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July 2024Ashland CountyDemocratic Party Newsletter

Meet Kathy SalemKathy Salem is the Democratic nominee for Ohio Senate District22. She is running against Republican incumbent MarkRomanchuk. She is scheduled to speak at our Summer Picnic.We are sharing the information below, from her campaign. "Kathy Moses Salem is a successful businesswoman and communityleader. She is running to represent Ohio's 22nd District in the StateSenate.With a passion for service, Kathy Salem has been active in hercommunity for as long as she can remember. She stands for women'sreproductive rights, will fight corruption by safeguarding yourtax dollars from special interest groups, believes quality healthcare is afundamental right for all Ohioans, supports our children by providing aquality education system, and will work with the Unions and privatecompanies to bring well-paying jobs back to the 22nd district.Kathy worked as a beautician for twenty years before deciding it was

time to begin a new chapter of her life. A trailblazer of women in theworkforce, she spent nearly ten years at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland,Ohio. In her time at the paper she climbed the ladder to become amajor Advertising Executive. When the opportunity to further hereducation presented itself, she moved on to Case Western ReserveUniversity, who offered her a full-ride scholarship to study History andBusiness. Following graduation, Salem moved to Washington D.C.where she spent two years working as a lobbyist. There, she learnedlife-long values that still govern her actions today: integrity, follow-through, and accountablity.Today, Salem is an active community leader and contributes greatly tothe causes she cares about. Her passion for women’s healthcare andreproductive rights has lead her to help educate mothers with minimalmeans, teaching them meaningful life skills. She has a passion forcommunity and for our children, donating to significant projects for theNorthhampton Methodist Church and the Shaw JCC. She funds aHistory Scholarship at Case Western Reserve and a music program inNaples, FL that needed funding due to cuts in the Florida educationalsystem. She also funds a monetary scholarship for students at FloridaA&M University, the nation's top HBCU. As a lecturer, Kathy's personalstory of hard work and perseverance brings hope to many she comesin contact with.Since 2014, she has been Managing Director and Producer at Night isAlive Productions, a jazz music agency that is dedicated to recordingmusic for some of the most innovative musicians of the era. Kathy Salem is determined to bring the same passion and energy thathas driven her career to the Statehouse. Her vision for Ohio is one ofunity, progress, and prosperity for every citizen. Gardening and spending time with her family are some of her favoritethings. She is proud to call Medina home."To learn more about Kathy Salem, to donate to her campaign, orto hold a houseparty to introduce her to your friends andneighbors, visit her website at https://kathysalem.com/and her facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/people/Kathy-Salem-for-Ohio-Senate-22/61557085577559/

Update on Petition to stop GerrymanderedOhio Voting DistrictsSignature gathering on the Citizens not Politicians petition haswrapped up, and all the signatures from all 88 Ohio counties will bedelivered to the Ohio Secretary of State at the Ohio Statehouse onJuly 1st. This Amendment, if passed, will take Ohio political districtdrawing completely out of the hands of politicians. Fair districts willgive us more representative and accountable Ohio House and Senatemembers.Ashland County collected the required amount of signaturesneeded. We want to recognize Roberta and Sandy of the AshlandCounty Dems for their hard work in organizing our local petitionsignature gathering. Petition gathering was organized by the Ohio Democratic Party,Citizens Not Politicians, Common Cause Ohio, and Fair Districts Ohio,among other local groups.If you want to learn more about this amendment before heading to thepolls, check out this link for Citizens Not Politicians: https://www.citizensnotpoliticians.org/Tuned Out Voters Benefit TrumpBiden needs to capture the attention of thedisengaged.

