Rep. Steve Stivers has a new opponent in his bid for re-election in 2018.Rick Neal, a former international aid worker, announced that he's running to challenge Stivers next year. There’s not enough coming in, there’s not enough staying in, and their expenses for their insurance premiums, their out-of-pocket costs are too high. All through the spring, he sent ideas to Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. Neal, a Democrat, is making his first bid for elected office.Before this attempt, he performed his public service overseas. Stivers, an Upper Arlington Republican, has represented the district since 2011.“It’s time we had a Congress that works for all of us,” said Neal. Stivers has represented Ohio's 15th district since 2011, winning by wide margins in the previous two elections.Now, a little more about the man seeking to unseat him, in Neal’s own words:On his trip to Liberia to fight Ebola in 2014: “This epidemic was getting out of control in West Africa, and it just so happens that I’m a public health specialist, a public health guy, with experience in infectious disease control, who has contacts in the region and can take a break from his job as a full-time dad to go and help. So I did it.”On how his years of humanitarian work informed his outlook: “It gave me a very expansive view of the world. He grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee and Chicago.So far, two others have filed to challenge Stivers, according to the Franklin County Board of Elections: Brian Hupp, a Democrat, and David Lynch, who did not claim a party affiliation.Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. Stivers has represented Ohio’s 15th district since 2011, winning by wide margins in the previous two elections. But it’s a hard race to recruit for, Neal says, and eventually he realized the opportunity was his to take. In the wake of the 2016 election, Rick Neal became increasingly unhappy with his representation in Congress. Steve Stivers left us behind last year when he took a new job raising money for his fellow Republicans in Congress — and then voted to kick thousands of his constituents off their health insurance.”Neal lives in German Village with his husband, Tom Grote, and their two adopted daughters. “This district deserves a representative who will work hard for better-paying jobs, an end to the opioid epidemic and affordable healthcare for everyone. Chris Gaitten Senior Editor, Columbus Monthly So that old dictum of ‘think globally and act locally’ was very real for me for a long time.”“That’s one way, but the other way is that I think working in the humanitarian field drove home the point that talk is cheap. And it is very easy for people to get together and talk about what they want to do, and talk about what the issues are, or talk about what the priorities are … in the humanitarian field, at any rate, all that matters is that you save lives and that you get people back on the path to recovery. Rep. Steve Stivers has a new opponent in his bid for re-election in 2018. I think everybody’s got to do what they can to get the country back on track, and this is what I can do.”On the most urgent issue now: “Better-paying jobs. In mid-August, the Columbus resident announced he would challenge Rep. Steve Stivers for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.Neal says that initially he only sought to help identify qualified candidates to challenge Stivers for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District.
According to his campaign, he joined the Peace Corps after college and worked in Morocco for five years as a teacher and health educator. It’s a top issue. People are worried about college debt. And so yeah, I think that’s a national issue across the board.”Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. The mistake is especially embarrassing because Trump is scheduled to visit Delaware County on Saturday at a rally in support of Balderson. The action is what matters.”On why he decided to run for Congress: “What’s going on in Washington, what’s going on in our country, is not normal. Rick Neal, a former international aid worker, announced that he’s running to challenge Stivers next year.
A former humanitarian relief worker, he’s a stay-at-home dad of two adopted daughters, whom he’s raising with his husband, Tom Grote.Neal is politically active; he served four years on the executive committee of the Ohio Democratic Party, and he and Grote were outspoken proponents of marriage equality (Grote co-founded Equality Ohio). I mean, work is really undervalued in the country. But Neal is an outsider to electoral politics, and in November 2018, he will face off against Stivers, an Upper Arlington resident who has held public office since 2003. It’s a common sentiment in this polarized political climate, but Neal’s reaction was less typical—he wants to join in. People are looking at their household budget and there’s just not enough there. Digital access or digital and print delivery.
Choose the plan that’s right for you. So it’s very easy to see things from a global perspective because that’s just the way that I thought for so long. He later launched a hospital reconstruction project in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and worked to get clean water to refugees fleeing ethnic massacres in Congo.He seeks to represent the 15th Congressional District, a swath of central Ohio that includes all or parts of Franklin, Clinton, Fairfield, Hocking, Madison, Morgan, Perry, Pickaway, Vinton, Athens, Fayette and Ross counties. It should not be business as usual. The president likely mixed up Stivers with state Senator Troy Balderson, who is facing off for the 12th congressional d istrict seat against Democrat Danny O’Connor in Tuesday’s special election. Jessica Wehrman Dispatch Washington Bureau @JessicaWehrman But Neal is an outsider to electoral politics, and in November 2018, he will face off against Stivers, an Upper Arlington resident who has held public office since 2003. Better-paying jobs—it’s just got to be the top priority.”“Wages have stagnated for years, and it’s unacceptable.