u/Wonderful-Rip3697

I'm Radell Lewis, host of Purple Political Breakdown Ohio Edition. This week I sat down with Matt Diemer, who ran for Congress in OH-7 in 2022 and again in 2024. He's also the writer of The Angry Democrat and The Angry Ohioan newsletters.

A few things from the conversation worth flagging here:

The OH-7 map changed again. The version Brian Poindexter just won the Democratic primary in is about 75 percent the same as the one Matt ran in, but it now includes all of Ashland County. The district is rated R+11 on paper. Matt's argument is that the "plus eleven" part is real but the "R" part is softer than people think. He calls it "purple plus eleven."

Max Miller is genuinely vulnerable, and not because of a polling shift. He's in the middle of a very public custody and divorce fight with the daughter of fellow Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, with court filings alleging physical abuse and a current Bay Village police investigation. His own attorneys have admitted in filings that he fabricated testimony to support a protection order against his ex-wife. That is the kind of story that does not stay inside the political news cycle.

Brian Poindexter is the Democratic nominee. Union ironworker. Brook Park city councilman. Working Families Party endorsed. Won an eight-candidate primary with about 37 percent of the vote. The case Matt makes for him is what he and his old campaign manager (now Poindexter's campaign manager) call the "union method." Stop sorting voters into identity categories first and asking what they want second. Ask what working people across the district need (gas, healthcare, schools, property tax relief, jobs that don't get shipped overseas), then let the coalition build itself.

We also went through the rest of the Ohio primary night. Allison Russo over Bryan Hambley about 68-32 for the Secretary of State Democratic nomination, despite Hambley running a strong, well-funded outsider campaign on gerrymandering reform. John Kulewicz over Elliot Forhan about 64-36 for the Attorney General Democratic nomination. Sherrod Brown over Ron Kincaid for the Senate Democratic nomination, setting up a Brown vs. Husted race that is going to be tangled in FirstEnergy bribery trial testimony from now until November. Vivek Ramaswamy and Dr. Amy Acton both winning their gubernatorial primaries.

The most useful part of the conversation, in my opinion, was Matt's argument that healthy contested primaries are good for voters and good for candidates. Voters get used to disagreement. Candidates get sharper. Ohio is a state that has not had many real Democratic primaries in years, and that lack of practice shows up in November.

Full episode here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-democrats-flip-ohios-7th-district-in-2026-ft-the/id1626987640?i=1000767752764

Including the parts about Andor, Dune, The Boys, and why the Democratic Party keeps losing in places it forgot to compete in.

Curious what people here think, especially folks who live in OH-7. Does Poindexter have a real shot, or is R+11 still R+11 no matter what's happening to Max Miller personally?

Sources:

1. AP via WTOP News, Poindexter Democratic nomination call: https://wtop.com/news/2026/05/brian-poindexter-wins-democratic-nomination-for-u-s-house-in-ohios-7th-congressional-district/
2. Ashland Source, OH-7 primary results breakdown: https://www.ashlandsource.com/2026/05/06/poindexter-wins-democratic-primary-for-ohios-7th-congressional-district/
3. Wikipedia, 2026 U.S. House elections in Ohio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Ohio
4. Signal Ohio, live 2026 Ohio primary results: https://signalohio.org/live-updates-ohio-2026-primary-election-results/
5. WKYC, Ohio primary Secretary of State results, Russo over Hambley: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/politics/elections/ohio-primary-election-2026-democrat-allison-russo-republican-robert-sprague-win-nominations-secretary-of-state/95-5af22fe2-d004-4c39-b7be-0a4fddc45cc1
6. WKYC, Husted vs. Brown Senate matchup and FirstEnergy testimony context: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/politics/elections/ohio-us-senate-may-5-primary-election-results-incumbent-jon-husted-sherrod-brown-november-showdown-general/95-1001b48c-c17a-4ef9-9c70-3c4dd3bd885b
7. NBC News, Sherrod Brown wins Senate Democratic primary: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/sherrod-brown-wins-ohio-senate-democratic-primary-jon-husted-rcna343049
8. TMZ DC, Max Miller and Emily Moreno custody battle filings: https://www.tmz.com/2026/04/22/max-miller-wife-accuses-him-of-abuse-neglect-in-custody-battle/
9. Daily Caller, Miller attorneys admit fabricated witness claim: https://dailycaller.com/2026/05/01/max-miller-attorneys-emily-moreno-bernie-moreno-domestic-violence-ohio/
10. TiffinOhio.net, Bay Village police child abuse investigation report: https://tiffinohio.net/posts/ohio-republican-congressman-named-in-active-child-abuse-investigation-amid-custody-dispute/

Tuesday's Ohio primary was one of the more revealing primary nights any state has had this cycle. Putting the highlights and sources in one place because the coverage is scattered across paywalls.

