Candidate Interview Marathon Finale: Samantha Salamon (HD-35) & Mason Blankenship (HD-68)

0:00 Five percent of the state budgets was allocated towards local governments in general. Five percent. Now it's less than 2%. Again, this is what our legislature has deemed to be a priority of theirs, not local government, not schools. You can't argue anything other than that. You just can't because that is where their actions have shown and what they continuously are investing or not investing in when it comes to our budget.

0:35 I'm Ashley and I'm Sara and we're United SHE Stands. We're here to help everyday Americans get involved in politics. We use education to empower and action to drive change. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the United SHE Stands podcast. And this is a bittersweet moment, but these are the last candidate interviews that we're dropping for 2026.

1:00 I almost said 2028. Oh, my God. No, 28 will start all over. 27? No offense. I just hope we don't interview a single candidate.

1:09 I mean, maybe at the tail end of the year, people probably start announcing bids. But like, yes, our candidates have been incredible, but we are pumped to bring you something else for a little while.

1:18 Yes, absolutely. So all of that to say, we are ending on quite a high note with these two candidate interviews. We are starting today off with Samantha Salomon, and she is running for Ohio House District 35, which includes... This district plays a critical role in breaking the Republican-held supermajority in the statehouse.

1:42 So when Amy Acton is elected as governor, she will need a legislature that won't overrule every decision she makes. And so breaking that supermajority requires flipping six seats, at least in the Ohio House and District 35, is among the most competitive opportunities to do so this year. So Samantha is the Chief Counsel at Asian Services and Action Incorporated, and she works and advocates for victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault.

2:11 She earned both her bachelor's and JD from Cleveland State University. Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Samantha is deeply rooted in the community she seeks to represent and currently lives there with her husband and son. Samantha is a proven leader and strong advocate for Ohioans. In the statehouse, she will stand up against harmful legislation, fight to find practical solutions to the challenges facing Ohio families, and work to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to build a dignified and fulfilling life in our state.

2:42 Enjoy our conversation with Samantha.

2:45 [music]

2:56 Hi, Samantha. Welcome to the show.

2:58 Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

3:00 We are very excited to have you. I am in the district just next door to yours. So I've gotten to just watch your race all the way from when you had to win your primary until now. And I think you're such an incredible candidate. And so we're very excited to have you on today. I appreciate it. You've been seeing the fight from day one.

3:17 I have been.

3:18 The 10 months I've been doing this.

3:21 I have been. Absolutely. And I think I mentioned this before we recorded, but I got to see you speak at a local Crooked River meeting too. And so it was just been impressed with you since the start. And I'm excited to dive into it with you today. I appreciate it. Awesome. So let's jump in. You are a victim's right attorney and you've seen where the system works and where it doesn't.

3:40 What was the moment that made you say, I need to run for Statehouse?

3:44 So one of the So I have been deemed an expert in the anti-human trafficking movement throughout the state. I work with various governmental agencies like the Ohio Attorney General, the governor's office. The most privileged position, though, I find myself working in is side by side with survivors of human trafficking.

4:02 And one of the things that I am able to do and I help a lot with is when people or legislators are debating on inputting some piece of legislation related to The anti-human trafficking movement in general, it's very common for me to get involved or for them to contact me saying like, hey, what does this look like on the ground?

4:22 Is this something that's actually going to be practical? Well, there, and I won't name names, but there is a particular legislator that's kind of taking on the issue of the anti-human trafficking movement and is pushing a lot of different pieces of legislation. Right. And him and I have worked together for quite some time on a few different pieces of legislation.

4:42 This one piece of legislation that I am having, I'm struggle, I have my struggles with, and it's identified as the Human Trafficking Prevention Act. And I'm intentional of saying that because the name is very deceiving. And the name has actually caused a lot of controversy, along with some other logistical issues or implementation issues that I have with the piece of legislation.

5:05 Anyways, I work very closely with one human trafficking survivor who is extremely vocal, very active in working with task forces, very active in having her voice heard. This legislator refused to talk to her related to this piece of legislation. And that caused a fundamental problem, in my opinion, of what that legislator is actually doing and what his intentions are with being a legislator.

5:32 If you're not listening to somebody who has Who has the most expertise as anybody because they have experienced this victimization themselves. If you're not listening to them and at least hearing them out and giving them the time of day, to me, that is showing that there is a lack of communication in general, a lack of really genuinely understanding what your community and what the constituents are really looking for when it comes to your job.

5:59 I feel that there has been a significant disconnect between representatives and And really actually upholding the name of being a representative and hearing their constituents out and what's best for them. When that survivor came to me and said, look, he's not talking to me. I've asked to do multiple, to meet with him, to meet with his legislative aide.

6:23 He's not listening. He's not talking to me. That was kind of the point where I'm like, Okay, we need some changes. We really need some people that are actually listening to people, listening not only to their constituents, but individuals throughout the state of Ohio related to areas of expertise that these legislators just don't know.

6:40 And that's okay because you can't expect legislators to know everything. But when someone's trying to educate you and they're trying to get some information to you and you are intentionally educated, Yeah, that's such a, well, I was going to say great story. Not a great story, but, um,

7:12 Thank you for sharing kind of that journey of how you got to to this very moment. And I think that's such a common underlying theme to a lot of folks who are running this year. Like we just folks aren't listening. Representatives aren't listening. And a lot of people are simply running on. I will actually represent you.

7:30 I will actually be available to you. I will actually be accessible to my constituents. And it's crazy that we're all like, oh, wow, doesn't that sound nice? Like that feels it's a nuance.

7:41 It's a nuance. And honestly, I have had a lot of pushback in trying to talk to representatives or senators related in just my area of expertise. But the fact is, yeah, I work in this area. I can tell you a lot about this issue. But when you have a survivor... Who is like the upper echelon of people that you need to listen to when it comes to an area that you are saying that you're a champion in.