A.B. STODDARDby AB Stoddard writing for the Bulwark June 3, 2024 IF YOU ARE READING THIS here at The Bulwark, you are likely awell-informed voter closely following the campaign.But chances aremany of the people you surround yourself with are not. Ask them why,and they will probably tell you something like, Yeah, I’m going to vote,but I can’t take any more Trump, so life is better without the news.Voters like that could actually sink Joe Biden’s re-election.Nearly every friend I have who isn’t in politics, as well as manyrelatives, have checked out. Most of them did so in November 2020,as soon as Biden won. Many of these disengagers believe Biden willwin this year and don’t know that Trump is attracting new votes, isahead in all of the swing-state polls, and is well positioned for asecond term. They don’t know that Trump is openly planning for a newauthoritarian government that centralizes power in the presidency anddefies the separation of powers. They don’t know he says he intendsto prosecute Biden and Gen. Mark Milley and members of Congresswho served on the House January 6th Committee. They don’t knowthat several Republicans vying to be Trump’s running mate won’tcommit to accepting the results of the election and believe Mike Penceshould not have certified the 2020 election. They haven’t followed anyof the cases against Trump and don’t know the New York case thatconcluded with his conviction last week was—in all likelihood—the firstand last Trump will face before the election, or ever. They have no ideathat Trump now regularly proclaims internal, domestic enemies“within” are more dangerous to America than China or Russia. Theyhave no idea what Project 2025 is.They probably didn’t watch this weekend as Republicans, en masse,rejected a verdict, a jury, and the conduct of a judge. Americans whodon’t support Biden, and are open to voting for Trump, probably didn’teither.With roughly 80 percent of the electorate unhappy with the generalelection rematch between President Biden and former PresidentTrump, it’s not surprising that many voters are looking away.

A Pew Research poll in April found 28 percent of respondents saidthey aren’t following the election too closely and 13 percent said theyaren’t following it closely at all. The survey showed thatwhile more voters were following the election very or fairly closely thanthe share that was in April 2020, 62 percent of respondents said theyare already “worn out” by it. In the same poll from four years ago, thatlevel of fatigue with political news, 61 percent, didn’t register untilOctober 2020. The new polling showed those following closelyexpressed less burnout than those who aren’t, and Republicans wereless likely to say they were worn out than Democrats by a margin of58–66 percent.In a series of focus groups Pew conducted a year ago, votersexpressed frustration with both parties, and researchers found “theyhave a sense that politics is everywhere—and often in a bad way.They find themselves overwhelmed by how much information theyconfront in their day-to-day life.”The Biden campaign has now concluded that these voters must betargeted with vigorous messaging. Biden’s team had hoped that pollswould shift when voters “remembered” Trump and recoiled in horror,but that never happened. Trump leads consistently.“Our task at this point is engaging them when they don’t want toengage with us,” an unnamed Biden campaign pollster told NBCNews. “Not waiting for them to tune in, but instead sort of being therewith a persistent message.”The campaign aims to shore up weakness in the Biden coalition withevents that highlight gun violence and the threat to reproductive rightsas it has found young and minority voters tuning out “in ways that wehaven’t seen before,” the pollster said.The challenge is twofold. It’s not just that disaffected voters arefrustrated with the economy and inflation and choosing between a 77-year-old former president and an 81-year-old current president, butthat the movement away from the consumption of mainstream mediahas escalated since 2020. Younger Americans are increasingly gettingtheir news from TikTok, and Trump is already dominating there.A new survey by Blueprint, a Democratic-aligned polling operation,offered an opening for the Biden campaign. It showed young peopleare not aware of most or many of the most offensive statements Trumpmade as a 2016 candidate and as president but that a majority of

