John,
After our last campaign wrapped up, one of my goals was to connect with more people across the state who knew we — as politically-active community organizers — needed to embrace different types of candidates to sell those ideas at all levels of government.
My instinct was that we would never have a sizeable enough base of people if we were all siloed. We needed to connect the dots and build relationships faster across the state.
Through one of our organizers, Kwesi, I met Christina Vera-Reid, a Columbus City Schools parent who was sick of the district’s lackluster performance and thought that she could bring better representation as a member of the school board. I walked her through the basics of what it looks like to run for office and had the privilege of hosting her first meet and greet at Lincoln Cafe, a local business in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood of Columbus.
Earlier this year at a rally in Cincinnati, a woman approached me saying she was running for City Commissioner in Dayton. We agreed to be in touch after I got back to Columbus. I had a zoom with Shenise Turner-Sloss where she walked me through her campaign and her journey of wanting to run for office. She didn’t come from a political family and or have the full party behind her, but she believed very strongly that she could serve her community. I was immediately impressed and wanted to do whatever I could to help.
This week, both of them won. Along with Justin Bibb in Cleveland and Sharetta Smith in Lima and countless others who stepped up to define a new standard of representation for their communities. Many others ran and even though they didn’t win, they did the organizing and laid the groundwork for future success. It was so exciting to support and hear about all of these candidates across the state.
So what's the takeaway?
Every one of these candidates led their communities at the grassroots level and engaged voters directly. Don't let cable news confuse things, we have the ability to change our politics door by door, block by block.
But that change can only be led by people who are less of the career politician type and more of the community type. The good news is those people are all over Ohio. In urban and rural areas. Bigger cities and smaller towns. From all ages and cultural backgrounds.
The thing that unites us is a common understanding that what's come before is not serving us well and we have the potential to create a different future rooted in honesty, substance and fearlessness.
Time to turn up!
Morgan Harper
Morgan Harper for U.S. Senate
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