8:10 That's a problem. That's a problem. Again, it just goes... And that is just... I love that we need more wave makers out there. And I think just one last point on that. If there is a survivor who's willing to help and talk and be open about their experience, like, oh my goodness, why don't you, why don't you

8:44 That's terrifying, actually.

9:06 Sorry, Sara, real quick, too. I just want to add, I think, back to your point, this is the root of so many things. We've heard this from the Medicaid cuts. So there's a Medicaid committee. There's all these people who should listen to doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, experts, and they're not being heard.

9:20 And so this, I just, like I said, not a great story, obviously, but glad you used this example because I think it's a really easy one for people to see. I think it's sometimes more abstract when other folks have talked about it on the show so far. So thanks for walking us through that. My pleasure.

9:36 So I don't have a great segue for this, but let's talk about data centers. So you are calling for full transparency, home rule, and no NDAs standing in the way of residents. So what's the one thing that you would need to see from a data center developer before saying yes? And then what would be a deal breaker for you?

9:56 Okay, so I don't necessarily think it's one thing. Similarly, as you kind of listed out of an array of things, these are the things that I'm saying that we have seen throughout the state of Ohio not comply with full transparency. We have a lot of communities. And so like this is kind of like big picture what's happening, right?

10:17 Is you have these billion dollar corporations, right? They're going into small areas, small cities, towns, villages, communities in general. You know, may have one full-time staff member, may have some trustees that are getting paid little bits here or there, communities that don't have a lot of resources, and they're asking them, hey, you got some land.

10:45 We got some things we want to build here. Like, can we just utilize this? And hey, by the way, we'll be able to employ a bunch of people. And hey, by the way, we'll be able to do this. And you have communities saying, yay, that sounds like a great opportunity for my community. But the problem is that A lot of these communities just don't have the resources of really understanding the intricacies that's going on with these data centers.

11:07 And so this is actually an initiative that I've already spoken to John Kulowitz, who is also who is running for the attorney general's position, because to me, this is where also the state has failed. This is where the state should be having a or having resources available for communities to utilize when these corporations are coming into these small communities where they just don't have the resources to actually really negotiate and understand the complexities of a lot of these things.

11:35 Right. I don't necessarily think every single community, there's probably some, but I don't think every single community has leaders that are trying to be deceptive and are trying to hurt their community. I just think they don't have a lot of the know-how of when it comes to data centers. And so one of the initiatives that I was talking to John Kulowitz about is like, hey, this sounds like an attorney general thing.

11:58 Why do we not have individuals, attorneys under the attorney general? That deal with these highly specialized cases that can be a resource to communities. And so that was something we've been talking about. But nevertheless, going back to where the question is, so that's where I am thinking transparency is key, but these communities need to know what they don't know.

12:23 And they need to know what they can do to really protect their communities when it comes to these very intricate type of deals. But at the end of the day here, I am very pro your community should be at the forefront of making these type of decisions themselves because it's the community members that are going to be impacted.

12:43 Right now, granted, like just getting realistic data centers have been around for a very long time. They are already in a lot of different places. The problem that I think a lot of people struggle with and I understand is we don't know long-term impacts these data centers are going to be having on these communities.

12:59 And so they want to take a proactive approach in making sure that they're not going to suck up on their water. They're not going to take over all their electrical grid that they're in their respective areas. Like these are things that I think communities are being proactive in advocating for, which is why, again, I talked about not wanting NDAs.

13:16 So first of Second and foremost, again, that transparency, the clarity to the community and what the options are and what benefits, like actual benefits, these data centers are going to bring to that community. And the community needs to be involved in that conversation, 100%. But the non-negotiables in my mind is we need skilled union workers, local union workers who are going to be doing this.

13:38 And that relationship, that contractual agreement must be solidified before anything starts. Because what we also don't want to see happen is these data centers like, yeah, we're going to employ two, you know, 100,000 people. And then they bring in 100,000 people from another state. And that's what's happening in a lot of these situations.

13:57 And so we want to not only make sure that there is a benefit that the community is getting, but there's also a benefit that are, you know, that what is actually getting constructed is getting constructed to a standard that we hold our union members to having. And that, again, to me, I am a very pro-union person that is building up our middle class in general.

14:16 So we need to make sure that we are utilizing our local resources to the extent we can when we want to start developing areas. But if they're not going to be using, if they're using outside workforces or not union members, that is the non-negotiable in my opinion.

14:29 Yeah, makes a lot of sense because I do think. That's like always this one of the big cells with these companies is like, hey, we're going to bring in economic growth and give jobs. And then it's like, how are we really ensuring that you're doing that thing and giving the jobs? So that's great. Speaking of communities, let's talk about something near and dear to them, public schools.

14:48 So you say every child deserves strong public schools and you've served on or you currently serve on maybe the Nordonia. Currently do. Currently do. Okay.

14:57 You serve on the Nordonia that I wear.

14:59 Yeah, you're not busy. It's fine. No, no. Yeah. So you serve on the Nordonia School's financial communications team. If you could change one thing about school funding in your first term at the statehouse, what would it be? To abide by the constitutional ruling of actually fully funding our schools? That's a wild concept, Samantha.

15:18 I mean, I don't know how much more basic I can get. I can tell you one thing that I would love to see happen. And I have been so one of the initiatives since I since I had a primary, you know, I've been going since December. Right. And so I have met with the majority of school districts in my district with the superintendents, with the treasurers.

15:36 But I'm very close with Nerdonia, obviously, because that is my local near and dear school district. Right. But, you know, in meeting with these superintendents and meeting with these treasurers, you know, I've learned a lot. One, I have learned about the ridiculousness and the complexity of school funding.

15:52 I had a meeting literally with the Nerdonia treasurer for over two hours. And this is after I've been on the finance committee, right? For over two hours and just going through the logistics of this funding. And at the end of it, I'm like, I have no idea what I just learned. Because it's that complex.

16:12 And I learned Ohio is one of the most complex school districts when it comes to the complex public school funding systems out of anywhere in the country. Like other people come into our state to kind of be like, how do you do this? And our legislature just passed two or three new bills to make it even more complex.