respondents were offended once they learned them. Instructively, theytook offense with statements Trump made regarding race, women, andimmigrants but not his lies about the election being stolen.It’s hard to reach these voters, and it’s hard to interest these voters,but it is critical since many will make a last-minute decision and vote.Many of the most checked-out voters are supporting Trump. An NBCNews poll conducted in mid-April found Trump had a 26-pointadvantage with the 15 percent of respondents who said they didn’tfollow election news closely. Among the 54 percent who said theyconsume their news from television and newspapers, Biden wasahead by 11 points.Since many of these disaffected voters are unreachable, it’s criticalthat formerly engaged Biden voters tune back in. Those who opposeTrump but check out are not energized; they are not sounding thealarm, sharing information, and articulating the stakes.A recent poll from the Survey Center on American Life reported only27 percent of registered voters say the 2024 election is the mostimportant of their lifetime. That number is alarmingly low—but it can beraised by increased voter engagement.Check in on your friends and family. We only have a few more months. What is Project 2025? According to Wikipedia, Project 2025, also known as the PresidentialTransition Project, is a collection of conservative policy proposals from TheHeritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government in theevent of a Republican Party victory in the 2024 presidential election.[2][3] Established in 2022, the project aims to recruit tens of thousands ofconservatives to the District of Columbia to replace existing federal civilservants—whom some Republicans characterize as part of the "deep state"—and to further the objectives of the next Republican president.[4] It adopts amaximalist version of the unitary executive theory, a disputed interpretation

of Article II of the Constitution of the United States,[5][6] which asserts that thepresident has absolute power over the executive branch upon inauguration.[3][7]Project 2025 envisions widespread changes across the government,particularly economic and social policies and the role of the federal governmentand its agencies. The plan proposes slashing funding for the Department ofJustice (DOJ), dismantling the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), sharply reducing environmentaland climate change regulations to favor fossil fuel production, eliminatingthe Department of Commerce, and ending the independence of federalagencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and FederalTrade Commission (FTC).[8][9] The blueprint seeks to institute tax cuts,[10] though its writers disagree on the wisdom of protectionism.[11] Project 2025recommends abolishing the Department of Education, whose programs wouldbe either transferred to other agencies, or terminated.[12][13] Funding for climateresearch would be cut while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would bereformed along conservative principles.[14][15] The Project urges government toexplicitly reject abortion as health care[16][17] and eliminate the Affordable CareAct's coverage of emergency contraception.[18] The Project seeks to infuse thegovernment with elements of Christianity.[19] It proposescriminalizing pornography,[20] removing legal protections against discriminationbased on sexual orientation and gender identity,[20][21] andterminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs,[4][21] as wellas affirmative action.[22]According to an anonymous source and internal communications reviewedby The Washington Post, Jeffrey Clark, a contributor to the project and a formerofficial within the DOJ, will advise the future president to immediately deploy themilitary for domestic law enforcement by invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807.[23][24] The Project recommends the arrest, detention, and deportation ofundocumented immigrants living in the United States.[25] It promotes capitalpunishment and the speedy "finality" of those sentences.[26] Paul Dans, theproject's director, explained that Project 2025 is "systematically preparing tomarch into office and bring a new army, aligned, trained, and essentiallyweaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state."[27][28] Dans admitted it was "counterintuitive" to recruit so many to join thegovernment to shrink it, but pointed out the need for a future president to

"regain control" of the government.[4] Although the project cannot bylaw promote a specific presidential candidate, many contributors have closeties to Trump and his 2024 campaign.[6][29]Critics of Project 2025 have described it as an authoritarian, Christiannationalist movement that seeks to reform the United States into an autocracy.[19] Several experts in law have indicated that it would undermine the rule oflaw and the separation of powers.[8] Some conservatives and Republicans alsocriticized the plan, for example in the contexts of centralizing power,[4] individual rights and freedoms,[30] climate change,[31] and foreign trade.[11]Many more details are available in this articleon Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025 and the entire 1000page Project 2025 document can be read online. When we say that this is themost consequential election of our lifetime, this is the governmental sea changethat we are referring to. Please, talk to your friends and family about Project2025 and how it will turn our country into an authoritarian Christian Nationalistnation if a Republican is elected President.UPCOMING EVENTS Sunday August 18th, 2024 - Annual Summer Picnic at John and SandyBoyer's Honey Haven Farm, 1327 County Road 1475, Ashland, Ohio. 1-4 PM.Speakers so far include Tamie Wilson and Kathy Salem. Bring a side, salad ordessert and enjoy the sweet corn, hot dogs, and good company!Sunday Sept 15th - Saturday Sept 21 2024 - Dems Booth at AshlandCounty FairTuesday October 1-Saturday October 5- Dems Booth at Loudonville StreetFairOctober 7th, 2024 - Voter Registration DeadlineOctober 8th,2024 - Early Voting begins at Ashland County BOE

