Three Republican candidates will face off on March 19 to represent the party on the ballot in November for the Ohio Senate 4th District seat.
The incumbent, Sen. George Lang (R-West Chester), of West Chester, is opposed by former Washington, D.C. advisory neighborhood commissioner, Mark Morgan, of Middletown, and an executive director of a local nonprofit, Candice Keller, of Middletown, who also served in the Ohio House of Representatives representing district 53 – since redistricted – from 2016 to 2020.
The two challengers are attempting to separate themselves from the incumbent on what they have in common and what they don’t. Morgan is running on sustainability and affordable housing. Keller said she is running on property and social security taxes.
The Oxford Observer contacted all three candidates, but Lang was unreachable for a comment.
Mark Morgan
Morgan, 51, said he does not believe that the current Republican state leadership values small government and financial responsibility, and that there is a “do-nothing legislature.”
“We have gotten off track from some of the key issues that define Republicans,” Morgan said over the phone. “I’ve seen a lot of waste and abuse in Columbus that has led me to believe our state leaders at this current time do not really embrace those true conservative principles.”
Morgan graduated from Miami University in 1998 with a bachelor’s in political science.
He worked under Michael Steele with the Maryland Republican Party, as lieutenant governor of Maryland and on Steele’s U.S. Senate campaign in 2006. Morgan also served under Steele during his stint as the first African-American chairperson of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2009 to 2011.
Morgan worked for the Carbon War Room, a global nonprofit, on energy policy and was elected to the advisory neighborhood commission for his 5,000 person Washington, D.C neighborhood, LeDroit Park.
He said he will bring expertise on energy policy and sustainability to the statehouse.
“When it comes to sustainable energy policy there is a lot of noise around what sustainability means,” Morgan said. “When, not only at the same time are we creating more jobs by investing into more sustainable solutions, but we’re also protecting the environment and doing a better job, and leaving a legacy for the next generation.
“We’re not investing into technology that could move the state forward,” Morgan said. “If you look at some other states that have high renewable energy standards and look at their tax base, [and] the amount of revenue that’s being driven into those states, we’re just not there.”
Morgan said he is focusing on “sensible conservative” messaging and policies.
“I have no problem reaching across the aisle and working with Democrats on solutions that benefit the residents of my district,” Morgan said. “I think that’s what we’re obligated to do.”
Candice Keller
Keller, 64, said she decided to run in September 2023 when Lang co-sponsored the Ohio Fairness Act [S.B. 132]. The bill currently sits in the Senate Government Oversight Committee and would “prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.”
Keller said over the phone, the bill “literally allows men into little girls’ bathrooms.” She said she’d think voters would find this bill objectionable and that Lang has never answered her questions on why he co-sponsored the bill.
Keller graduated from Miami University in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and went on to work for a number of law firms as a paralegal.
She has served as the executive director of the Community Pregnancy Center in Middletown for 17 years. According to her bio posted on Ohio Statehouse, the center is one of the largest pro-life nonprofit organizations in Ohio.
Keller said she couldn’t name a “single significant bill” Lang has passed while serving in the Ohio House or Senate. She said she plans to focus on lowering property taxes and electric rates.
“We have a 22% tax increase on the people of Butler County. No move has been made to remedy that. Other counties have not had that big of a jump,” Keller said. “I know from serving in the legislature that these things can be fixed very quickly.
According to the county auditors in each county, property taxes in Butler are set to rise by 24-28% for most residents.
“Another bill I’m considering, and it would have to get resolution and we’d have to go to your congressman about it, would be [to] stop taxing social security,” Keller said. “You’re paying taxes on money you’ve already paid taxes on.”
Keller said she would go unpaid her first whole year in office.
“I’m not going up there to make money,” Keller said. “It’s not about money. If it is about money in politics then you’ve got the wrong person in leadership.”
George Lang
Lang seeks re-election for his second term. He won the position in 2020 after completing an appointed term for Ohio House District 52 – a district that has since been redistricted. According to Lang’s Ohio Senate biography, he graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in communication and a double minor in marketing and speech pathology. He moved to West Chester in 1990.
Within the Ohio Senate, Lang serves on several committees: finance, government oversight, insurance, and small business and economic opportunity.
Lang received a “fairly overwhelming endorsement” from the Butler County Republican Party for the Republican primary, said Executive Director Joe Statzer.
“We are supporting the incumbent, George Lang, for another term,” Statzer said.
Stazter said he did not believe Keller or Morgan sought the county party’s endorsement.
