Mason Democrat to challenge Congressman Chabot in 2020

1st District includes Warren County and most of Hamilton County.

Former Air Force Combat Pilot Nikki Foster, a Democrat from Mason, announced she will challenge Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, in the 2020 election.

For now, she is the only official challenger to an area member of Congress. U.S. Reps. Mike Turner, R-Dayton; Warren Davidson, R-Troy; and Jim Jordan, R-Urbana are also expected to run for re-election in 2020, but no challengers have announced yet.

Candidates have until December to file for the March primary.

The First District includes most of Hamilton County and all of Warren County. It is considered a safe Republican district.

A second Democrat, health care executive Kate Schroder, is also planning to run, according to the Cincinnati Business Journal.

Gerrymander critics had won a federal court ruling to redraw the state's congressional map for 2020, but the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last week against intervening in such cases will leave Chabot's district intact.

Chabot won his 12th term last year and has been crisscrossing his district in recent months for town hall meetings.

OTHER OHIO RACES

Morgan Harper, a Columbus native who spent three years working at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced Monday that she will run for the Franklin County congressional seat currently represented by U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Columbus-area Democrat who is in her fourth term.

Beatty is also a Dayton native

In a press release announcing her bid, Harper, 36, is billed as “a new generational leader pushing for bold policies that ensure her story is every child’s story.”

She is the second candidate to announce a challenge to Beatty. In a Facebook page announcing his bid, Republican Andrew Littler, a maintenance worker, said he’s running because “I believe it’s time we get back to a place where our elected officials are teachers and contractors, police officers and janitors.”

In the Youngstown area, Rep. Tim Ryan, a Niles Democrat who is running for president, has two challengers: self-described “liberal Republican” Louis Lyras, a Campbell native who owns a company that specializes in bridge painting, and Duane Hennen, a conservative Republican, businessman and former pastor.

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