16:31 Of course they did. So again, can we just kind of go back to fundamental principles that we want to provide money to the schools that are educating 80% to 85% of our students in the state and focusing on that and Yeah. And I'm going to be, I'm a very pessimistic human being. That's the lawyer in me. We're not going to go zero to 180 in this.

17:23 It's just not going to happen. But what I do want to see happen, very practical, and I think it's a very achievable goal, is the amount of money that is going per student in the public school should be the same amount of money going per student in a private school. Yes. Because right now, there's a massive discrepancy in that.

17:49 And that's our taxpayer dollars. You know, one of the things that I like to say is, like, from a social perspective, I am a true Democrat in heart. But, like, I am a very conservative person when it comes to finances. And making sure that people are accountable to how our money is getting spent. And the fact is, is that the state of Ohio, the legislature has continuously...

18:13 Failed at making sure the community understands where its tax dollars are going, unless it's some massive amount like, I don't know, Flippin' Brown Stadium, which we don't need, but no big deal. Now, granted, that's unclaimed funds. I understand the logistics and the differences between the two. But nevertheless, the fact is, is that our tax dollars, there needs to be accountability to where our tax dollars are going.

18:34 And if over a billion dollars of our tax dollars is not getting accounted for, that's a fundamental problem, in my opinion. To answer your question, sorry, I go like this. To answer your question, fully fund our public schools. It's not complicated. I don't see that as being a practical solution, though, our first term.

18:52 I think it's much more practical to say one student should be valued the same in a private school as it should in the public school, period. And I think once I actually bring that up to a lot of people and understanding that dynamics, it's almost offensive. It really is almost offensive. Absolutely. Because there are students, there are kids that don't have an opportunity to utilize the voucher program and go to a private school because they don't have a private school around them.

19:21 So they're valued less than the upper echelon of kids that are in, you know, more privileged districts, which is a problem. So.

19:33 Absolutely. I saw the Ed Choice ruling come out this morning. I was like, ooh, I hope Samantha brings this up. Yeah, so that was exciting to see. But yeah, it will be appealed and all that fun stuff. But my biggest thing with the public school funding issue, and I've said this on every episode, but it's just so sad to see that we're so...

19:59 Visibly not investing in our next generations and our next leaders of Ohio. It's just really sad, actually. But it's not difficult. It's simple. We just need to constitutionally fund our public schools. It's right there. And the fact is

20:19 that there's already a formula there. There's already a mechanism developed. It's been developed by some of the most Some of the experts throughout the state, nonpartisan experts throughout the state. I was going to say bipartisan. They bought into it.

20:33 People signed off on it in a bipartisan way. But now for some reason, our Republican supermajority doesn't want to do it.

20:40 Hmm. But we're going to break that supermajority. So anyways. Your seat being one of them. Yeah, that's right. On to property taxes, more fun things. So of course, property taxes are a huge issue in Ohio. There are rising worry for families all across the state, but especially in your District 35. What's one thing that you could do in your first term to ease that burden and kind of where do you see common ground across the aisle?

21:09 Well, I can tell you, I have been canvassing like crazy, obviously. And so I'm talking to people and let me tell you, In the primary, I obviously focused on Democrats because I wasn't a primary. But ever since the primary, I really have not been talking to Democrats very much. I've been talking to independents, undecided voters, and moderate Republicans, to be very transparent with you.

21:32 And I can tell you, when dealing with cost of living, when dealing with affordability, that is the number one issue on everyone's brain. So when it deals with property taxes, everybody's on the same boat. That there needs to be a shift in the system. There needs to be a change. Now, granted, Ohio has been going through this radical extreme of eliminating property taxes, which that's been an option that has been pushed recently.

21:59 I am very abhorrently against that. I'll say that flat out like that because I feel that there's no plan behind it. And so many, like my township, I'm from Northfield Center Township, my township relies completely on property taxes. We would no longer exist if we didn't have property taxes. So that's a very near and dear personal thing to me.

22:18 But when it comes to property taxes in general, you got to break down property taxes, right? Where are our property taxes actually going? And the fact is, when you break it down, in my district, between 65% to about 73% of property taxes are going to our local public schools. So really, you can accomplish a lot of things if the state actually ponies up and actually does its due diligence that it's constitutionally supposed to be doing and funding our public schools.

22:41 Now, granted, that's not going to see a drastic decrease in property taxes immediately. Absolutely not. But the fact is, is that because of the way that our system is set up, there is very little that actually can be done that'll drastically change our property taxes immediately. It's going to be a long-term solution because if we fully fund our public schools, then they won't go on the ballot with levies, right?

23:06 And so, but again, looking at other things. So our public schools are getting the The state actually fully funding our public schools will alleviate a lot of that and asking for more money. But then there are other things that are utilized for our property taxes, like our police, our firefighters, our emergency assistants in general.

23:28 And looking at how much money has actually been allocated to local governments in general, it used to be 5% of the state budgets was allocated towards local governments in general, 5%. Now it's less than 2%. Again, this is what our legislature has deemed to be a priority of theirs, not local government, not schools.

23:55 You can't argue anything other than that. You just can't because that is where their actions have shown and what they continuously are investing or not investing in. Now granted, we're talking about a tens of billions of dollar budget, right? That the state of Ohio, I think it's like $40 billion. Don't quote me on that one though.

24:14 But the fact is, is that we can't even allocate 2%. 2% of our budget cannot go to local communities in general. So again, this all goes back to where money and resources are put. Literally, it goes back to that basic. And that's going to be dealt with in the state budget, which is going to be the first piece of legislation that's going to hit my desk when I win in January.

24:42 And at that point, I can very confidently say I am the only candidate in this race that has ever successfully advocated in the state budget before and understand the logistics of the state budget. So that being said, We need to look at putting more resources back into the local communities so it will alleviate the need for communities and schools to go to the community and raising property taxes for it.

