Rep. Joyce Beatty, who’s represented Ohio’s third congressional district since 2013, faces a challenger in the upcoming 2020 election. Morgan Harper, a 36-year-old former adviser of Richard Cordray, says she’ll run a grassroots campaign against the incumbent, prioritizing racial justice, affordable housing, and climate change.
Harper, a Columbus native, was raised by an immigrant and Columbus public school teacher on the east side of the city. She received financial aid to attend Columbus Academy, Tufts University, Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and Stanford Law School. Harper served for three years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a senior advisor. Most recently, she was Vice President at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a nonprofit supporting community development initiatives across the country.
Harper made announced the kickoff of her campaign on Monday, July 1, at the Social Justice Park Downtown. There she described her goal to support the working class people of central Ohio.
“Working people are finding it more and more difficult to get by,” she says. “We’re struggling to be financially stable, access affordable housing and live in a clean environment. And we are still dealing with the effects of centuries of racial injustice.”
Harper’s platform includes policies guaranteeing universal childcare and early learning, tuition-free public college, a universal income, Medicare for All, rent stabilization policies, increased affordable housing opportunities and a Green New Deal.
Beatty has represented Ohio’s third district since her narrow defeat of Mary Jo Kilroy in 2012. She’s been up for reelection twice since then, in 2016 and 2018, sailing to victory each time.
Harper says she will challenge Beatty with a grassroots campaign that rings in a younger generation of elected leaders.
“That’s why I am launching this campaign today, because we need a new generation of leadership ready to fight for full policy that will actually have an impact on working people’s lives, policies that ensure my story is every child’s story,” Harper says.
For more information, visit morganharper.org.