November 4th, 2024 - Election Day MeetingsMeetings are subject to cancellation or venue/date changes. Changes will beconveyed by email. Make sure to sign up for our email list if you wish to beinformed of meeting dates, minutes, and agendas, byemailing jplapisjp@gmail.comAshland County Democratic PartyCentral Committee Meetings are generally held on the third Thursday of eachmonth at 6:30 PM. Anyone may attend, but executive committee members andprecinct persons are expected to attend whenever possible. Our next Meetings will be held on Thursday July 18, August 15,September 19 at 630 PM at the IAM Union Hall, 930 Grove Avenue,Ashland, Ohio Ashland County Democratic WomenMeetings are generally on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 6 PM. OR SEND YOUR DONATION TO:Ashland County Democratic PartyC/O 963 Winthrop LaneAshland, Ohio 44805DONATE NOW

How Can I Help?SHOW UP! In this upcoming Presidential election year, we need ALLof our active Democrats to help with events, fundraising, staffing our fairbooths, campaigning door to door, and/or getting out the vote. Bethinking about how you can help when we put out our calls for action.Recruit your friends. All are welcome! Democratic poll workers are alsoneeded. Our democracy is on the line!BE A PRECINCT PERSON!What is a precinct person? This is an official position where you are therepresentative of the Democratic Party in your voting precinct. You wouldfirst be appointed by our party Executive Committee and then appear onthe Democratic ballot for re-election in 2026. The primary responsibility isto attend most of our monthly meetings in order to know what is going onand to meet the leadership people. Then, you engage in election activitiesin your precinct that you feel comfortable with, which could include:collecting petition signatures, organizing a postcard or letter writingcampaign, organizing people to hang literature on doors or canvass. Youget to know key people in your precinct who are willing to help. It can berewarding, especially because you build relationships with like-mindedpeople in your precinct who feel that democratic principles andelections are important, just like you do. If you are considering runningfor office someday, being a precinct person is a great first step to buildyour name recognition and support in your community.Currently we need precinct people for Ashland City 1C; 1D; 4A; 4B; 4C;Green 1; Green 2; Loudonville 2; Lake; Milton 1; Milton 3; Jeromesville;Mohican; Montgomery 2; Montgomery 3; Orange 1; Perry; Ruggles;Sullivan 2; Troy; Vermillion 2.If you are interested, just reply to this email address or attend one of ourmonthly meetings and ask any of us about the position.DONATE! We need to raise thousands of dollars for the Novemberelection, when we will need to do our part to get President Joe Biden andSenator Sherrod Brown re-elected, promote 3 Democratic Ohio SupremeCourt justices, and support Tamie Wilson and Kathy Salem! There areover 2000 registered Democrats in Ashland County. If most of themdonate what they can, we will raise what we need. Use the donate button

above to donate online, or send a check to the address above. Aheartfelt THANK YOU to all of those who have already donated.HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVESSenator Sherrod Brown (D) - 216.522.7272 or 614.469.2083Senator J.D. Vance (R) - 614.369.4925 or 216.539.7877Congressman Jim Jordan (R) - 419.663.1426 or 202.225.2676Ohio House Rep. Melanie Miller (R) - 614.466.0961 Rep67@ohiohouse.govOhio Senate Rep. Mark Romanchuk (R) - 614.466.5802HOW TO CONTACT USPHONE: 407.687.2365Ashland County Democratic PartyC/O 963 Winthrop LaneAshland, Ohio 44805Connect with us on Facebook and our Website:

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