ohio farmers deserve better than politics as usual
The candidate’s mother, Jeannie on the left and her Aunt, Donna on the right. Shade, Ohio ~1959
The old saying goes that a farm is more than just a business. It is a way of life. But even that does not fully capture what is happening across our rural communities today.
I grew up between Shade, Ohio, in rural Athens County, and Cleveland because my parents went wherever the work was. When factory shifts were available, we followed them. When we could be back in Shade, we were. That is how a lot of working farm families live. You build your life around whatever will keep food on the table, the lights on, and one more season within reach.
My parents eventually lost their farm.
We often talk about the global food supply as if it is one giant, unfeeling machine. But that machine is made up of thousands of individual parts: families who have bet everything on a few hundred acres and a prayer. When we allow those families to be squeezed out by rising costs, predatory land acquisition, corporate consolidation, and a lack of institutional support, we are not just changing who owns the land. We are sacrificing the soul of this country.
That is why I am running for Congress.
What happened to my family is still happening now. Costs keep rising. Corporate profits are skyrocketing. New job-killing technologies like AI, and the resource-killing data centers that power them, are being pushed into rural areas with far too little concern for the farming communities who will bear the cost.
We have reached a point in this country where the status quo, price gouging, stagnant wages, and unchecked corporate monopolies are no longer sustainable. People make too little to pay the high prices corporations are demanding.
Farmers have always been a second thought to people in Washington making policy and funding decisions. The communities surrounding farmland are perpetually disinvested. Schools and hospitals are closing because funding is drying up. Retaliatory tariffs have made it harder, and in some cases nearly impossible, to maintain markets for key crops.
Then there is right to repair, which should not even be controversial. If you own the tractor, the combine, or the milking equipment, you should be able to repair it yourself or hire the mechanic you trust. No farmer should lose critical time during planting or harvest because a giant manufacturer locks down the software, buys influence in Congress, and puts profit ahead of whether a family farm survives. As the current farm bill debate moves forward in Congress, farmers still do not have a clear federal right-to-repair guarantee.
This moment requires more than politics as usual. It requires putting the issues facing working people and farm families on the floor of the House and turning pressure into leverage and action. It requires real antitrust enforcement against agricultural consolidation. It requires strong federal right-to-repair laws. It requires trade policy that protects Ohio producers instead of sacrificing them. It also requires elected officials willing to confront corporate power directly, not just issue statements about it.
I do not take corporate PAC money. I am not running with party backing. I am a public servant who has spent the last 23 years fighting large corporate healthcare providers to protect patients, and is sick and tired of watching people in power abandon their duty. Corporate interests should not be setting the agenda while working families and farmers are left to absorb the cost. People want representation that centers their needs, fights for their future, and answers to them instead of powerful donors.
Working families and farmers need a representative who will fight for them with urgency, independence, and backbone. I am running to be that representative. The Democratic primary is May 5, 2026. This district does not need more politics as usual. It needs a fighter built for this moment.
