A Democrat almost certainly will end up winning the 2020 race for Ohio's 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses much of Columbus.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, the incumbent, has won every election in the district since she first ran in 2012 with more than 60%. The 2018 midterm election saw her largest margin of victory to date when she garnered nearly 74% of the vote. Such large margins are due to the heavily gerrymandered Ohio congressional map. The four Democratic districts in Ohio have Democratic voters "packed" into them, meaning they have a much higher number of Democratic voters than needed to win the seat.

This means the winner of the 3rd District's primary election will almost certainly wins in the general election. Beatty has run unchallenged in every primary since 2014.

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Until now.

Morgan Harper declared her candidacy for the seat early last week. A Columbus native, Harper worked for three and-a-half years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, first as legal counsel and then as a senior adviser to then-Director Richard Cordray, the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor in 2018. After that, she worked with the Local Initiatives Support Corp. before moving back to Columbus in December 2018.

In an interview with The Dispatch, Harper discussed why she's running, the challenges faced by many people in central Ohio and what she gained from her time outside Ohio.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Q: Was elected office always the plan for you?



A: In a way. Growing up in Columbus, I had the experience of getting financial aid to go to Columbus Academy, and at a pretty young age, I caught on to this idea that your life could be drastically different based on the neighborhood that you're in. When I was younger, I would say that manifested as addressing what I perceived to be inequality through things like volunteering. But then by college, I started to connect the dots and realized there's a system that is driving a lot of these outcomes that we're seeing in inequality, and the system is driven by public policy. And that led me to study some of that in undergrad and then also go to work in Washington, D.C., after college. And that's where I saw that people in political positions are actually the ones that are often driving public policy.

Why are you running, and why this election?



It really connects to my personal story. So you know, that I was born here, given up for adoption, lived in a foster home for nine months and was adopted by my mom on the east side of Columbus. And I saw at an early age that a lot of the outcomes for people in our communities are driven by who their parents happened to be or the circumstances of their birth. And for me, that just wasn't something that I felt was okay. I've been on this mission ever since to gather this skill set and be able to do something about that, with the vision of wanting to come back here and work on it in Columbus, Ohio. We've see that people are fundamentally struggling to get by. And once you start seeing that scenario play out all across the country, and we see those same issues here in central Ohio, then we need federal policy to step up.

Why you and not Joyce Beatty? What's missing from the 3rd District's current representation?

I would point to what we're seeing the 3rd District. We know that we have 30% of the population that's living in poverty. We know that we have people that are not earning enough to necessarily afford housing. We know that we're seeing a lot of children that are living in poverty, with higher rates among black people. I would say that these issues are driven by systemic problems that are happening here in central Ohio, but also we're seeing it in other places. It's federal policy that can help to solve some of them. And because people are experiencing these things right now, I think we need people that are advocating for the solutions as soon as possible.

By the time of the primary, Beatty will be well into her fourth term in Congress. Do you think the kind of grassroots support you talk about will be enough to overcome all the advantages she has with incumbency, including her good relationship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

I think we have built a very broad coalition of support so far. I think that will continue to grow. In terms of demographics, the median age in the district is 32 and I think we're seeing a lot of people that are moving to Columbus from other places. I've had a lot of unique experiences throughout the 3rd District, and I understand a lot of those diverse experiences. And I feel like I'll be able to connect with a lot of people in the 3rd District.

How do you define your coalition?

I think you see our coalition in the platform we've put forward. they're really issues for working people. And in my opinion, if you need another paycheck to be able to continue to live, you are a working person, and I put myself in that category. So the issues that we're talking about are issues that a very broad set of people are experiencing. I think we're presenting issues in a way that will appeal to that broad coalition of working people throughout the 3rd District in a way that will be compelling. And we have to turn out new voters. There's a lot of people that are not voting in the 3rd District.

Do you think you'll be able to raise $1 million?

I'm very sure that we'll be able to raise enough money to execute our strategy. And I think with the platform that we're talking about with the different demographics and communities that are in the 3rd District, it's going to be appealing to them, and we'll be able to raise enough money to win.

Your policy platform sits pretty far to the left with things like tuition-free public college, a jobs guarantee and a green new deal. Are these kinds of big, national proposals the things that are going to solve local issues?

I think everything that's happening at the local level is really important. Take something like the minimum wage. The state minimum wage is $8.55 an hour. We know that you need to earn over $17 an hour to be able to afford housing in Columbus. And that's a gap that you're not necessarily going to be able to solve at the local level. So you kind of need federal policies that are going to, in some cases, be more aggressive, but also just put more resources behind the particular issue at play.

You've been away from Columbus for your entire career. Why do you think you're qualified now to represent central Ohio in Congress?

I have always considered Columbus home. It's always been the vision to come back here. And I now have that skill set to be able to work on the issues around inequality and try to make central Ohio, a place that has given me so much, even better. I'm immensely grateful to the community and the people here. This is where my family is. My brother's in Gahanna, my mom's on the east side in the house I grew up in, and that's always been my North Star. And so I've gone away to get these experiences, but in a way I never really left.

During your time at the CFPB, you were a senior adviser to then-Director Richard Cordray. Do you expect an endorsement from him?

I hope so. But you'll probably have to ask him.

bdeeter@dispatch.com

@BenDeeter