25:10 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, to your point, we can't fund all these other things, but we can just continue to give huge corporate handouts to things like data centers and, you know. I know to your point, it's not technically tax dollars that went to the Browns, but they still found money to give to the Browns when they can't find money to give to things that are more important to Ohioans.

25:31 So it's super frustrating. And I would love to see you in that room in January, changing that up. All right. Before we start to wrap, we're going to ask you, we're going to kind of go back to your background here. So obviously, you know, you've protected victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking.

25:47 It's really been like your life's work. Can you give us a high level look at just, you know, I know you've talked about already working on legislation, but like what would you push for in the statehouse once you were there in regards to this work? And how do you make the case to voters that maybe think this issue isn't like important or as important as other things or doesn't like touch their lives?

26:07 What would you say to them?

26:08 So I'll answer this in a few different manners. First and foremost, my main initiatives are is not necessarily my passions. My main initiatives are what the initiatives and what the needs are of the communities that I'm going to be representing. And so when looking at what the needs are, we're dealing, again, back to the affordability issues.

26:25 Those need to be my priorities. Now, granted, since I decided to run in the first place, I can tell you that the majority, so I work at a nonprofit, right? And so being in the nonprofit sector, we need to learn to utilize our resources appropriately. We need to learn how we can work together because we only have a finite amount of resources to help some of the most vulnerable individuals in our communities, right?

26:49 And so I can tell you when I announced that I was going to be running, um, My major supporters, not financially or outwardly, are individuals that are working in nonprofits because they understand the struggles that the communities are dealing with right now because they're the ones who are helping alleviate those struggles to the extent they possibly can.

27:11 I was talking to an individual who used to be in the military and he said this quote to me and it was very profound and it really resonated with me. He said, Because he asked me this question. He's like, well, what is going to be your passion? Like, what is going to be your thing? And I'm like, well, my thing might not be really a lot of what my background is because that's not what my community needs, really, at this present time.

27:35 And so he said to me, he was like, you know, I'm going to give you a piece of advice. He said, there's a saying that we have in the military, which says, sometimes you choose the mission. And sometimes the mission chooses you. And that was a really profound thing for me to say, because I'm like, you know, I really am passionate about working with victims and protecting victims' rights and really helping alleviating a lot of these things.

27:59 And, you know, so I'm very split in the sense of like, I really need to focus on what my community needs. And that's the affordability things. But like, I agree with you in the sense that, you know, victimization as a whole is everywhere, whether we see it or not, whether we want to, uh, And so because of that, I am really going to be focusing on one of the big initiatives that I really am as near and dear to my heart is dealing with labor trafficking and alleviating a lot of the tax fraud that is occurring with corporations who are utilizing labor trafficking In construction, in various other areas like hospitality areas, the construction industry, a lot of these things where people, Ohio is losing billions of dollars because corporations are working the systems

28:58 and they are, again, using victims, labor trafficking victims to do a lot of their work and they're not paying the taxes on it. They're paying them under the table. These are fundamental problems. That someone needs to hold these corporations accountable for these things. So that is a huge initiative that I really want to focus on.

29:19 But again, it really is going to be dealing a lot with what are the... One concept that I have noticed when I'm working with legislators on pieces of legislation is the lack of implementation when it comes to legislation. So there will be a great idea... Theoretically, it sounds great, but there is no implementation plan of how to do this.

29:44 Who is going to be overlooking it? What is going to be the accountability aspect of things? And this tends to be a huge critique that I have in a lot of pieces of legislation. And the comment that I get back from a lot of legislators, I was like, oh, that's getting into the nitty gritties. That's getting into things too small.

30:00 We shouldn't have to deal with these things. But nothing happens then. This beautiful bill becomes useless. And so to me, I am very much about making, finding things that are going to be practical and are going to have the implementation to make it worthwhile and actually impactful to people, right? And so- When it comes to really uplifting the voices of nonprofits working with victims, survivors of victimizations, this is going to be key to me.

30:32 And it has been on the forefront of my brain in different ways of how I can do that. But the biggest thing that I'm telling everybody right now, the way you can make your voice heard is to go and vote. That is the first thing you need to do. You need to make sure people are in these offices that are actually going to be listening to you because once they're able to listen to you, at that point, they're actually able to do something and help solve the problem that you're bringing to them.

30:57 That's right. We need people to vote. Today is, we're dropping this actually on October 22nd. So you have about a week and some change to early vote. And then voting day, election day is November 3rd. So please get to the polls, especially if you're in District 35, go vote for Sam. Sam, one last question that we have been asking all of our candidates.

31:23 What is giving you hope at this moment?

31:26 It sounds counterintuitive. But what gives me hope is the fact of we are at a point in our society where so many people are negatively impacted by the decisions consistently being made by our supermajority legislature that they're starting to listen. They're starting to open up their minds and they're starting to consider, maybe I need to dive a little bit deeper into these candidates.

31:58 I can't tell you how many people contact me. And the first few sentences they say is, I'm going to be honest, I am a Republican. I've always voted Republican, but I'm really thinking differently this year. And so it's sad that we had to get to a point where people are hurting and people are making really, really difficult decisions every single day to survive.

32:28 To really consider looking at things from a bigger picture perspective and take other perspectives into account. But unfortunately, that's kind of human nature. And a lot of people don't like politics. I get it. I understand. It is a nasty, nasty business. But it doesn't have to be. That's the thing.

32:46 This is an area where we're supposed to be uplifting the voices of our communities. This should not be a, hey, I'm doing this because my party has this agenda and we want to do this. No, it shouldn't be like that. And I know people are so tired of turning on the TV and seeing all these negative ads, seeing all these lies going everywhere.

33:13 And the fact is, is that this, whatever, how much, and honestly, one of the biggest critiques people are saying is, I wonder how much money they're spending.

33:23 Yeah, it's so much money. I wonder how much money.

33:25 Right, right. When people are going through an affordability crisis and they're determining whether or not they're able to pay their car bill versus their mortgage or they're able to go out to dinner for their kid's birthday, they don't have enough money for all of it. And we're spending millions of dollars on stupid ads that don't actually, honestly, most of the time they're flipping lies.

