Student loan forgiveness and immigration were the main topics as the three Democratic candidates vying to represent Ohio’s 8th District in Congress faced off in a public forum ahead of the March 19 primary.

Each of the candidates — Vanessa Enoch, of West Chester, David Gelb, of West Chester, and Nathaniel Hawkins, of Cleves — hope to be the Democratic pick who will challenge the winner of the Republican primary.

In the Republican primary, incumbent Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Troy), who assumed office in 2016, will run against former Butler County auditor Kay Rogers, who resigned in 2008 after pleading guilty to bank and mail fraud. Rogers spent two years in federal prison.

The public forum, held over Zoom on Feb. 28, was an opportunity for the candidates to communicate their opinions on policy, education, NATO and what they would do if elected.

While there was some agreement among candidates, they offered different approaches to specific problems facing Butler County, including higher education. 

Gelb, 55 and a business owner, said his parents helped him pay for college and they did not receive any help to pay back their loans. He said that students can waste loan money pursuing “bogus” degrees.

“That creates a servitude for those students … and ends up putting them in a lower class in society because they have problems paying back their loans,” Gelb said.

Hawkins, 26, a patient access representative for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, said he did not finish college due to student loan debt. He disagreed with Gelb, arguing that higher education should be free.

“We’re the most prosperous country on the face of the planet, and we spend trillions upon trillions of dollars on our defense industry each year,” Hawkins said. “We’re spending money on the wrong things instead of helping our citizens.”

Enoch, 54 and a management consultant, said she was the first in her family to go to college and that she worked three jobs to make sure her kids could also get through college.

She said that, because of loan payments, young people may “not be able to afford basic living expenses.” 

“Many young people can’t afford to buy a home, can’t afford to buy a car … It is reflective of what’s happening in our economy,” Enoch said.

The candidates also clashed over immigration policy, which they all said needs reform.

Gelb said he did not believe immigration concerns the 8th District directly, but at the border money should be spent on judges and lawyers instead of checkpoints and fences.

“I can’t say it enough, this immigration policy and immigration does not affect the 8th District,” Gelb said. “There’s nobody on our streets in the 8th District, there’s nobody applying for jobs in the 8th District that are illegal aliens.”

Hawkins disagreed with Gelb, saying he’s seen first-hand undocumented immigrants through his job at Cincinnati’s Children Hospital.

“I think you’re under exaggerating the amount of immigration that has been going on, and Ohio is affected by it,” Hawkins said.

Enoch agreed with Hawkins, recalling a raid of illegal immigrants at Koch Foods in Fairfield in 2007.

“It is not my desire to see every illegal immigrant in this country to be legalized,” Enoch said. “There are some illegal immigrants that probably do need to go home. I think we need to handle everything on a case-by-case-basis.”

According to 2022 U.S. census data, the foreign born population of Butler County was 30,056 individuals, and 16,617 of those individuals were not U.S. citizens.

The candidates also discussed their concerns with K-12 public education and their views on the future of the NATO alliance during the forum. 

The forum was hosted by Miami University’s Menard Family Center for Democracy, and was sponsored by The Butler, Hamilton, Preble, Darke and Miami County Democratic Parties; the Miami University College Democrats, the Democratic Women’s Club of Southwest Ohio and the Butler County Progressive PAC.

Meet the candidates:

Vanessa Enoch

If elected as the Democratic nominee, it will not be the first time Enoch has faced Davidson. She ran against him in 2022, 2020 and 2018, winning the primary each time. 

“I’ve decided to run again because of the progress we’ve made,” Enoch said. “When I first ran for office, no Democratic candidate had ever won more than 87,800 votes. In my first year of running, I won over 89,451 votes.”

According to her campaign website, she holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Ohio State University, a master’s in business administration from Xavier and a doctoral degree in public policy and social change from Union Institute and University. Her management company Cultural Impact, LLC consults with all types of organizations on research, policy analysis and strategic planning services. She has resided in West Chester for almost 20 years.

Her primary campaign concerns include maintaining legal access to abortion, attaining health parity for Black Americans, eliminating gerrymandering by ensuring fairness in the voting process, restoring the Federal Voters Right Act and promoting the fair exchange of goods by compelling trade partners to buy from the U.S.

“We knew we’d have to play the long game … and we know that building the relationships as we have done in the past several years is paying off,” Enoch said.

David Gelb

Gelb said he was inspired to run by his disappointment in congressmen who were elected but never accomplished anything.

“I kept getting more and more upset watching these people fail miserably at what we elected them to do,” Gelb said.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in small business administration from Northern Arizona University and a master’s in business administration from Regis University. Gelb worked for various large manufacturers before he started his own air pollution control company, Universal Air Systems, in West Chester with his wife in 2012. He believes his business experience sets him apart from the other candidates.

“All my years of small business [management] and all my years of big business combined give me a great picture of how to do things effectively and work with people from various types of backgrounds and sizes of businesses from government businesses, to private businesses, the military,” Gelb said.

The primary focuses of Gelb’s campaign include reducing the wealth gap, creating an equitable healthcare system, accessible expanding Social Security benefits, protecting reproductive healthcare procedures, managing gun control and imposing humanitarian protections at the U.S. border.

Nathaniel Hawkins

Hawkins said he is taking a younger, “fresher” approach to his campaign. 

He said he was inspired to run as a result of his experiences taking care of his younger brother, who suffered an anoxic brain injury that left him a quadriplegic two weeks before Hawkins’ high school graduation.

“Being a caregiver for a 100% quadriplegic disabled person … having those experiences puts me in a good position to uphold the abilities to work with other organizations in the future,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins studied at Ohio University and University of Cincinnati, but does not hold a degree due to student loan debt. He does not have previous political experience in public office, but he believes his age and life experiences set him apart from the other candidates.

“I see so much injustice and wrongdoing happening in the world now, and I just said, ‘Every Ohioan deserves so much better than what they’re currently receiving,’” Hawkins said.

Some of the focuses of Hawkins’s campaign include regulating gun control, protecting abortion access, instilling a liveable wage, promoting racial equity and limiting climate change.