Six months ago on August 3, 2021, Nina Turner walked off the stage of a crowded ballroom in Cleveland taking the hope of a progressive stronghold in Ohio with her. Although her race against Shontel Brown in the 11th Congressional district was heavily publicized, Turner lost the Democratic primary receiving 44.5percent of votes to Brown’s 50.1percent.

Although Turner recently announced she intends to run again in the 11th district, her likelihood of winning appears unlikely. The good news is, she isn’t the only Progressive taking on an incumbent Democrat in Ohio.

In August 2021 Morgan Harper announced her candidacy for the U.S Senate, vying for Rob Portman’s vacant seat alongside Congressman Tim Ryan and tech entrepreneur Traci Johnson.

Recently, this reporter spoke to Harper about her life, her decision to run, and why she feels this midterm is unlike any other in recent American history:

You ran against Joyce Beatty in 2019 and 2020, and lost to Beatty, earning only around 32percent of 44,000 votes.Given your personal experience with the difficult process of challenging incumbents, what circumstances made you decide to run against Tim Ryan this year? 

I’m running for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat because Ohioans do not have any time to waste. The current generation of politicians have been taking money from large, multinational corporations that put their profits over people, allowing our manufacturing jobs to be shipped overseas, inflicting the opioid and foreclosures crises, avoiding paying taxes, busting unions, and crushing small businesses and small towns all across our great state. 

We must show people what honest, community-based politics looks like and how we can have leaders that come from us, are for us, and will stand up to powerful interests to deliver real change for our communities. 

Your resume includes stints at the corporate law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Southern District of Ohio's U.S District Court. This reads like the profile of someone who could have comfortably entered the private sector.What made you interested in public service generally, and progressive politics specifically? 

When I was a very young child, my community in Central Ohio stepped up and gave me a chance. My mom, a public-school educator who immigrated to Ohio from Trinidad, adopted and raised me on the Eastside. Times weren’t always easy, but I saw early on how just one parent with a stable union job could be the difference from weathering storms or going off the rails entirely. Ohioans can no longer depend on this kind of support, and we need to start electing leaders whose goals aren’t to further their own careers, but rather to work for our communities and improve the livelihood of every Ohioan. I will not stop until we get to an outcome where every person born in Ohio gets a chance to live out their potential. 

What are the biggest issues facing the people of Ohio right now, in your mind? And what would be your first actions in office, if you were to reach the Senate, to alleviate those problems? 

First, Ohio’s minimum wage of $9.30 doesn’t even cover the cost of renting an apartment in most parts of the state. In the Senate, I’ll fight to pass the PRO Act to support the massive new wave of unionization we’re seeing across the country, raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, and pass Medicare for All. 

Second, and equally as urgent: Ohio has one of the highest death tolls in the country from the opioid crisis. The opioid epidemic is devastating a generation of young Ohioans. We need to get drugs off our streets and hold the drug pushers responsible, especially Big Pharma. We must also ensure that naloxone, comprehensive drug treatment programs, and harm reduction supplies are available in every community.

The Issues page of your campaign website calls for forgiving student debt, universal healthcare, and passing the largescale labor rights bill, the Pro Act, among other things. You are a community organizer in your hometown of Columbus, serving as co-founder of Columbus Stand Up!. But your former opponent Joyce Beatty portrayed you as an out-of-touch dilettante, and your past at Cravath, Swaine & Moore may cause progressive voters to look at you with skepticism.So, why should Ohio voters believe you have the talent and capability to address their needs, and why should progressive voters believe you will stay true to the values you espouse if elected? 

In my time at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as Richard Cordray’s Senior Advisor, we returned $12 billion to over 28 million consumers. Columbus Stand Up! was able to distribute over 30,000 masks, and drive thousands of Ohioans to the polls in the 2020 election, and to vaccine appointments across Central Ohio. It will take someone with innovative ideas and an uncompromised record to effectively fight on behalf of Ohioans. This is why I never have and never will accept money from corporate PACs. I’ll fight to term-limit Congress, and regardless of the outcome will only serve two terms. I will uphold our values and focus on what we need here in Ohio, not what will keep me in Washington longer. 

