{"id":6472,"date":"2022-10-13T14:49:34","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T14:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=6472"},"modified":"2022-10-13T14:49:34","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T14:49:34","slug":"nancy-larson-democratic-house-candidate-for-district-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/13\/nancy-larson-democratic-house-candidate-for-district-41\/","title":{"rendered":"Nancy Larson: Democratic House Candidate for District 41"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Nancy Larson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Fletcher Word<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Truth Editor<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Nancy Larson, the Democratic candidate for Ohio House District 41, is making a second run for the General Assembly, having been defeated by Republican Derek Merrin in 2020 for the District 47 seat.<\/p>\n

The Ohio legislature has redrawn districts in the last few years, almost always to the benefit of the Republican Party candidates. However, District 41 may be the exception and provide Larson a better chance to prevail than she might have had with the old map.<\/p>\n

Her new district contains part of the old Lisa Sobecki and Michael Sheehy neighborhoods. Both state representatives are not running this time for their seats and the revamped District 41, says Larson, is close to a 50-50 split, with \u201ca slight Democratic majority,\u201d she says. Her opponent, Republican Josh Williams, is a first-time candidate.<\/p>\n

Larson, a longtime social worker who moved with her husband to Toledo 32 years ago from Pittsburgh, eventually became involved in lobbying on Capitol Hill for patients seeking an increase in Medicare payments. She also became involved with the League of Women Voters and these peripheral contacts with the political system led her to become directly involved in 2020 when she first ran for office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got involved running two years ago in the district I was living in because the representative [Derek Merrin] was very arrogant and didn\u2019t think he needed to do anything to keep power. I was determined not to have him run un-opposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merrin\u2019s political views and record also rankled his challenger. \u201cThe fact that he co-wrote the six-week abortion ban bill was a driver for me because I\u2019ve been pro-choice since 1973.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s reproductive rights, in fact, is the first issue Larson raises when she reflects about what has prompted her to run again. It\u2019s a quest to take on the Republican lawmakers in Columbus. Raised Catholic, Larson is fully aware of the religious opposition to abortion rights but \u201cno one has the right to impose their religious belief on others,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is disrespectful and unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news, as the candidate sees it, is that the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Woman\u2019s Health Organization, overturning the Roe vs. Wade 1973 case and the Ohio Republican legislative reaction has driven women, particularly Democratic women, to register in far greater numbers than their male counterparts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen are registering at an 11-to-one new voter rate,\u201d says Larson. \u201cWomen are fed up with men in the legislature telling them what they can and can\u2019t do with their bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the mandate \u2013 bodily autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson sees her potential victory as being a \u201cpackage deal,\u201d a way to chip away at the Republican super-majority, which will enable Democrat Nan Whaley (should she prevail in her gubernatorial contest) to veto such legislation. Larson\u2019s victory, she says, will also serve as \u201ca stop gap to the decay of the democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second important issue Larson is ready to tackle is \u201cthe health of Lake Erie.\u201d Part of her district includes areas touching the lake \u2013 Point Place and Oregon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably know more about lake water issues than most people,\u201d she says because of her extensive involvement with both Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo and the work those institutions are doing. \u201cI know what needs to be done which is essentially attacking the permitting of animal factory farms and not allowing Ohio to be a dumping ground for them. These farms came here about 10 years ago because other states and countries put legislation in place that made it unattractive for them to do business \u2013 now they are using the lake as a toilet \u2013 that is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role as a social worker is to meet people where they are and let them know what they need to know and to get action flowing from that.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people know about this but the concentrated response from the populace needs to be generated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson adds that the third issue on her list of must-tend-to activities is the matter of the funding of public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe supermajority [of Republican lawmakers] do not have the will to put money back into schools. They have, through the voucher system, gutted the public-school systems and we have gone from fifth in the nation to 35th<\/sup> in the nation in term of the quality of our K through 12 education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a bedrock commitment we have as a society to educate our students well and we are failing them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson feels that the Republicans in Columbus are deliberately gutting the public-school systems so that public schools will fail and the for-profit charter systems can take over the educational process. \u201cThat is deeply concerning to me as someone who values education,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Larson is particularly distressed by the contempt Republicans have shown in recent decades to court decisions. The legislature has consistently ignored the DeRolph vs. State of Ohio decisions that the court handed down ruling that funding by property tax was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

When the court repeatedly ruled that recent redistricting maps were unconstitutional, the legislature, according to Larson, said: \u201cwe didn\u2019t listen to you then and nothing happened so we don\u2019t have to listen to you \u2026 period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the definition of contempt,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a huge challenge for the Democrat, but the urgency of the situation has prompted her to take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Ohio, we are scaping the bottom of the barrel,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything the Republicans do make us less safe, less healthy and with less quality of life so that they can let their wealthy donors have their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fletcher Word The Truth Editor Nancy Larson, the Democratic candidate for Ohio House District 41, is making a second run for the General Assembly, having been defeated by Republican Derek Merrin in 2020 for the District 47 seat. The Ohio legislature has redrawn districts in the last few years, almost always to the benefit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[143],"class_list":["post-6472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6474,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6472\/revisions\/6474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6472"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=6472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}