Can You Spare $1.30 To Help Flip An Ohio Congressional District?

No one is kidding themselves about Ohio’s sprawling 12th district in the central and eastern part of the state. It stretches from the Columbus suburbs into the rural Appalachian areas next to West Virginia. And it’s been pretty red in recent memory. Trump won the district both times, 53-42% in 2016 and 52 to 46% in 2020.

Troy Balderson, a college dropout who bankrupted his family’s car sales business, was first elected to the state legislature in 2008 and very narrowly (101,772 to 100,208) won the congressional seat when Pat Tiberi retired in 2018. In 2022 Balderson didn’t face a serious challenge and he was reelected 191,344 (69.3%) to 84,893 (30.7%) against Amy Rippel-Elton, who didn’t raise the $5,000 that would have triggered an FEC report, while Balderson spent over a million and a half dollars on his campaign. 

This cycle, Balderson has a much stronger opponent in progressive software engineer, small businessman and Navy veteran Jerrad Christian, who is running a vigorous campaign and has already raised over $150,000, around 70% of which came from small contributions (below $200). He’s been endorsed by Blue America and you can contribute to his campaign here.

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