33:50 It is absolutely enraging to me because that money should be invested in the community where it is actually needed. But it just goes to show how disconnected people are. Just goes to show how disconnected politicians are with the community. But let me tell you, what gives me hope is the community is seeing this now.

34:09 And they're tired. And I can empathize with it because I am tired. Because I am having to make difficult decisions because I am in the community. And I am dedicating my entire professional career in helping the community. So I get it. And finally, people are able to actually have a conversation now. So unfortunately, what gives me hope is kind of the fact that people are struggling and people are willing to listen.

34:38 But I think people are willing to open up their minds to things and that this is not the only way it can be. It can be other we have other options here.

34:47 That is a reason to be hopeful, though, for sure. So you've mentioned that you're, you know, actually talking to quite a few independent, moderate Republicans. For folks listening to this and for when you're hitting those doors, I think, could you kind of end us on like, what is your elevator pitch when you're out there?

35:04 And where could people go to learn more about your campaign and support you?

35:07 So this is this is what I'm telling everybody, because it's the truth. I genuinely believe this. This election is not about Democrats versus Republicans. It's not. When you get to the polls and when you're in front of your ballot, this is an election about priorities and where these candidates' priorities lie.

35:30 I can tell you, not just from my words, but from my actions, from my career, from the people who are supporting me, my priorities are in the communities and they're in the kids. That is my priorities. And the fact is, again, this election is going to change The trajectory of the state of Ohio for historic purposes.

35:55 That is why Ohio is being looked at by everyone around the nation. Because we can go from one extreme to the next. And again, it's not about Democrat versus Republican. It is about where your priorities lie and where you want to invest your priorities and where you want your resources invested in. Again, I'm focusing on the communities, on the kids, and it's not just by my words, it's by my actions.

36:22 I can't say that about my opponent because his priorities and his actions have shown very differently. So voting is the most important thing. Getting out to vote. I don't care what party you're affiliated with. I don't care what side of the aisle you're on. At the end of the day, we have constitutional rights in this country, and you need to exercise yours.

36:44 Because it's when we don't exercise our rights is when they start pulling back on what our rights actually are. And we see this happening with issue number three. The fact is we are not going to change, in my opinion, we should not be changing our Constitution to enforce a right we already have and to make it more difficult and barriers for people to exert those rights.

37:07 And the main right that we have right now is the right to vote. So please make it a point to vote.

37:14 And Sam, we will have your campaign website and social media in our show notes for folks to access easily. And just thank you so much for running. And I know these past 10 months have probably felt like 10 years, but... I would say, you know, it's going to calm down after election day, but you're going to win.

37:36 So it's not going to calm down. You're actually going to be able to implement these things that you've been talking about for 10 months. And we are just so excited to

37:43 see that.

37:44 So thank you for, yeah, thank you for coming on the show. We are absolutely rooting for you. Thank you so much.

37:50 We'll be watching election night very closely. So go, Sam, all the good vibes. And yes, everyone go vote.

37:56 [music]

38:09 Our second and last interview that's going to air this year is with Mason Blankenship, who is running for Ohio House District 68, which includes a large portion of Licking County and parts of Newark, as well as Patascala. Sorry, guys, Ohioans, if I said that wrong. He's a native of Licking County and understands the challenges of balancing hard work, family responsibilities, and the feeling of being overlooked by state leadership.

38:31 His candidacy aims to introduce a working class perspective to the statehouse, characterized by attentive listening, honesty, and a commitment to advocating for the residents of his community. And all of that comes through very evidently in our conversation. We know you guys will enjoy this one.

38:46 Hi, Mason. Welcome to the show. [music]

39:00 Thank you for having me.

39:21 Yeah. So you're a Marine who went on to have a career in insurance and now risk management. How did all of that shape the way that you would show up in Columbus? Yeah.

39:33 Well, that really is kind of the foundation of my representation, right? So from the Marine Corps, I bring strong leadership and then an extremely strong sense of integrity, which is, I think, something that we desperately need in the statehouse. And so that kind of gives me my approach in terms of a leadership from service perspective.

39:53 And then whenever I'm reviewing legislation, and this is more getting into more technical aspects of things. So in risk management, we commonly look at operations and we see where they're exposed. And then we look at what we need to do to fix them. And so when I look at this, it comes from a non-biased point of view when I'm looking at a contract and I'm saying, okay, here are some exposures here.

40:16 Hey, this doesn't quite make sense. Hey, why are we doing this? And then I can then present those ideas and say, hey, look, we should probably make some changes here or this isn't necessarily going to fit with my constituency. And then another part of this too is that I bring with that integrity piece, right?

40:34 I will only be representing my constituents. That is it. I am dedicated to this idea of not representing any kind of corporate or special interest whatsoever. I am not interested. Please don't approach me. Let's just not make it weird, right? And I'm just going to only represent my people. And the way that I will do this, right, and facilitate their participation is by having a rigorous town hall schedule where they can come and we will talk about legislation.

41:02 We will say, hey, look, this is kind of what it does. This is my perspective on it. What do you guys think about it? And then through that conversation, well, that's where, you know, the vote will come into play, right? But it needs to be a conversation between the community and And the representative, because if I'm supposed to represent their needs, how can I do that if I don't know what they are because I'm not talking or meeting with them, right?

41:25 It's completely crazy to me that we have representatives who have yet to have a town hall, right? How do you know what your people want? How do you know what their problems are if you're not talking with them, if you're not even willing to stand up and meet them face to face, right? And so for me, that is kind of a big thing.

41:42 That's kind of how those two things could come into play. We can get a lot deeper into it if you guys want to, but we would be here for a pretty long time.

41:52 No, I think that's a great summary. And I was just going to say, I feel like there's so many places I've seen bills get passed where someone with some risk management background asking those kind of questions would have been really ideal. Not that the super majority would have listened to you, I'm sure.