Turnout: the headline number worth knowing

791,355 Ohio Democrats pulled ballots. 817,159 Republicans pulled ballots. For comparison, in 2022 Republicans pulled more than 1 million against around 540,000 Democratic ballots. ODP Chair Kathleen Clyde called it the highest Democratic midterm primary turnout in Ohio since 2006. UVA's Kyle Kondik pushed back: primary turnout is dominated by the most engaged voters, who do not represent the November electorate. Real signal, not a forecast.

Statewide primary winners

• U.S. Senate (D): Sherrod Brown advances to face Sen. Jon Husted. Husted has no primary opponent and is already on TV in Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo. Senate Leadership Fund is defending him with $79 million, the most they are spending in any state.
• Governor (D): Dr. Amy Acton, uncontested, will face Vivek Ramaswamy.
• Secretary of State (D): Allison Russo defeated Dr. Bryan Hambley despite being outspent $442K to $229K.
• Secretary of State (R): Robert Sprague defeated Marcell Strbich. Both Republican candidates campaigned on eliminating ballot drop boxes.
• Treasurer (R): Jay Edwards beat Sen. Kristina Roegner by roughly seven points. Vance endorsed Edwards. Ramaswamy endorsed Roegner. Edwards won.
• Ohio Supreme Court (R): Colleen O'Donnell won a four-way primary with 32% and will face Justice Jennifer Brunner.

Congressional results worth knowing

• OH-9 (Toledo): Marcy Kaptur (D) vs. former state Rep. Derek Merrin (R) in a 2024 rematch. House Majority PAC has reserved $3 million defending Kaptur, nearly as much as the $2.9 million it has reserved attacking Mike Turner in OH-10.
• OH-10 (Dayton): Kristina Knickerbocker advanced for the Democrats. Trump won the district by 7 points in 2024.
• OH-15: Don Leonard upset 2024 nominee Adam Miller despite being outspent. Leonard, a former Ohio State professor, drew his widest attention after being arrested at a No Kings protest in Grove City in March.
• OH-7: Brian Poindexter advanced for the Democrats.

Speaker Huffman had a mixed night

He backed primary challengers against Reps. Jason Stephens (former speaker) and Ron Ferguson. Both incumbents survived. Huffman's win was in the Akron-area House race where Mike Kahoe (24) defeated Stephanie Stock, president of Ohio's preeminent anti-vaccine lobby, against the backdrop of measles returning to Ohio.

The Browns stadium attack line is now bipartisan

Last year Democrats ran on the legislature voting to send $600 million from Ohio's unclaimed funds to help build a $2.4 billion stadium for Browns owner Jimmy Haslam. This year Republicans are running on it inside their own primaries:

• Craig Reidel attacked Sen. Jim Hoops for voting to "raid" unclaimed funds for "a Tennessee billionaire."
• Patty Hamilton ran an ad against Rep. Brian Stewart reading "$600 million for a stadium, $0 for our water."
• Dillon Blevins attacked Rep. Jean Schmidt for the same vote.
• Both Republican treasurer candidates publicly distanced themselves from the deal.

The school levy crisis nobody is leading with

42 of 66 school tax levies failed Tuesday. Senate Finance Chair Sen. Jerry Cirino blamed tax fatigue and dissatisfaction with school quality, then floated K-12 district consolidation, which is the closest thing to a third rail in Ohio education politics. Bill Phillis at the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding said the state has systematically underfunded schools, leaving districts no choice but to ask already-squeezed voters.

