The Voters of OH-03 Support The Progressive Agenda
By Morgan Harper (@mh4oh)
Since launching our campaign on July 1st to represent the Ohio’s Third U.S. Congressional District, I heard from establishment Democrats and Republicans alike that, ”this isn’t Queens, New York.” They bristled at the idea that a first-time candidate in the Midwest talking about how the federal government has a role to play to ensure everyone has a home, healthcare, a job that pays enough to live, and a clean environment safe from crime and police brutality could get traction. The implication being that advocating for bold progressive ideas to meet our country and community’s biggest challenges is hopelessly out of step with the people of Central Ohio. But, no one can deny that the incremental, market-based policies peddled by the political establishment over the past thirty years have not resulted in our communities being any more stable.
Here are the facts:
The poverty rate in the district is 20%, 30% for black residents—unchanged in over a decade of establishment “leadership.”
The homeless population in the district has grown 20% since 2010 in the face of a desperate housing crisis.
As of 2018, there are more renters in Central Ohio than homeowners. Black homeownership has been on the decline since 2010.
Columbus ranks 6th in the nation in police killing black people.
20% of the population is without healthcare and the number of children uninsured is skyrocketing.
Columbus ranks as one of the top metropolitan areas in which children miss school due to asthma attacks.
Enough is enough. I believe that the only way we can ensure a healthy, safe, and thriving life for everyone is to embrace and champion bold ideas that put people, families, and community first. These ideas are 100% informed by the people I grew up with and the state of many of the communities that comprise the Third Congressional District. Every piece of campaign literature we’ve distributed, every door we’ve knocked on, every interview I’ve given, and every speech I’ve delivered has centered around these fundamental and forward-looking policy solutions:
Medicare for All
Green New Deal
Systemic Reparations
Universal Childcare
Public Safety
Living Wage
Stable Housing
Following the publication of this latest poll by Data for Progress, we can finally and affirmatively say that our district is strongly in favor of the policy solutions we’ve campaigned on for the past ten months:
Medicare for All is extremely popular in the district, supported by a wide 82 percentage-point margin.
The Green New Deal is also overwhelmingly popular among Democratic voters within the district, supported by an 88 percentage-point margin.
A Home Guarantee enjoys a wide 75 percentage-point margin.
Voters back a proposal that would create a new agency of first-responders—which includes medical services and firefighters but not police—by 70 percentage-point margin.
A Home Guarantee enjoys a wide 75 percentage point margin of support among all those polled (86 percent support, 11 percent opposed). Support for the policy is consistent across the five age categories and across all levels of educational attainment.
Capping interest rates on credit cards at 15 percent enjoys a 77 percentage point margin of support overall (87 percent for, 77 percent oppose). It enjoys wide levels of support across all five age groups with support dipping among those aged 45-54. Support for the policy also increases with education. The policy is supported by, on net, 66 percentage points among those with a high school diploma or less (82 percent support, 16 percent oppose) and 85 percentage points among those with a bachelors’ degree (92 percent support, 7 percent opposed).
On net, reparations are supported by a 27 percentage point margin (57 percent support, 30 percent opposed). They are, however, the most unpopular of the policies we tested. Support for reparations actually increases with age. Among those aged 65 and older the policy has a 35 percentage point margin of support (61 percent support, 26 percent opposed, falling to a 27 percentage point margin of support among those aged 18-34 (58 percent support, 31 percent against). Those with a high school diploma or less are generally more supportive of reparations than those with a bachelor’s degree, supporting the policy by a 33 percentage point margin (58 percent support, 25 percent opposed) and a 26 percentage point margin (57 percent support, 31 percent opposed), respectively.
On net, voters back a proposal that would create a new agency of first-responders which includes medical services and firefighters but do not police by 70 percentage point margin (81 percent support, 11 percent opposed). Those aged 18-34 are the most supportive of the measure, backing it by an 86 percentage point margin (91 percent support, 5 percent opposed).
Looking at results by level of educational attainment, we see that those with a high school or diploma are the least supportive, backing the measure by a 59 percentage point margin (75 percent support, 16 percent opposed), with support climbing to an 84 percentage point margin among those with a bachelor’s degree (90 percent support, 6 percent opposed).
A Green New Deal is also overwhelmingly popular among Democratic voters within the district, supported by an 88 percentage point margin (92 percent support, 4 percent opposed). Support for a Green New Deal is generally consistent across the five age categories and across levels of educational attainment.
Medicare for All is also extremely popular in the district, supported by a wide 82 percentage point margin (89 percent support, 7 percent opposed). Support is largely consistent across the five age categories, with those aged 18-34 modestly more supportive, backing the policy by an 84 percentage point (91 percent support, 7 percent opposed).
We see that those with a high school diploma or less are slightly more supportive of Medicare for All, supporting it by a 93 percentage point margin (96 percent support, 3 percent opposed), while those with a bachelor’s degree support it by an 80 percentage point margin (87 percent support, 7 percent opposed).
The voters of OH-03 support the progressive agenda. It’s time for a representative who will tirelessly work to deliver it.
Morgan Harper (@mh4oh) is a candidate for Congress in OH-03. Morgan Harper was born at The Ohio State University Hospital. For the first nine months of her life, she lived in a foster home before being adopted and raised on the east side of Columbus by a Columbus Public Schools teacher—an immigrant from Trinidad.
Morgan received financial aid with help from the Ron Brown Scholar Program to attend Tufts (BA), Princeton (MA) and Stanford (JD). Harper spent three years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) protecting consumers against predatory lenders and most recently at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) which invests in communities that have been systematically under-resourced.
Morgan is a progressive Democrat running to represent working people of Ohio’s Third Congressional District. She has been endorsed by the Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, PCCC, Working Families Party, Brand New Congress, and Our Revolution.