42:08 But hopefully we have a change of scenery in the legislature soon. Yeah.

42:12 Yeah, that's a whole other battle, right? Yeah, yeah. But the risk management piece, the way that I kind of put this to people, because risk management is a pretty complex field, right? And it's pretty broad, right? And so what I explain to people is that risk management is really the art of solving complex problems.

42:30 And that's something that we desperately need at the Statehouse, judging by what we've seen thus far and over the last 30 years. Yeah.

42:37 Yes, absolutely. All right, before we started hitting record here, we were talking a little bit about data centers, so let's go there. Licking County specifically has two running already, three under construction and six more planned. You have said that you would back legislation that would cut their tax breaks.

42:57 So stop giving them tax breaks. What, if anything, would you need to see from these companies before saying yes to another one? Like I said, if anything, and then just kind of give us your general approach on data centers and what you're hearing on the ground from constituents.

43:11 Yeah, absolutely. So kind of what I would need from them is I would need a dedication and a commitment to really making things the right way, right? In terms of addressing the exposures that they have, that they produce in terms of the environmental controls. That they would need to have in place to prevent the spewing of these toxins into our atmosphere.

43:34 And then also the noise pollution, that's another big thing, right? We still don't know exactly what the impacts of all of these things are going to be over a long course of time. Because the studies just haven't been done, right? And every time we go into these meetings, they present us with studies that they have simulated themselves from their own organizations.

43:53 So how are we supposed to take that at its word? So what we need is we want third-party assessments to tell us what the exposure to this is going to be, exactly what it is. And these are multi-billion dollar corporations. There's no reason why they can't put these controls in place. I don't care how much it costs.

44:09 Right. Because a billion dollars is an insane amount of money and you should be able to do anything you want with that. Right. So we would need that. Right. We would need what I would like to see in terms of the tax abatement specifically. Right. Is I would like to see a formula put in place that says, hey, look, you bring this amount of measured benefit.

44:27 Right. To the community, meaning that you're bringing this many jobs, you're paying them X amount of salary, right? You are investing in the GED programs, right? How are you making this community better? And it must be measurable. And then we can say you are now eligible for this level of tax abatement.

44:48 It is not going to be some arbitrary agreement between a municipality and some corporation, right? That's, to me, that's garbage and the community gets lost in the mix. So let's make the community kind of the foundation of that. And if the community decides, you know, oh my gosh, you guys have done so good for our community and you guys have just, you know, really made our town this great place, then we can put it up to a levy and they can choose to increase your tax abatement if the town so wishes, right?

45:17 That's kind of what I would like to see, right? We've been in this age of the American consumer and the American citizen just being exploited at almost every turn. And I think it's time that we really need to start fighting back against that. And I know that that's a lot broader of a topic than just data centers, but I think data centers also fall into that realm as well.

45:37 Yeah, I would agree with you there. And I love just the approach of getting approval from the community and getting folks involved because data centers is truly like a lot of, we've seen so much community involvement because people are so angry about it. So I think this is like a great opportunity for us to continue to keep these folks engaged and, you know, kind of follow through on the data center line, but also, you know, Just encourage folks to continue to speak up.

46:09 The thing about this situation is that it's not partisan. One of the main people that I work with on this was previously MAGA. And I'm a Democrat. I'm a Democratic candidate. And he has my sign and Jared Christian's sign in his front yard. Because we've shown up for the community. And he knows that we are really just looking to make this place better.

46:31 And what I'm mainly against is irresponsible development. Because think about what that does. That is destroying the communities in which people live simply to satisfy some kind of profit margin. And I think that that is also a concept that has kind of plagued our country, right? Is this idea of accumulation capital, right?

46:51 Where I have to have a bigger profit margin today than I had yesterday. And then the impact that happens to the community with their desire for that profit, right? Right. And so that's something that I think we have to watch out for. So, you know, the community should always be at the forefront of every elected official's minds when making any of these decisions.

47:12 Yep, I agree. And unfortunately, there's not a lot of that going on currently, but that is going to change, especially come November 3rd.

47:22 We hope.

47:24 Absolutely. So you want a workers' bill of rights. So first, can you give us kind of a high level of what that is and what that would do for workers in your district and then how you would sell it to voters who don't think of themselves as union folks?

47:40 Yeah, absolutely. So a workers' bill of rights, right? So kind of piggybacking off of what I was saying before with, you know, consumers and citizens being exploited by corporations. Well, this is no different for employers as well, right? We have, believe it or not, There is employers out there who don't treat their employees very well.

47:59 They don't pay them enough to live. They don't have decent benefits or anything like that. And I think that our workers should be able to advocate for those things. They should at least be able to have a conversation, come to the table and say, hey, look, We realize that we are all making $13 an hour and the cost of living around here, well, we need to make $25, right?

48:21 Those conversations should be able to be had, you know? And to someone who doesn't believe in unions or workers' rights or anything like that, you know, what I would kind of explain to them is that we reap the benefit of workers' rights, of labor union and labor movements, if you think about it or not, right?

48:41 The five-day work week. You know, the five day work week came around because people fought for that. And these were unions and these were laborers. You know, you look at what we did at the Battle of Blair Mountain. Right. I don't know if you guys have heard that story or not. But in West Virginia, well, in West Virginia, there was a coal mining company that was busting up the unions in a very violent way.

49:06 And essentially the workers, about 10,000 workers, took up arms against the corporation. Who then was sending detectives and all this stuff. And it was a legitimate fight. Right. And these are the sacrifices that people have made for us to have the workers rights that we have today. And I think that those are things that we need to hold on to and that we need to keep progressing forward.

49:31 Right. Because there is there has to be balance. Right. Between the worker and the employer. Right. Because if not, then one party is going to be taken advantage of. And the unions, these are the mechanisms that we have in place in order to facilitate that. So, you know, to someone who doesn't necessarily support it, I guess I would have questions for them as to, you know, why don't you?

