Policy

Policies

The future is now.

The Governor’s Responsibility

The fish rots from the head, as they say. More pleasantly: good, honest leadership starts at the top. Ohio deserves a governor who takes full accountability, leads by example, and works tirelessly for the improvement of the state and the wellbeing of its people. My administration will set clear expectations for transparency, efficiency, and reliability. We will establish a culture of honesty and true public service. We’ll root out bad apples, attract top talent, and reform the Ohio bureaucracy.

Improvement Agenda

To quote Warren Buffett in the theme song to his children’s cartoon, The Secret Millionaires Club, “The best investment you can make is an investment in yourself,”. We want Ohio to invest in itself and we want Ohioans to invest in themselves and we want those two endeavors to overlap. We’re going to invest in those things that help people succeed. We’re going to invest in education, invest in our health and wellbeing, invest in our communities. Build ladders to success. 

The Improvement Agenda is an ethos. We’re here to challenge our state, our communities, and ourselves to do and be better. Even small improvements add up. Fixing potholes, repainting a building, setting aside a little a time a day to exercise. We’re going to be a state where small problems aren’t ignored and we take responsibility. 

Beyond Left vs Right

Every part of government, of the economy, of life itself is steadily being reduced by our politics to a Left vs Right dichotomy. It’s a virus, it consumes all things that are good. We reject it. We reject its Zero-Sum outlook, its Us vs Them attitude. We reject its cynicism, its pursuit of power at the expense of basic human decency, of moral values, and of American principles. And we absolutely reject the notion that the world is so simple, so two-dimensional, so uninteresting. Partisan politics seeks to flatten us, to place us into neat categories. We reject it. We will not be flattened. 

The world is a place of incredible depth, incredible complexity. There aren’t just two ways of seeing the world. There are thousands. By broadening our perspective, by embracing the American axiom, “E Pluribus Unum”, Out of Many, One, we can bring new ideas to government and society. We can create where others destroy. We can go forward while others are stuck in the past. 

A Real Plan

Traditional candidates use campaigns and policy proposals as advertising to win votes, with their words amounting to little more than broken promises and empty rhetoric. Not only is this deceitful, it’s a wasted opportunity. We believe the campaign is about way more than collecting votes, it’s about building consensus. The campaign is where true governance begins. 

The power of the state government is limited, the power of the governor even more so. Real reform, real growth, a real renaissance, requires a real plan. It requires concerted action at multiple levels of government and buy-in from decision makers, institutions, business, and most importantly the public. If the state government isn’t on the same page as city and county governments, our efforts will fail. If cities are still competing against each other in a race to the bottom to attract businesses, our efforts will fail. If we pass a budget with investment in education and capital for new businesses and the public doesn’t believe in it, doesn’t think it’s a real opportunity to skill up or start a business, our efforts will fail. 

Even before the election, our job from the start in this campaign is to learn, to explore, and to build connections between stakeholders. Because once in government we need to hit the ground running.

Rustbelt Renaissance

“We are burying the term Rust Belt” – Sherrod Brown. To Sherrod Brown I say simply: screw that! Maybe being born in the 1950s gives a very different perspective on this but I was born into the Rust Belt era. The Rust Belt isn’t an unsightly blight you try and cover up and memoryhole. The Rust Belt is our history. It has defined generations, for better or worse, it has and will continue to define our culture, our economy, and our future. To erase our own history is like amputating a limb. We embrace our history. We don’t see decline, we see potential; we don’t destroy, we build; we’re not nostalgic for a past golden age we never knew, we’re inspired by a vision for the future. 

By knowing and embracing who we are we will lead a Rust Belt Renaissance. Renaissance means rebirth. It means bouncing back. Every renaissance, every golden age, every great epoch was preceded by crisis. Athens, Rome, Florence, Edinburgh, Vienna, Chicago; each was made great in the wake of crisis. Fostering that renaissance means using our history to our advantage, recognizing our economic diversity and potential held within our small and medium sized cities that are so often overlooked. Reindustrializing means innovation and regional economic integration. It means turning our research and technology powerhouses like Cleveland Clinic, the public university system, and Wright-Patterson into engines of innovation tied to our industrial centers and supply chains. Left-Behind Ohio, really anywhere outside the major cities, are actually overlooked Ohio. They will be the key to unlocking the future of Ohio. 

