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Attorney Betsy Rader, a Democrat from Russell Township, plans to file Wednesday to run for U.S. Rep. David Joyce's 14th congressional district seat in 2018.

(Courtesy of Betsy Rader)

COLUMBUS, Ohio--Geauga County employment attorney Betsy Rader announced Wednesday that she's running to try to unseat Republican Rep. David Joyce in Ohio's 14th congressional district.

Rader, who's running as a Democrat, faces an uphill battle. In 2016, Joyce defeated Democrat Michael Wager for the second time in four years, garnering more than 62 percent of the vote. Republican President Donald Trump also won the Northeast Ohio district last year by about 12 percentage points.

But Rader, a 55-year-old Russell Township resident, said voters in the district have shown a willingness to vote based on the individual candidates, not their party. In an interview with cleveland.com, Rader noted that Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown won the district in 2012.

Like Wager, Rader is an attorney who hasn't previously held elected office (though she previously ran unsuccessfully for Geauga County Common Pleas Court judge and Russell Township trustee - both times as an independent).

But Rader said she differs from Wager in other ways - including that, unlike Wager, she's lived in the district for more than two decades, serving on numerous local boards and commissions.

"I'm not just going straight for U.S. Congress," she said.

As an attorney, Rader specializes in representing victims of employment discrimination and whistleblowing. But while Rader can help her clients win their individual cases, she said, she's been frustrated by how they've been hurt by things such as lack of affordable health insurance.

"I've got to do more, and the way to do more is to go to Congress and to really give those people a voice," she said.

If elected, Rader said she hopes to tackle issues such as raising the minimum wage to a "livable" level and encouraging job training. She said she is "horrified" by Trump's budget proposal to cut funding for Meals on Wheels, a food delivery program for seniors for which she has previously volunteered.

Rader said she has nothing against Joyce personally, noting that they used to live in the same neighborhood and their children attended school together.

But she said Joyce has "gone missing" by not attending a "town hall" meeting organized by supporters of the Affordable Care Act, which the congressman opposes.

Rader said while health coverage remains expensive under the Affordable Care Act, she supports much of the law. If elected, she said she would like to find incentives for more insurance companies to enter the market and allow Medicare to negotiate prices for prescription drugs.

"Frankly, it's an issue I've got to study more," she said about healthcare reform. But she said Republicans have destabilized the insurance market by promising to repeal the law without coming up with a viable replacement.

Rader also said that Joyce isn't an effective lawmaker, and she criticized him for opposing a minimum-wage hike and supporting the revocation of federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

Joyce spokesman Dino DiSanto, asked to respond, said in a statement that "the next election is over 18 months away and could not be further from the mindset of Congressman Joyce.

"This is what the American people are frustrated over," DiSanto continued. "They want representatives who are focused less on the next election and more on actually getting things done."

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