49:56 You know, why wouldn't you support workers' rights? Like, do you not work yourself? Wouldn't you want to have more of a say in your situation, right? Wouldn't you want, you know, for working conditions to get to a place where your children aren't having to work their life away and they can, you know, go out and enjoy a bit of it, you know?

50:13 Maybe not have to live in a double income household like we all do. Dual income, sorry. There's a lot of different reasons as to why people should support workers' rights that benefit them directly. They just don't realize it.

50:28 Yeah, I like to think of when we talk about labor rights, workers' rights. And even things like minimum wage. A rising tide lifts all boats, right? And it's the same thing. If you are not the owner of one of these mega corporations, this stuff's going to help you too. And I think that's something we have to do a better job.

50:52 I'll say as Democrats of... Um, communicating and getting people to understand for sure.

50:56 And when I, and when I think about like employers, right? Like people that are on the complete other side of this, maybe not someone who just doesn't understand it, but maybe someone who is just vehemently against it. I guess my question for them would be, you know, what is leadership to you, right? Because leadership is service, no matter which way you chop it, no matter which way you look at it, that is what it comes back to is service.

51:18 And Why wouldn't you want them to stay healthy? Why wouldn't you want them to be able to take care of their families and put food on the table, you know? So that would be my question for them. You know, why don't you care about your people in that sense? What happened to the days where the employer actually cared about their people?

51:45 You know, the whenever we think back to, you know, the reasons why we were told, hey, go and get a job with a company. And then you stay at the company for a while and you have a pension and then you you move up through the company and then, you know, you're loyal to the company and the company is loyal to you.

51:57 Where is that gone? Right. And it's not it's not leaving because the workers are not loyal to the company. Why aren't the workers loyal to the company? Well, it's because you don't pay them enough. Treat them like garbage. Why would they want to stay in that type of environment?

52:17 That's what I was just going to add. Even if you're a shitty human being as an employer and you don't care about all those things you just said, If you really want to get down to it, it's also good for your company to retain employees, to have happy employees who will work harder for you. There's literally only really good from it that comes from it, which is kind of the crazy part.

52:40 Yeah, it's just wild to me. And my opponent, he has gone out of his way to sponsor and support a number of bills that directly attack project labor agreements. And to me, that is just disgusting. I don't know how else to put it.

52:56 Yeah, it really is. All right. You're a candidate for the Ohio State House. So we have to go here on this topic because we go here with everyone because it's such a hot topic. Let's talk public schools. We know the gutting of them has impacted not only education, property taxes, all the stuff. Specifically, though, you have talked about how the vouchers really eat over a billion dollars and gut the fair school funding plan.

53:22 So if you could change one thing about school funding in your first term, what would it be?

53:26 So, you know, what's funny is I was actually thinking about this, right? And it's, if I could change one thing, right? I would like for us to get back into compliance with our state constitution, right?

53:38 Imagine that. That's wild. Wild idea.

53:41 Oh, wild. Holy crap. Right? It's only been 30 years. No. So, I mean, unfortunately, there's not just like one thing that we can do to fix education funding in this state, given where it's at right now. Because, you know, it's like, okay, well, what do we need to do? Well, in order for us to get equal funding for schools across the state, well, we're going to have to put this on income tax, right?

54:03 Well, we can't do that because we're on a flat tax, right? And if we were to do that while we are on a flat Okay, so what we would have to first do, step one would be we would have to go back to that progressive tax rate, right? Move schools on to income tax. And then, you know, in terms of being in compliance with our State Constitution, as far as the voucher program goes, absolutely not, right?

54:29 Private schools should be privately funded. Public schools should be publicly funded. There is no mixing of the two. Public tax dollars stay with public education, period, right? They do not go to private institutions. We do not go to religious institutions. And we have kind of worked ourselves into this way to where as much as I would love for it to be true, right, me fixing one thing, one part of this puzzle is not necessarily going to move the needle.

54:53 The reason why if I have to pick one thing, right, it is going to be to move it to income tax, right? And that is because of the situation that we are in with property taxes, right? Education makes up about 60% of our property tax bill here in Ohio. So why are we doing that when in 1997, in the DeRolf decision, the state Supreme Court determined that primarily funding schools through property tax is unconstitutional?

55:23 Why would we keep doing that? Right. So I think that that's the way and that's also a way we can provide real property tax relief that conjoined with the tax abatement formula process that I was talking about earlier. Right now, the tax abatements is not nearly as impactful. Right. Right. This is crazy to me.

56:00 These people have already paid a lifetime worth of taxes. Why are we coming after something they already own? Because they can't pay the tax on it. That's ridiculous to me. I would like to see us get to a place, and I think it is fully possible for us to get to a place. We have schools where the roofs are falling in, right?

56:43 What are we doing? What sense does that make?

56:46 Yeah. And just to be clear, when you say move it to income tax, right now, any of the state funding that already goes to schools is from our income tax, correct?

56:57 No. The money that goes from school funding, a lot of that comes from our property taxes.

57:01 Yes, I know. I know. But the piece that the state gives out to the schools, that comes in through whatever, right? Yeah.

57:09 Mm-hmm.

57:10 So I guess back to your I guess what I'm trying to get is back to your point is like when we say move it to the income tax, you're not like advocating to increase like middle or lower, you know, class income taxes to your point, like. That income tax, when you say move it to income tax, it's because you would want a progressive tax policy that the wealth you're paying more into.

57:30 Yeah, yeah. So that way, the people who have the most ability to pay, pay. And the people who don't aren't going to be struggling, right? So that's why we had the progressive tax model in the first place. You know what I mean? Yep. So yeah, I mean, but yeah, like you're saying, like, that's why we have to get back that progressive rate in order to make this work.

57:50 I don't see any other way to make it work. I mean, I've talked to people, I've heard ideas around sales tax and stuff like that. And I just, that just doesn't make sense to me. Sales tax is so volatile. And then it's just also put it this way. Like when I used to, so when I got out of the Marine Corps, right?