You have chosen, as you did during your Congressional run, to not take corporate PAC money. Why is this such an unshakable tenet of your platform?Why do believe donor money and corporate influence has such a corrosive effect on American politics? And what are some proposals you would put forth, or bills you would sponsor, that could curb the influence of wealthy individuals on the government? 

I vow to never take a dollar of corporate PAC money because to act in the best interest of Ohioans, I cannot be beholden to large corporations. I am also a firm supporter of Senator Ossoff’s proposed legislation to ban members of Congress from trading stocks. Members of Congress should not be allowed to take corporate PAC money. They should not be able to trade stocks. Bottom line, we should not be letting politicians profit from contributions from or insider information on the corporations they regulate. 

You recently Tweeted that your primary opponent Tim Ryan is “another Terry Mcauliffe,” and said on MLK Day that “Democrats and people of color can’t afford any more white moderates,” referencing MLK’s famous white moderates quote. With moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema still dominating the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party shifting further right every day,why should voters believe that the progressivism offered by you, AOC, Cori Bush, Mondaire Jones, and other members of the Progressive Caucus is a viable path forward? 

So called ‘moderate Democrats’ like Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema are the ones who killed Build Back Better. It’s clear that what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working in a way that’s helping people—we need leaders that are reflecting the fight and the struggle that is happening on the ground, and our current leadership just does not reflect the constituencies they represent.

Much discussion has been had in recent years about the fate of American democracy. The United States was recently listed as a “backsliding” democracy by the European think tank IDEA, and claims made by Trump and his supporters about the validity of the 2020 presidential election have stirred fears of increased political violence.Do you subscribe to the notion that American democracy is in decline? What do you believe is causing this decline? And what can both elected officials and regular citizens do to stop this backsliding? 

I think Americans are sick of this political insider game where profits are prioritized over people. They want leaders from the community who will be able to speak to the issues people are actually facing. What my candidacy represents for democracy is a community-centered, people-first platform. To change course for our country, it will take a different kind of political leader fighting in the Senate to ensure opportunity for everyone. 

We saw what happened to Dennis Kucinich. Nina Turner lost out to Shontel Brown in the 11th Congressional district earlier last year. While candidates like yourself and organizations like Primary Ohio PAC and others exist, it seems exceedingly hard for progressives to have a foothold in Ohio.Do you think a significant progressive movement is possible in Ohio? If so, what can or should be done to make it come about? 

One thing that we need to look at in regards to that question is a track record of progressives winning statewide in Ohio, while moderate business-as-usual candidates have lost time after time. Sherrod Brown shows that that is possible—we just need to be bold and stick to our values. 

Joe Biden’s tenure as president has been unhappy. His approval rating is sinking. Crucial legislation like Build Back Better, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the For the People Act, and more sit languishing in the halls of Congress. Some leftists and progressives have started believing that the Democratic party is a lost cause, and those who want substantive change should flee it in droves.Do you feel that such ideas are justified? What, in your mind, should the Democratic Party do to win back the progressives and independents who no longer see them as a viable option? 

There’s a deep disillusionment with our current political system and it’s because we’reconsistently electing career politicians who are not committed to the well-being of everyday Americans. But we do not have time to waste. We need to start trusting the fresh, new voices mobilizing the key constituencies that need to turn out and vote — Black voters, young people, women. Our communities, and our democracy, cannot afford to lose.

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Zurie Pope is a reporter, essayist, and columnist, pursuing a bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Cincinnati. His work has appeared in The News Record, Youth Journalism International, Unpublished Magazine, and The Nation. Topics of interest for him include campaign finance, political extremism, and the corrosive effect of corporate influence on the media. As for social media links, I only have two worth showcasing: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PopeZurie Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zurie_pope/