Ending Corruption, Restoring Trust

The greatest threat to Ohio is corruption. Corruption which robs Ohioans of their tax dollars, which denies Ohio the proper investments, and which degrades trust in government and each other. We will implement immediately the most severe crackdown on corruption this state and this country have ever seen. At the state and local level we will expose conflicts of interest, bribery, and any other dirty dealing. We will instill a sense of pride and civic duty in our government, in the police, in the bureaucracy. We will recruit to our ticket an Auditor, a Secretary of State, and Attorney General that will hold politicians and government accountable, expose wrongdoing, and prosecute accordingly. Transparency will be the default. The culture of pay-to-play politics and government will be put to an end. And we will work tirelessly to earn the trust of the public once again.

Democracy

Democracy is a founding principle of the United States. Democracy was one of the most important values shared among Americans even before the republic was formed. Democracy is what the Revolution was fought for. Democracy can never be stolen, it cannot be killed, it does not die at the ballot box. Democracy is lived. Only when Americans abandon it in their hearts and minds will we lose Democracy in America. 

Supporting and defending Democracy in Ohio means many things. It means protecting voting rights, election integrity, and accessibility. But it also means having an informed and engaged electorate. It means journalism as an institution that will inquire and uncover. It means civic engagement. It means political competition. We need more people to run for office, we need more options on the ballot. We need people to be able to engage in democracy and politics with respect, not anger or fear, we need to be able to disagree constructively, we need to be able to live and govern without uniformity. Democracy isn’t warfare, it’s learning and discovery and creation.

Democracy and Institutional Reform

  • Expand the Ohio House from 99 to 225 members to reduce district size, improve representation, and dilute the influence of special interests.
  • Maintain 33 State Senators, but:
    • Extend terms from 4 to 6 years
    • Elect Senators at-large using proportional representation, with 11 elected every two years, ensuring continuity and minority representation.
  • Establish a truly independent redistricting commission, insulated from partisan control.
  • As governor and a member of the redistricting committee, I will vote for fair maps. 
  • Adopt multi-member congressional districts elected through open-list proportional representation, ideally as a single statewide district. This truly eliminates gerrymandering.
    • Advocate for repeal of the 1967 federal single-member district mandate, which artificially entrenches polarization and two-party dominance.
  • Transition county Sheriffs, Coroners, Engineers, Clerks of Court, and Recorders to appointed positions, selected by County Commissioners.
    • This creates accountability and professionalism.
    • Allow Charter Counties to opt into elections if they choose.
  • Allow charter cities to adopt other voting methods including Approval, RCV, and STAR voting. 
  • Adopt approval or ranked choice voting for state elections. 
  • Democracy Dollars: A digital voucher for $100.00 in campaign contributions awarded to all Ohio voters every two years. The $100.00 can be divided as needed. The voucher can be used for any candidates for office in Ohio. Gives greater power to all voters and candidates will benefit from appealing to many voters and not just rich ones.
  • Reduce the donation maximum for Ohio elections to $2,500. 
  • Eliminate self-funding: candidates cannot lend or donate to their campaigns more than the regular donation limit. 
  • Same Day Voter Registration: Voters should be able to register to vote on election day. It’s a bureaucratic formality.
  • Candidate Voter Guide: Provide a candidate guide to all voters which will contain a character limited summary from every candidate so that voters (who rarely bother to research things because they’re rational and know it doesn’t actually matter how they vote) can learn a little about who they’re voting for.
  • Repeal Term Limits for state legislature: Term limits are often advanced as sensible reform to reduce the power of incumbency and the entrenchment of politicians. Anyone who has paid attention in Ohio over the last decade will see how absolutely destructive term limits have been to the state. It demolished institutional knowledge and rather than entrenching politicians it has entrenched the political machines. Legislative term limits are an undemocratic check on the power of voters that empowers Party over people.

Infrastructure, Transport, and the Physical Economy

  • Fund and implement the long-studied 3C+D Amtrak corridor without further delay.
  • Extend service from Toledo to Detroit, integrating Ohio into the Great Lakes megaregion.
  • Commit to high-speed rail connecting:
    • Cleveland–Columbus–Cincinnati
    • A multi-state compact linking Chicago to New York via Cleveland 
  • Use interstate scale to foster domestic high-speed rail industry tailored to U.S. geography, particularly midwest and northeast corridor (frequent stops, moderate density, flat routes).
  • Create regulatory framework for ease of deployment of self-driving taxis in Ohio cities. 
  • Support interoperability of public transit networks (shared payment systems, regularized schedules and connections, anywhere in Ohio in less than 12 hours and less than $30). 
  • Deploy a statewide smart electric grid with:
    • Digital meters, distributed sensors, and two-way communication
    • Performance-based utility regulation tied to reliability and investment
  • Pair grid deployment with universal broadband, using excess grid bandwidth to serve rural and underserved areas.
  • Enable:
    • Microgrids
    • Distributed solar and wind
    • Utility-scale and residential battery storage
    • EV grid integration
  • Harden the grid against cyber and physical attack, with a well-funded state cybersecurity capability.
  • Expand the role of the Infrastructure Bank through a new Public Bank
  • Create a statebacked road maintenance fund to improve road quality statewide. Filling potholes at a higher rate. 
  • Create a statebacked fund to provide villages and cities suffering from decline and degrowth the resources necessary to resize. 

