Advertisement Meet 2 women vying for Democratic nomination in Ohio's 1st Congressional District Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Voters head to the polls in Ohio's primaries in less than two weeks.One closely watched race will be the battle for Ohio's 1st Congressional District, which stretches from western Hamilton County into Warren County. Two women are running for the Democratic nomination to face off against incumbent Republican Steve Chabot.Nikki Foster is a Mason mother of two and a veteran.Foster said she knows firsthand the struggles of working families."I'm the proud daughter of two immigrants," Foster said. "Dad was an auto mechanic. He loved working with his hands. Mom was a secretary. Both of them were obviously tradesmen."She says too often, those struggles center around health care. He son survived a heart condition and spent days in the cardiac intensive care unit."We met lots of other families that weren't as fortunate as us, and what that taught us is that a lot of families need advocates," Foster said. "What's the fastest way we can get more affordable health care to families? One is expanding on the Affordable Care Act. And then other ways would be expanding Medicare and Medicaid."Foster knows about servant leadership firsthand because she served in the Air Force as a combat pilot. It's experience she's bringing to the race on another big issue -- gun laws."I think veterans are the right messengers to make our families and our streets safer," Foster said. "I think veterans are the right people to say: 'You know what, 93% of Americans agree to universal background checks. Let's get that done.' That's an easy thing to do."Foster's primary opponent is Democrat Kate Schroder."My family has been here five generations, and they care about hard work, and they care about kindness and getting things done," Schroder said.Schroder is Cincinnatian to her core. She talked with WLWT about health care and her plan to cut costs and expand care to everyone."We're paying for everyone anyway," Schroder said. "It makes more economic sense if you invest in insurance up front so that people have coverage and you're doing the preventative health care rather than paying on the back end."Schroder is a cancer survivor. She said she's lucky she had insurance, but recognizes that a lot of people don't."Health care costs are the No. 1 reason for bankruptcy in this country and that's unacceptable," Schroder said.When it comes to working across the aisle, she said she understands we're all in this together."Regardless of which party's in charge, I think you have to build relationships, and one of the encouraging things about running, I truly believe 90% of us are in the middle and 10% of us are in the extremes," Schroder said."I promise to work for you, for our community, and to listen. You know, I can't do this alone. It's about all of us in our community and having better leaders that represent our values and work hard every day to get results to our community," she said.