Voters in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District are choosing between three candidates in the Nov. 3 general election.
The district includes Ashland, Coshocton, Holmes, and Knox counties and parts of Richland, Huron, Lorain, Medina, Richland, Stark, and Tuscarawas counties.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are paid $174,000 annually.
Here is a look at the three candidates:
The 66-year-old Gibbs has been in Congress since 2010, winning election to represent the 18th Congressional District. Due to redistricting, he won re-election to the 7th District in 2012.
Prior to his election to the U.S. House, Gibbs served in the Ohio State Senate and the Ohio House of Representatives.
He earned a degree from the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute in 1974. In 1976, Gibbs founded the Hidden Hollow Farms, producing mainly market hogs, in Holmes County. He continued to own and operate the business when he entered politics in 2002.
During a speech to Richland County Republicans in June, Gibbs noted 2020 “has been a helluva year,” citing what he called the “impeachment hoax” of President Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic and growing racial unrest across the nation.
Gibbs has said his priorities in another term would include rebuilding the economy with policies that provide every American with opportunity as opposed to what he called “government-mandated social engineering.”
Gibbs said he wants to expand opportunities for people to reach the American dream through furthering educational choice. He said he also wants to expand career and technical education opportunities.
In terms of police reform, rather than de-funding departments, Gibbs said he wants to prioritize policies ensuring officers have adequate training and support.
“Every election is a choice about the direction of our nation,” Gibbs said. “This election is no different. We have seen incredible economic growth, resulting in rising wages and more opportunity for all Americans and that only happens with Republican policies.”
Born in Columbus, the 64-year-old Potter has lived in the 7th District since 2011, when he became vice president and treasurer for Lorain County Community College.
According to information Potter supplied to Ballotpedia, Quentin served more than 20 years in state government, helping create nine balanced state budgets. He oversaw the spending of billions of dollars for Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs.
In 2015, he returned to the Ohio Office of Management and Budget to serve for three years as the director’s representative on financial oversight commissions that helped communities and school districts overcome financial distress.
Potter said he will be an advocate for workers and will encourage both parties to do more to rebuild the middle class. Quentin said, “Every hardworking American deserves a good job, affordable healthcare, quality education for their children, and the security of knowing they can retire with dignity.”
The candidate said health care coverage should not be a partisan issue.
“Without a change in the presidency, Republicans like my opponent will achieve their goal of destroying the Affordable Care Act. Millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage. The consequences for people’s health care will be catastrophic,” Potter said.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic has created staggering job losses and “revealed how tenuous employment is for workers essential to keeping us all going.”
He said the nation’s collective response should not be partisan.
“Recovery from COVID-19 will take longer and cost more than the White House or my opponent will tell you, and so the necessary and robust response to COVID-19 is threatened by their continued wishful thinking,” he said.
Potter said he will fight to create better paying jobs with benefits, and protect Medicare and Social Security from Trump/Republican cutbacks. He said he will support unions and defend their right to collectively bargain.
He said the tax system needs to be more equitable and that “wealthy corporations need to pay their fair share.”
“We need to invest strategically in education, infrastructure, and job development in order to create practical solutions to climate change,” Potter said.
A 38-year-old Danville resident in Knox County, Lape is an IT help-desk technician who said he is running as a Libertarian Party candidate to restore fiscal responsibility, civil liberties and a more limited federal government.
Lape said he is running “to give voters in Ohio’s 7th District a chance to restore freedoms that have been taken from us, to shrink the size and scope of federal government to stop our ever-expanding national debt and to ensure future generations are not responsible for that debt the moment they are born.”
“Enough with the back-and-forth, two-party politics that divide and conquer us,” Lape said.
Lape has said he will work to repeal laws and regulations that have increased government spending and oversight; will vote against bills that massively increase federal spending; and will oppose creation of new federal agencies.
If elected, Lape said he would seek to:
Restore civil liberties and individual rights —Â He would seek to decriminalize all nonviolent drug offenses and end the war on drugs; repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968 and restore rights to own all non-mechanical accessories; and repeal the Patriot Act and eliminate the Dept. of Homeland Security, including all surveillance-state apparatus created since 2001.
Exercise fiscal responsibility and eliminate deficit spending —Â Lape said “our troops are not for sale” and Congress should approve assistance to allies only for dire circumstances. He said security for corporate interests should be bought and paid by those corporations, not U.S. citizens. He also said he would seek to end corporate welfare, including subsidies, tariffs, and government-grated monopolies.
Address social entitlement and welfare reform —Â Lape said Social Security is not solvent and will be bankrupt in about five years without additional tax hikes or benefit cuts. He would seek to scale back the program to its original capacity and eliminate it as compulsory. He said he would also terminate all measures that make welfare a trap, incentivize people to seek employment or small-business ownership
Lape also advocates reforms to policing, including an end to no-knock warrants, qualified immunity and civil asset forfeiture.