Energy and ratepayer stories

• Ohio Supreme Court ruled submetering companies are public utilities and must be regulated as such. Tens of thousands of Columbus-area renters now in line for consumer protections.
• 2024 CEO compensation at Ohio's investor-owned utilities: AEP's Bill Fehrman at $36.6 million, Duke's Harry Sideris at $13.7 million, FirstEnergy's Brian Tierney at $13.3 million, AES's Andres Gluski at $9.2 million.
• Richland County pro-solar referendum lost 53 to 47. Second pro-solar referendum failure since these were established in 2021. Margin tighter than the county's partisan lean would predict.

Two things to track through summer

• Property tax abolition campaign needs roughly 413,000 valid signatures by the end of June, including a minimum from 44 counties. A new opposition coalition, Ohioans to Protect Public Services, has launched.
• House Majority PAC's $10.8 million Ohio reservation: $4.7 million targeting Turner and Carey, $3 million defending Kaptur.

A correction I owe my listeners

I want to fix something I said. After the last election I put out a post and an episode about Election Day inconveniences, and I framed it as if Election Day was the only access point voters had. That was wrong of me. Ohio has early voting. Ohio has absentee and mail-in voting. I should have named those tools and I didn't.

But the bigger point I was making still stands. A tool is only useful if people know it exists, know how to use it, and know when to use it. Election Day gets broadcast nonstop. People know it exists. Plenty of them still don't vote. Early voting and absentee voting do not get the same airtime, the same normalization, or the same accessibility. So if we are serious about voter participation, we need to make early voting and absentee voting more accessible, more streamlined, and more known. And we should expand Election Day into an election weekend or an election holiday. Anything less is leaving turnout on the table.

I'm a podcaster who is willing to correct his mistakes. Felt important to say that out loud.

Sources to verify any of this

1. Signal Cleveland AP results page (statewide and congressional winners): https://signalcleveland.org/ohio-2026-statewide-primary-election-results/
2. Signal Statewide on Republicans attacking each other over the Browns stadium deal: https://signalohio.org/republicans-divided-over-browns-deal-primary-election-preview-2026/
3. Signal Statewide on the 42 of 66 school levies failing and Cirino's consolidation comments: https://signalohio.org/ohio-voters-reject-school-levies-tax-hikes-around-the-state-primary-election-2026/
4. Signal Statewide on House Majority PAC's $10.8 million Ohio reservation: https://signalohio.org/national-democrats-take-aim-at-trump-territory-in-ohio-with-new-congressional-ad-blitz/
5. Signal Cleveland on Husted's early ad buy in Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo: https://signalcleveland.org/jon-husted-launches-first-ad-campaign-of-us-senate-election-in-ohio/
6. Energy and Policy Institute report on 2025 utility CEO compensation: https://energyandpolicy.org/utility-ceo-pay-2025/
7. Statehouse News Bureau on the Ohio Supreme Court submetering ruling: https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2026-04-28/ohio-submetering-decision-provides-a-pathway-to-a-solution
8. Signal Statewide on Richland County's failed pro-solar referendum (53 to 47): https://signalohio.org/maga-friendly-richland-county-votes-to-preserve-ban-on-wind-and-solar/
9. Statehouse News Bureau on the property tax abolition campaign and signature math: https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2026-04-23/group-pushing-amendment-to-abolish-property-tax-in-ohio-likely-wont-make-ballot
10. WOSU on Don Leonard's arrest at the Grove City No Kings protest: https://www.wosu.org/politics-government/2026-03-30/congressional-candidate-arrested-at-grove-city-no-kings-protest-after-using-megaphone

If anything in this post does not match what you find at these sources, default to the source. I will correct anything that is off.

Full breakdown on this week's Purple Political Breakdown Ohio Edition, solo, in more detail than fits here. Ohio Marine veteran, no party loyalty for its own sake. Political solutions without political bias.

Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-won-ohios-2026-primary-and-what-does-it-mean-for-november/id1626987640?i=1000766976027

Happy to answer questions in the comments or pull up the source on anything specific.

I just dropped a new episode of Purple Political Breakdown with Pastor LaTrina Slater, a mental health professional with over twenty years in the field, founder of Grace Revolution ministry, and author of a new book chronicling her journey reconciling Christianity with her identity as a gay woman. We had one of the most honest conversations I've had on the show about what Christianity actually teaches, how it has been hijacked by the political right, and why so many people on the left have written off the faith entirely.