Energy Abundance

  • Support continued operation of existing nuclear plants.
  • Expand nuclear engineering programs at public universities.
  • Fund advanced reactor research, including alternative fuels and coolants.
  • Create a streamlined licensing regime for SMRs and next-generation reactors.
  • Reform PUCO and Ohio utility law to:
    • Increase transparency
    • Prevent regulatory capture
    • Enable competition
  • Hold FirstEnergy accountable for the HB6 corruption scandal.
  • Require and subsidize research for safer fracking methods with reduced wastewater.
  • Enforce methane leak prevention.
  • Invest in cleaner extraction, refining, and shipping.
  • Develop clean energy uses of fossil fuels (hydrogen, carbon materials) to reduce risk of future stranded capital.
  • Support expanding solar manufacturing (training, research, supply chain)
  • Support residential solar market development (standards).
  • Simplify solar and wind permitting and speed up grid connection. 
  • Invest in higher-efficiency wind turbines with smaller footprints.

Industrial Policy and Innovation

  • Expand the Ohio Third Frontier. More aggressive investment strategy and appoint more technologically knowledgeable members to the board. 
  • Establish the Bank of Ohio modelled on the Bank of North Dakota.
    • Roll the Ohio Infrastructure Bank into it.
    • Increase loan availability for early stage, small, and medium sized businesses.
  • Low-altitude economy:
    • Liberalize drone regulations and establish standards.
    • Support for civilian and defense applications
    • Regulatory framework and infrastructure for flying taxis
  • EV and battery dominance:
    • Invest in lithium battery production
    • Fuel cell research
    • Support electric tech stack dominance through Ohio’s existing cutting edge research universities, car manufacturing, and solar manufacturing industry.
  • Advanced materials:
    • Carbon fiber, nanotubes, graphene
    • Existing material cluster support in Akron
  • Support development of orbital and space technology
    • Spaceport (yes, this will be a thing that matters 10 years from now)
    • Support space mining companies
    • Support space manufacturing companies
    • Support Ohio’s existing aerospace clusters.
  • Full geological survey of Ohio
  • Support reuse of disused coal mines for rare earth extraction
  • Support refining industry in Ohio 
  • Focus on standard-setting, interoperability, and modularity
  • Support new industries primarily through early stage capital, pure research funding, and skills training. 

Housing and Land

  • Eliminate the property tax in Ohio and transition to a Land Value Tax
    • Encourages building
    • Penalizes absent landlords, vacant lots, and decaying buildings
  • Legalize dense, mixed-use development statewide.
  • Conduct a housing stock and property survey of the state. 
  • Preserve and retrofit existing housing stock.
  • Invest in:
    • Modular construction
    • Cross-laminated timber
    • Taller wooden buildings
  • Standardize and simplify state building codes
  • Bring local zoning and building codes into alignment.
  • Provide more funding for building inspectors to speed inspection and increase production rates. 
  • Ease housing prices by investing in Ohio’s many small cities making them desirable places to live and work while connecting them through convenient transit and telecommunications to the state’s larger cities. 

Agriculture

  • PREPARE OHIO FOR A POST PEAK CORN WORLD
  • Promote crop diversity and new crops.
  • Develop pawpaw industry through promotion and developing preservation and export techniques.
  • Invest in agricultural research developing new crops, management techniques, and processing technologies.
  • Invest in:
    • Precision agriculture
    • Automation
    • Open-source GMOs
  • Support aquaponics, hydroponics, algae, and vertical farming.
  • Reforest marginal land as carbon sinks when ethanol demand collapses.
  • Invest in developing automated farming equipment. 
  • Deploy broadband-enabled precision farming statewide (through Starlink and smart-grid).
  • Support value added food processing industry. 

Healthcare

Health care should be portable, transparent, and focused on outcomes.