58:06 I smoke cigarettes. I don't anymore. Probably one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. But what I would do is I would go down to West Virginia and I would, whenever I was down there, I would buy a couple cartons of cigarettes because they didn't have sales tax on them, right? So I would come up.

58:21 I would go down there, I would buy them, and I would come back to avoid that tax. How many Ohioans are going to be doing the same things, especially when they live on the border to a state that doesn't have it or is going to sell it cheaper, right? Then we as Ohioans just lose out on that revenue altogether, right?

58:38 So that's just a ridiculous idea. And it's also proven to be a regressive tax on the middle class and on the lower back as well. Yeah, it is.

58:45 Yeah, I was going to say that. Sales taxes. Yeah. No point. No, honestly.

58:48 So it's just not good.

58:49 No, no. So I was tracking with you. I just wanted to make sure it was clear like when we were saying move at the income tax that you meant. So cool. Thank you for explaining that.

58:56 Yeah. Thank you. So let's talk about healthcare. Another fun one that is super, yeah, just super great. So you have said that you think healthcare is a human right and you want to protect Medicaid expansion. Yes. Incredible. But a real quick reality check with our Ohio State House. Can you talk us through what you can actually deliver in two years with a GOP-controlled legislature?

59:23 So hopefully it's not a super majority, but we still expect that the GOP will have a majority. And then kind of what would that long game look like?

59:32 Well, so... You know, I mean, I definitely promote, you know, universal health care and all that stuff. And there was a bill coming through the statehouse the Democrats had provided where essentially anyone making under $200,000 would not see any amount of an increase at all to their taxes whatsoever.

59:51 Right. Right. And so I think that's obviously a wonderful bill. Everybody I talk to thinks it's pretty awesome. They would love to have it. But you're right. What kind of throws a kink into those things is the GOP-dominated House here. I think there's a number of things, you know, aside from being a strong voice in the Democratic Party and then also helping to kind of bolster those ranks.

1:00:12 I'm really good at working across the aisle, actually, right? Like, it's kind of crazy because... I have very progressive ideas, right? Universal healthcare, universal childcare, universal education, right? But a lot of people think that I'm a libertarian for some reason, and that kind of catches me off guard every now and then.

1:00:32 But I can tell you the conversations whenever I go to Republican events or whenever I talk to Republicans out in town and these different things, I have great conversations with them. Right. And they are coming around this idea of health care because of the difference in which we pay for our health care premiums versus what we would pay in taxes.

1:00:56 Right. Because even if let's say that even if under this bill you were still going to see an increase in your taxes. Well, how much do you guys pay for health insurance, a paycheck? I pay a couple hundred dollars a paycheck for health insurance. Right. I would definitely not be paying that much in taxes.

1:01:11 Right. At the end of the year, right? So they see the savings to the wallet. Whenever it comes to the GOP dominated, I think the way that we reach them is through their constituents, right? And then also through saying, hey, look, these are things that are very popular, right? Almost like if you want to keep your job, you should probably start talking about these things.

1:01:31 Or not, like we need to be full court pressing them in like the media about how they don't support these things. Because I think that's one of the biggest things is like, People don't realize we can have nice things. We can have nice things. There's just some politicians in the way.

1:01:46 And so this was exactly my mindset when I first started coming into this world, right? I was like, oh my, because this is something that I really thought about was, Even if I get in as a Democrat, how are we going to get anything done, right? Well, so what I've done is I've developed relationships with Indivisible here in Ohio, right?

1:02:02 In Knox County, in Columbus, where we have a really big chapter, and then also up north, right? And I'm also trying to... And so, essentially, what I'm getting at is that I think that I have built a network that That we would be able to then say, hey, look, we need a ballot initiative like tomorrow. And so then guess what we're going to do?

1:02:41 I'm going to be having conversations with the GOP simultaneously starting ballot initiatives, right? And circumventing the legislature if we have to, because what kind of like you said, right, we can have nice things, but we have to show up for them. Yeah. Right. We have to go to the meetings. We have to go and show our elected officials that we are upset about this and we don't want this and that we are going to vote you out if you do it.

1:03:05 Right. Or we're going to vote you out if you don't. Yeah. Right. It's up to the people to flex that power. And I think that we've had so many years of just being kind of complacent in that sense. Right. And allowing them to just kind of make decisions. And we're saying, oh, yeah, OK, everything seems to be fine because, you know, my eggs are a certain price or whatever.

1:03:25 But we're not looking at the stuff that they're doing behind the scenes or the legislation that they're writing or the stuff they're trying to pass.

1:03:30 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Mason, you have me really fired up. So we're going to start to wrap up. Okay. But we always like to ask folks, what is giving you hope in this moment?

1:03:44 Oh my gosh, the people, the people are giving me such hope, right? As I'm still like out in the communities talking with people, they're fired up, they're motivated, they're wanting change, right? They're asking questions, they're showing up to city council meetings, right? This is what's giving me hope is the fact that the people are starting to fight back and I'm for it.

1:04:05 Right. I will be here with them and I will be leading straight from the helm. So, you know, that's that's what gives me hope is the fact that I think that Americans are really starting to to wake up to the real issues of, you know, the fact that corruption doesn't just have one face on it.

1:04:20 That's right. I absolutely agree with you. I think a lot of people have woken up as of recently and I love to see it. So Mason, if folks listening want to get involved in your campaign or learn more or support you in any way, where can they learn how to do that?

1:04:37 Yeah, absolutely. So you can go to BlankenshipForABetterOhio.com. That's my website. Also, all of my socials are BlankenshipForOhio, the number four. And you can reach out to me there or you can reach out to me via email at BlankenshipForOhio, the number four at gmail.com. And we are always looking for volunteers and we will definitely get you plugged in and get you involved and Awesome.

1:05:02 We'll include all of that in our show notes for folks. And Mason, thank you for running and thank you for your passion and truly your dedication to this. You are also yet another candidate working full time and running for office. We know that is not easy. Ain't no small thing. So thank you for everything.

1:05:22 And it's been great talking with you.

1:05:23 Awesome. Thank you guys for having me.