2016 U.S. Senate: Democrat Ted Strickland remains tenacious despite challenges
By Bridget Bycraft
Imagine being five years old and awakening in the middle of the night to smoke choking your lungs and the blistering heat of flames engulfing your home, destroying beloved possessions and family heirlooms. Even after the flames have been extinguished, the emotional trauma and financial ruin lingers. The tragedy of watching a childhood home burn to the ground was a reality for Ted Strickland.
Despite being such a young boy, Strickland remembers the house fire and its effects vividly. However, this did not stop him and his family from moving forward and rebuilding their lives.
“We had to start all over again — but we didn’t give up. Board by board, we converted our barn into a house,” recalled Strickland in a virtual interview.
The determination and drive exhibited by his working-class family, as well as the personal experience of witnessing how damaging disasters can be to the economically strained, was extremely influential to Strickland in choosing his career path.
“I understand the struggles working families face, and that’s always been on my mind during my time in public service,” remarked Strickland who, aside from political office, has also served in many other public service positions.
In many ways, overcoming challenges and facing adversity has been the recurring theme of Strickland’s public career.
Strickland was the first of his family to go to college, where he earned both a bachelor’s degree and a Master’s of Divinity from Asbury College, as well as advanced psychological degrees from the University of Kentucky. Coincidentally, the University of Kentucky is also where Strickland met his future wife, Frances Smith, a fellow psychology student.
Strickland put his degrees to use by serving as an assistant minister, a counseling psychologist in a prison, an assistant professor of psychology at Shawnee State University, and an assistant administrator at a Methodist children’s home. Strickland believes that his time in these places has especially attuned him to the struggles and needs of some of the most overlooked citizens in the country.
“More than anything, my experience counseling inmates at a maximum-security prison and serving as the administrator at a children’s home has given me a unique perspective on how to best serve the most vulnerable among us,” he said in the interview.
While Strickland’s record of public and educational service is long and well-documented, even more impressive is the amount of time Strickland has spent in political office, to which he has dedicated his life for quite some time.
A Democrat, Strickland served six terms representing Ohio’s 6th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1993–1995 and 1997–2007. He was also elected Governor of Ohio in 2007, serving until 2011.
Having spent so much time in the political world, Strickland has had the chance to make a considerable impact on his state and his country’s politics. During his time in Congress, Strickland served on the Energy and Commerce Committee as well as the Veteran’s Affairs Committee.
Additionally, the previous governor’s main points of focus have been education, that which made all of this possible for him, and the support of the working class, partially in reverence to his family roots.
Most notably, Strickland helped author the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a piece of legislation which was designed to help provide health insurance to the children of working parents.
He also pushed for more affordable college, expansion of funds for grants and scholarships, and reforms to Ohio’s for-profit charter schools. His condemnation of charter schools and the voucher system drew some criticism, but Strickland remains passionately firm on the subject, saying:
“These institutions have robbed taxpayers and left too many Ohio children without a quality education. Using tax dollars to prop up shadowy charter school operators is just wrong and I will strongly oppose any efforts to give these schools public money.”
In defense of the middle and lower-middle class, if elected a U.S. Senator, Strickland promises a “$1,000 tax cut for middle-class Ohioans, increasing wages and overtime protections for workers, and cracking down on unfair trade deals.”
His vast experience in politics is a large part of why Strickland is the Democratic Party’s nominee for Senator of Ohio and why he believes he would make a better choice as a candidate over his current rival for the senatorial seat, Republican Rob Portman.
However, some say this impressive résumé is not necessarily a serious advantage for Strickland. Colin Swearingen, a political science professor and U.S. politics expert at John Carroll University, notes that “while Strickland’s résumé is traditional for those who run for Senate (usually come from Congress, have been governor, or from the business community), there’s nothing that makes him uniquely suited for the Senate. That’s not a knock on him, it’s just the reality of campaigning.”
“What makes Strickland weak is exactly what made him a strong challenger in the first place: his gubernatorial experience. Winning statewide gave him name recognition, a large constituency and a donor base. But Portman’s been hammering Strickland over Ohio’s economy while [the latter] was governor,” Swearingen said.
This recognition ended up hampering Strickland as it made it easy for the blame over the economy to be attached to Strickland in the public eye. Additionally, Swearingen compared Strickland to Lee Fisher, a Democratic whom Portman defeated six years ago that also looked excellent on paper but did poorly at campaigning. Swearingen admitted that the fact the Democrats pulled funding for Strickland’s campaign advertisements indicated a somewhat bleak outlook for his prospects of winning the senatorial race.
However, Strickland is showing no signs of quitting. In a press conference set in a Clinton campaign field office in Upper Arlington, Strickland responded to the fact he was losing ground to Portman and funding from his own party, saying, “It doesn’t feel very good, let me tell you, but I haven’t given up on this race. … This isn’t over until the votes are cast.”
Strickland expresses confidence that, despite Rob Portman’s superior funding and current lead in the polls, his (Strickland’s) commitment to the average Ohioan will see him through to victory in this election. He pledged:
“I want to go to the Senate and fight for Ohioans who actually work for a living because that’s where I came from, that’s who I care about and that’s who I’ll always put first.”