  • Decouple:
    • Health care from insurance
    • Insurance from employment
  • Pursue Direct Care models within federal constraints.
  • Repeal Ohio’s Certificate of Need laws.
  • Expand rural hospitals and telemedicine.
  • Reduce paperwork and pursue targeted tort reform.
  • Expand medical school slots and lower costs.
  • Promote vaccination and preventative care.
  • Promote universal preventative care.
  • Create interstate healthcare standards allowing insurance and care providers to operate across state lines
  • Eliminate air, water, and environmental pollutants. 
  • Promote walkable cities. 
  • Fully connect and expand a statewide bike trail system.
  • Lower the cost of and increase availability of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Education

  • Universal Pre-K.
  • Eliminate 12th grade; replace with post-secondary transition.
  • Free, standard two-year degree or technical school (at community colleges and technical schools directly linked to local school districts but with student choice to attend any others free of charge). 
  • Universal Free school breakfast and lunch
  • End teacher tenure. 
  • Increasing starting public teacher salary to $60,000. 
  • Support more self-paced education tools.
  • Ban phones and laptops in classes (unless specific to digital literacy related curriculum)
  • Universal vouchers with:
    • No tuition top-ups (schools cannot charge above the value of the voucher to voucher students)
    • Uniform accountability standards (all schools are held to the same standard as public schools)
  • Improve school building quality
    • Ventilation
    • Lead and asbestos removal
  • Centralize funding in the state for public schools. Decoupling property values from school districts. 
  • Open-source textbooks and curricula for post-secondary. 
  • Seamless high school → community college pathways.
  • Partial university liability for unpaid student loans.
  • Expand capacity in high-demand fields (nuclear, medicine, teaching, aerospace, software).
  • Promote diversity of thought on campuses and curriculums
  • Protect campus speech
  • Eliminate most mandatory minimums – judicial discretion. 
  • Decriminalize drugs and release non-violent drug offenders (disorderly conduct, public intoxication remain criminal and eligible for drug courts). 
  • Provide additional funding for rehab. 
  • Legalize marijuana with a competitive market (we must undercut blackmarket prices).
  • Increase funding to hire more judges and public defenders. Speed up processing. 
  • Expand the remit of small claims court be defining small claims as below $25,000. Expand the number of small claims judges.
  • Double the number of state troopers.  
  • Professionalize policing:
    • Higher pay
    • Higher training standards
    • State and federal oversight
    • Weaken police union protections against accountability
  • More resources to solving crime.
  • Establish fund for community crime prevention techniques.
  • Expand shelters and legal advocacy for domestic violence. 
  • Pass red flag laws with due process. 
  • Emergency housing and income support for victims.
  • Police training to identify escalation risks.

Poverty, Mental Health, and Wellbeing

  • Work toward universal basic income
    • $500/year for every Ohio citizen immediately
  • Eliminate child poverty with $2,000–$6,000/year for families below the poverty line.
  • Redesign welfare to eliminate benefit cliffs. It must ALWAYS pay to work in Ohio. 
  • Make it easier to engage in flexible productive employment while still receiving disability in Ohio. 
  • Expand addiction treatment.
  • Fund suicide prevention and hotlines.
  • Increase therapists and school-based mental health services.
  • Reduce stigma and redirect drug users to care, not prison.
  • Promote more festivals and community activities. 
  • Establish a simple statewide system for modern time banking. 

Taxation and Government Reforms

  • Eliminate the Commercial Activity Tax.
  • Restore the inheritance tax.
  • Shift:
    • Sales tax → VAT
    • Property tax → Land value tax
  • Restore graduate income tax and five tax brackets. 
  • Create an Independent Commission on Taxation for implementation.
  • Digitize state government: no lines, no paper, no confusion.
  • Improve cybersecurity for state and local governments
  • Promote efforts to reduce online criminal activity and scams. Informed citizens and harsh active policing. 
  • Substantially reduce occupational licensing and expand reciprocal licensing across states.

Rust Belt Renaissance

  • Create a state fund and distribution formula to significantly reduce potholes and road decay ACROSS Ohio
  • Increase state funding to localities
  • Create a regional development block grant system in which multiple communities (connected cities, villages, counties, and townships) can submit a proposal for development and continued cooperation that can unlock significant state funds
  • Create a rustbelt redevelopment fund that distributes money to rustbelt communities on a fair formula with the understanding that declining cities need outside funding to have a chance at uplift. 
  • Increase funding to community colleges and branch campuses across the state. 
  • Support high skill training and integration with industry needs. 
  • Increasing funding for research and support practical applications in solving local problems and supporting local industry. 
  • Use university technology transfer offices to commercialize new technologies. 
  • Create an entrepreneurship office at all public colleges and universities that connects new technologies, entrepreneurs, venture capital, and workforce training to support new business and industry development across the state. 
  • Support a Robust economy focused on many small and medium sized businesses. 
  • Invest in state transit network that connects all parts of Ohio together ensuring businesses and people located in smaller cities can connect with people and resources anywhere in the state.