husted say the work ethic is broken. That you aren’t working hard.

Jon Husted, this is the real world. 

It’s bad enough how he talks. It’s even worse what he’s done:

He voted twelve times for the war in Iran that’s raised the price of gas, and groceries, and diesel, and fertilizer. And get this, Husted says the war is going “much better than anyone thought it would.” 

Jon Husted voted not once, not twice, but nine times against lowering health insurance premiums. Nine times.

Why? He’s taken $700,000 from the same insurance companies that are jacking up premiums in Ohio. 

He cast the deciding vote to take health care away from 490,000 Ohioans. Why? All to pay for a tax cut for his billionaire buddies and corporate cronies. 

He was at the center of the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history. A $61 million bribe that hiked up your electricity prices. 

And look at what he’s done with data centers. All 226 of them.

Jon Husted led the charge to bring data centers to Ohio. He delivered giant corporations billions of dollars in sweetheart tax deals. Ohioans now pay thousands more on their utility bills.

It’s exactly what people hate about politics: Special interest Jon Husted works for corporations, not for Ohioans. And we all pay for it. Ohioans don’t have anyone fighting for you.

Until November. 

Talk to your neighbors and your friends and tell them: Ohio doesn’t have to accept this corruption. Tell them how we’re going to ban the health insurance companies from denying care that your doctor says you need… if that doesn’t work, we’ll fine them when they deny your claims. Tell them how we’re going to make it illegal for drug companies to charge Americans more than they do in other countries. The same pill should be the same price. 

It’s not hard to see why this is happening. 

Last year, members of Congress made more than $635 million in stock trades. No wonder they’re not standing up to corporations – they’re too busy lining their own pockets.

No one – no one – who serves in Congress, no spouse, should be able to trade stocks. They also shouldn’t be able to turn around when they leave office and become a lobbyist… If you can’t agree to that, you shouldn’t be in public office.  

Ohioans won’t stand for this rigged system any longer.  Ohio is fighting back.

You’re showing up. You’re insisting on change. 

You’re demanding a senator who will work for Ohio – not for the utility companies, not for the drug companies, not for Wall Street, and not for big oil. Someone who will be on your side.

We’re demanding a government that works for Ohio.

And in 99 days… we’re going to get it.



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