Starting in 2025, Ohio’s 2nd congressional district will be represented by a politician who is just starting his career.
Democrat Samantha Meadows will face Republican David Taylor. Neither candidate has previously held office.
Republican Congressman Brad Wenstrup currently represents the 2nd District, but announced tardy last year that he would not seek re-election in 2024 after serving six terms.
The 2nd Congressional District covers 15 southern Ohio counties: Clermont, Clinton, Pike, Adams, Brown, Highland, Ross, Scioto, Pickaway, Hocking, Vinton, Jackson, Lawrence, Gallia and Meigs, and part of Fayette County.
Historically, the 2nd Congressional District is dominated by Republicans, and President Donald Trump won all of its districts in the 2020 election.
Meadows
This is Meadows’ second time running for the 2nd Congressional District. She lost to Wenstrup in 2022 — receiving just 25% of the vote — but believes her chances of winning have improved since Wenstrup retired.
“I’m kicking down doors… I’m doing everything I can to make sure people know that I personally, as a candidate, care about them,” she said.
Meadows not feel intimidated to run as a Democrat in districts where Republicans dominate.
“I know a lot of people here are Republicans because of anger, not politics,” she said. “I have faith in our district that no, it’s not about Republicans or Democrats. It’s about the person who’s going to help us.”
She grew up in McDermott attended Shawnee State University and Ohio Christian University in Scioto County and then worked as a paramedic.
“I’ve always felt a responsibility to serve my community,” she said. “… I’ve always felt a responsibility to help others.”
Through her work as an EMT, Meadows has seen first-hand the devastation caused by the opioid epidemic and remembers the first Oxycontin overdose patient she helped treat. They administered Narcan and managed to bring the patient back to consciousness.
“It was new to us then,” she said.
The same patient overdosed again several weeks later, but this time he did not survive.
“Addiction was one of the factors that led me to run for office,” she said. “Everyone knows someone who is addicted or has a family member who is going through the same thing.”
Meadows said she never had any aspirations to go into politics, but decided she had to do something when she saw Drug overdoses escalate during COVID-19.
“I had a moment where I literally looked at the TV and said, somebody has to do something about this. And I thought, I’m going to do it,” she said.
Taylor
Wenstrup is retiring, like most of the 2nd district is Appalachian AND “The long list of national crises occurring both within and without our borders” was why Taylor decided to run for office.
“The needs of the Appalachian community have been something that has been at the forefront of my mind my entire life,” he said. “The opportunity to see this overlooked, underserved community like Ohio’s 2nd District get the attention it deserves is what led me to enter politics.”
Taylor faced a close primary battle with 10 other Republicans — including state Sens. Shane Wilkin and Niraj Antan — to make it to the November election. Taylor won with 25 percent of the vote.
“People don’t want political vocations right now,” he said. “They want an outsider. I think for voters in the 2nd District, the lack of political education was actually an advantage.”
Even though the 2nd District is heavily Republican, Taylor said he is treating the race as if the district is evenly split and is traveling around the district to meet with people.
“We sweep the tires off my pickup truck and drive around the county,” he said.
Taylor spent most of his life in Clermont County, graduated from the University of Miami and the University of Dayton School of Law, and worked in the prosecutor’s office.
“In criminal law, you get to the heart of every word in the law because sometimes someone’s liberty is at stake,” Taylor said. “So that will be good for dealing with legislation that is being written, enacted or repealed.”
He now owns his own concrete company, Sardinia Ready Mix, and says his experience working within a budget can facilitate him at DC
“These are things that the government could do with a lot of attention, so I think having more people with that mindset would lead to better outcomes in Washington, and those benefits would trickle down here to Ohio, particularly to the second district,” he said.
In matters
Taylor wants to defund and dissolve the U.S. Department of Education.
“This is another federal agency that exceeds the federal government’s authority under the Tenth Amendment,” he said. “We have so many federal bureaucracies that exceed the authority of the Constitution.”
Meadows wants better funding for public schools.
“We don’t have enough private schools in our district to accommodate the influx of kids from public schools,” Meadows said, referring to the voucher program.
Meadows wants to protect reproductive rights.
“The ability to have bodily autonomy and make your own decisions is absolutely terrifying, and we don’t have that freedom or we try to deny ourselves that freedom,” she said.
Taylor opposes abortion, but does not support a total abortion ban.
“The case will be a state-by-state case, state-by-state, and that is where it must remain,” he said.
Both candidates support the Second Amendment.
“But I also believe that at the very least we need to have a moratorium on the sale of assault rifles,” Meadows said. “I don’t think they’re necessary in the hands of the average American. They belong on the battlefield.”
Taylor said he would fight violations of the Second Amendment.
“Every time one of these incidents happens that causes (people) to call for gun control, a lot of laws are broken, so I’m not sure what laws they think could be passed to stop that,” Taylor said.
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