The timing matters. Trump just posted (and deleted) an AI generated image depicting himself in the likeness of Jesus Christ, sparking backlash from evangelicals, Catholics, and Pope Leo XIV himself. Even Trump's most ardent religious supporters called it blasphemy. And yet the Christian right keeps tolerating it, because Republicans have convinced their base that voting for a felon who depicts himself as the Messiah is somehow more Christian than voting for a candidate who supports bodily autonomy. This is the Kool Aid LaTrina talked about, and it is poisoning the country.

Some of the points that hit hardest:

LaTrina argues that the entire premise of the Christian faith is unconditional grace, none of us earn our way in, none of us are righteous on our own, salvation is gifted through Christ. So the moment a Christian uses their faith to disqualify another human being, they are violating the foundation of their own religion. Her line was, you don't get to use a religion based on God loving us unconditionally and then put conditions on it.

She also makes a powerful argument that sin should be evaluated through the lens of harm. Two consenting adults raising a family in love behind a closed door harms no one. Meanwhile we are not legislating against adultery, pride, gluttony, or judging others, all of which are explicitly named in scripture. The selective enforcement reveals the political agenda underneath.

On the political side, she calls out something I have been saying for a while. Democrats let the right completely claim Christianity, and that was a strategic disaster. Christian values, generosity, charity, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, are liberal values. Jesus was a healer, so universal healthcare aligns. Jesus fed the multitudes, so feeding programs align. Jesus was a refugee, so immigrant protection aligns. And pro choice is one hundred percent Biblical because God Himself gave humanity free will. There is a scripture where God literally says, I am presenting to you life and death, you get to choose.

She lives conservatively but votes liberally, because she does not believe her God takes choices away from people, and she refuses to legislate her faith onto someone else's body or marriage.

The MAGA Christian movement is not Christianity. It is patriarchy with a cross pinned to it. The faith Jesus actually taught, love your neighbor as yourself, with no asterisks excluding gay people, trans people, immigrants, or political opponents, is the faith Democrats should be welcoming back into the coalition, not running from.

If you grew up in the church and walked away because of what you saw, if you are LGBTQ and feel like faith is closed to you, if you are agnostic but tired of watching the gospel get weaponized, this episode is worth your time.

Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reclaiming-christianity-from-maga-pastor-latrina-slater/id1626987640?i=1000766227450

Curious what this community thinks. Do you believe the left can or should reclaim Christian rhetoric, or has that ship sailed?

Sources:

• Snopes / Yahoo News, Fact Check: Trump posted, deleted AI image depicting himself in likeness of Jesus, April 2026
• NBC News, Trump angered some ardent supporters with AI image appearing to depict him as Jesus, April 2026
• Al Jazeera, Trump deletes image of himself as Jesus-like saviour after backlash, April 2026
• Washington Post, Trump post appearing to depict him as Jesus removed amid backlash, April 2026
• Grace Revolution Ministry, grace-revolution.net

I just sat down with Laura Rodriguez-Carbone, one of eight Democrats running in the May 5 primary for Ohio's 7th Congressional District, and what came out of that conversation is something every Ohioan and frankly every person who cares about flipping the House in 2026 should be paying attention to.

Quick lay of the land for anyone not tracking this district. After the October 2025 redistricting, OH-7 went from a R+15 down to R+5. Max Miller, the incumbent, only squeaked through 2024 with 51.10 percent of the vote, and that was on the OLD friendlier map, with the anti-Miller vote split between Matthew Diemer and former Rep. Dennis Kucinich running as an independent. Now the map is tighter, Ashland County (around 1,068 farms exporting roughly 200 million in agriculture annually) is in the district, and the incumbent does not even have a physical office in the district he represents.

And then there is the elephant in the room. Bay Village PD has confirmed an active child abuse investigation involving Miller's two-year-old daughter, who suffered a broken collarbone and bruised shoulder. This is on top of the 2021 allegations from former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, the 2010 disorderly conduct guilty plea, and the 2011 OVI plea. His ex-wife is the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno, so this is not some random political smear, it is a custody fight in open court.

