While immigration dominates the national political conversation, gerrymandering, reproductive rights and women’s safety were the issues that drew the greatest applause from a crowd of nearly 60 Butler County Democrats at a fundraiser at Oxford LaRosa’s on Feb. 13.
Supporters put forward “a few thousand” dollars to three Oxford candidates collectively, according to organizer Sam Lawrence.
“Campaigns like these are really hard to raise money,” he told attendees at the event’s onset.
Lawrence, a Miami University student and the 2022 Democratic candidate for state representative of Ohio’s 47th district, helps manage the campaigns for all three candidates.
At the fundraiser were Tom Cooke, Vanessa Cummings and Chantel Raghu. All three are running unopposed in March 19 primaries.
Cooke spoke first, about healthcare, education and environmental issues. He is running for State Senator in Ohio’s 4th Congressional District and will be up against the winner of a primary between Republican incumbent George Lang and two Republican candidates from Middletown.
He said recent conservative legislation concerning reproductive rights motivated him to run for state representative.
“I looked around and I saw what was going on in Ohio, and I looked at what was going on in Columbus, and I realized that this gerrymandered state with a major Republican stranglehold on the government in Columbus is not right. That’s why I’m running,” he said.
Cummings seeks the State Representative seat in Ohio’s 47th Congressional District, where she will face either incumbent Republican Sara Carruthers or Diane Mullins, who has been endorsed by the Butler County GOP, in the general election.
She is a pastor at Hamilton’s Payne Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, vice president of Oxford’s NAACP and member of Oxford city council from 1994 to 2000.
“What I want to accomplish is to make sure that the people, their voices are heard, that they know what’s going on in the House, they know what legislation is happening, what’s going to impact their families, their lives, their schools, and that they don’t find out after the vote’s been taken that something’s been done that they don’t agree with,” she said. “I think it’s important that the people be connected.”
Raghu, who has sat on Oxford council since 2017, is campaigning for the seat on Butler County Commissioners currently held by Donald Dixon, a Hamilton Republican.
She said that she believed that the county commissioners are “squandering their opportunity to make the county a better place.”
She told a story about housing a homeless family for a month, and not being able to place them in any nearby shelters. The woman in the relationship suffered physical abuse in Raghu’s home and fled with her infant.
“There are deep needs,” she said.
Lawrence said his experience campaigning for the same seat as Cummings taught him that “Republicans in this area take their wins for granted because the districts have been so red for so long.”
“If we keep pushing, we’ll take them by surprise in one of these elections,” he said.
