Redistricting has given Democrats a unique opportunity to flip this seat. The new OH-01 keeps Cincinnati whole, and in the 2020 election, President Biden would have received 54% of the vote in this iteration of Ohio’s 1st district. This is a marked Democratic performance improvement from the 46% Biden received in the previous configuration. The district is D+2 and rated a tossup.
A former public school teacher, Greg Landsman is a staunch advocate for Southwest Ohio families. Greg has spent his career fighting for working families, having successfully led the Preschool Promise which now provides two years of quality preschool for Cincinnati’s three and four-year-olds. In his fifth year as a Cincinnati Councilman, he is now running for Congress to make government work by lowering costs, repairing our roads and bridges, and making it easier to raise a family.
His opponent is long-time incumbent Republican Congressman Steve Chabot who voted against the rescue plan, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and signed an amicus brief asking the SCOTUS to overturn Roe.
Born and raised in Greater Cincinnati, Landsman attended public schools before going to Ohio University to study economics and political science. After college, he worked as a public high school teacher but after 9/11, he was inspired to study faith and religion. He earned a master’s degree in theology from Harvard and later went on to serve as Governor Strickland’s Director of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, where he led Ohio’s efforts to help churches and synagogues provide education and food programs. Most recently, Landsman helped run Cincinnati’s nationally-renowned National Underground Railroad Freedom Center before working in education advocacy as executive director of the StrivePartnership.
In 2017, Landsman was elected to Cincinnati City Council where he helped shepherd the largest investment in repairing roads and bridges ever in Hamilton County and established Cincinnati City Hall’s first-ever Office of Ethics and Good Government and the Balanced Development Scorecard – to support ethics compliance, hold officials accountable, and increase transparency.
Landsman believes that it is not the place of the government to dictate the decisions that Americans make about their own bodies. Politicians don’t belong in decisions made between a woman and her doctor. Unlike his opponent, he supports the codification of the rights afforded by Roe v. Wade on the federal level.
Landsman supports requiring universal background checks on all gun sales and banning the sale of weapons of war like assault weapons. When he is in Congress, he will be an advocate to end the influence of the gun lobby in our government.
When serving on City Council, Landsman pushed to strengthen the Green Cincinnati Plan, a historic environmental justice ordinance that placed Cincinnati at the forefront of the environmental policy movement. He also supported the largest municipally-led solar project in America.
Landsman was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters; in Congress, he says he will fight to protect access to clean air and water and hold polluters accountable for damages that disproportionately impact our already marginalized communities.
