The Ohioan

Morgan Harper is a progressive Democrat running to be the congressperson for Ohio’s 3rd district against incumbent Democrat Joyce Beatty who has been in office since 2012. Obviously, since moving to the 3rd District, I’ve voted for Beatty happily. When you’re up against Goliath, though, sometimes you need a David. Here’s why I’m voting for Morgan Harper in the Ohio primaries on March 17:

Morgan Harper is Ohio’s Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. The Squad of progressive Democrats consisting of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib (among others) shattered all kinds of records when they were elected to congress in 2018. They are indefinable for me. The four of them, and AOC specifically, are at once the most powerful and the most precious; they represent everything that America should and can be. To have a congressperson from Columbus represent our city and our state in the same vein would make me so proud.

Morgan Harper fully supports the Green New Deal. I think about this video of AOC describing a future through the Green New Deal every single day. The video shows how, with social and economic reforms and public works projects akin to Franklin D. Rosevelt’s New Deal that yanked the country out of The Great Depression, humans might avoid the projected future of self-extinction through rapidly accelerating climate change. Climate change is, without hyperbole, impending doom for all humans on earth. It’s just a matter of time. I want congresspeople who understand the severity of the situation.

Morgan Harper is different. I’m not happy with the progress that congress is making, so I want to send new people to congress. Harper became a politician, like, yesterday. She’s fresh, she’s hungry, she can occupy a space that people like Beatty helped create. When you’re up against a web of corruption that is so encompassing and immersive it sometimes feels normal, you need a representative who hasn’t given-in to feeling numb and cynical all the time.

I’m voting for Morgan Harper for a lot of the same reasons I finally decided to vote for Elizabeth Warren in the primaries, even if pundits and polls say she’s, “not the most electable.” I’m voting for them because Harper and Warren are the first people to ignite the tiniest spark of hope in what feels like the wasteland of my political heart in two years. Sexism took Hilary away from me, but that’s not going to stop me for voting for who I want to be my representative, my president.

Of course I will vote for Beatty if she wins the primary, but on March 17, 2020, I’m voting for my neighbor, Morgan Harper.