We’ve all heard about the “swamp” in Washington D.C. I’ve watched proudly the last few years as our President has fought to clean up the mess in our nation’s capitol. Unfortunately, whether we realize it or not, we have our own “swamp” in Ohio’s capital in Columbus.

David Uible.

In the last few years I have watched as the Columbus insiders and power brokers have gone around the state handpicking their candidates for State House and State Senate. This flies in the face of how our republic is supposed to work. It is essential that the people decide who serves their districts, not have it dictated to them from Columbus.

Earlier this year, Joe Uecker resigned his seat in the State Senate. Terry Johnson from Scioto County was appointed to fill his seat without any input from leaders in Clermont, Brown, and Adams County. Now the Senate Caucus is poised to dump barrels of money into keeping Johnson in Columbus. The 14th District deserves better, plain and simple. They need a leader who will work with them and not for Columbus.

Now is the time to break the cycle of Columbus sycophants. That’s why I’ve decided to run for State Senate in 2020.

Service to the community is something that I have a passion for. Over the last 30 years, while running multiple businesses and our family farm, I have had the privilege to serve as Clermont County Commissioner for six years and Chairman of the Clermont County Republican Party. I was at the helm of leadership for Clermont County during President Donald Trump’s victorious 2016 election.

Southern Ohio’s citizens must have dynamic leadership in Columbus. No longer can our part of Ohio to be the “forgotten district.” Columbus has looked down their nose at us and outright ignored our existence for years because we can’t do much for them — we don’t have a major city or large amounts of money to fill the pockets of the power brokers in Columbus. And this isn’t just hearsay, it’s fact. While much of Ohio recovered from the Great Recession, large swaths of our district have yet to fully recover. Several counties in the 14th District suffer from some of the highest unemployment rates in the entire state. This is unacceptable. We cannot expect things to change if we keep going along with the candidates that are pre-selected by the same people who are responsible for putting us in this mess?

With my background in small business and local government, I will go up to Columbus and break the cycle. I will fight to slash the unemployment rate, create new jobs, support our local businesses and farms, and send a message that Columbus needs to listen to us — not the other way around.

We’re up against the Columbus political machine — but that makes the fight all the more important.

I ask you to join our efforts and I humbly ask for your vote for State Senate in the 2020 Republican Primary.