Laura's pitch is interesting because she is not running on vibes. She is a 23-year federal public servant who worked across seven federal agencies including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights in Cleveland, the office that no longer exists thanks to DOGE. She was purged last year. She grew up between Cleveland and rural Athens County, so when she talks to farmers in Ashland she actually speaks the language. She got into the race after the murder of Charlie Kirk staffer Alex Pretty (her words) and she is openly a vote for impeachment, openly anti the unconstitutional Iran war, openly pro Medicare for All on a phased age-lowering model, and openly pro a fifteen dollar federal minimum wage.

What I appreciated most was her willingness to criticize her own party. She called out Democrats for diluting their message, for being afraid to say what they actually believe, for the politics of exclusion that pushed Christians and rural voters toward the GOP, and for sending people to Congress who get co-opted by machine politics. She held up Zohran Mamdani's communication style as the playbook: be transparent, be visible, post videos explaining why you voted the way you voted, and stop hiding behind consultant-approved word salad.

We disagreed on plenty. I lean toward a public option over full single-payer, I think the Israel and Gaza situation is more historically tangled than any single label captures, and I pushed her on the constituent-deference excuse Democrats use when they vote against minimum wage hikes. She did not flinch. She said the constituent argument is bullshit when the constituents you are protecting are the ones who would have to pay slightly more, and she wants federal subsidies tied to a living wage as one mechanism among many.

Look, I am not here to tell anyone in OH-7 who to vote for in the primary. There are eight Democrats on that ballot. But if you live in Cuyahoga, Medina, Wayne, or Ashland counties and you have not started doing your homework, May 5 is coming fast. And if you live anywhere else in the country and you want to know which seats are actually flippable in 2026, this is one of the cleanest pickup opportunities on the map.

Full episode here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-ohios-7th-district-finally-flip-blue-against-max/id1626987640?i=1000765770997

Curious what people from inside the district think. Are the farmers in Ashland actually getting visited by any of these eight candidates, or is Laura right that nobody has bothered?

SOURCES:

1. Ballotpedia, "Ohio's 7th Congressional District election, 2026," https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio's_7th_Congressional_District_election,_2026
2. Cook Political Report, "OH-07 2026 Race Summary," https://www.cookpolitical.com/house/race/483811
3. Inside Elections, "A Detailed Analysis of Ohio's New Congressional Map," October 31, 2025, https://insideelections.com/news/article/a-detailed-analysis-of-ohios-new-congressional-map
4. Wikipedia, "2026 United States House of Representatives elections in Ohio," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Ohio
5. Wikipedia, "Max Miller (politician)," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Miller_(politician)
6. News 5 Cleveland, "Police: 'open investigation' into abuse allegations of Max Miller's child," https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/police-open-investigation-into-abuse-allegations-of-max-millers-child
7. TiffinOhio.net, "Ohio Rep. Max Miller faces child abuse probe in divorce," April 22, 2026, https://tiffinohio.net/posts/ohio-republican-congressman-named-in-active-child-abuse-investigation-amid-custody-dispute/
8. TMZ, "Max Miller and Ex-Wife Hurl Accusations of Neglect in Child Custody Battle," April 22, 2026, https://www.tmz.com/2026/04/22/max-miller-wife-accuses-him-of-abuse-neglect-in-custody-battle/
9. Ballotpedia, "Redistricting in Ohio ahead of the 2026 elections," https://ballotpedia.org/Redistricting_in_Ohio_ahead_of_the_2026_elections
10. Ballotpedia, "Laura Rodriguez-Carbone," https://ballotpedia.org/Laura_Rodriguez-Carbone
11. AshlandSource, "Ohio's 7th Congressional District race features 8 Democrats in primary," April 28, 2026, https://www.ashlandsource.com/2026/04/28/ohios-7th-congressional-district-race-features-eight-democrats-in-primary/
12. LauraforUs.com campaign website, https://LauraforUs.com

I'm Radell Lewis, host of Purple Political Breakdown. I dropped a bonus episode today walking through my entire May 5 primary day in real time, from researching the Ohio Secretary of State website to driving to my polling location and casting my ballot. I want to share a few things that hit me hard during the process.

1. Our voting window is structurally designed to suppress turnout.

Polls in Ohio open at 6:30 AM and close at 7:30 PM. That's 13 hours, and most of those hours fall inside a standard 9 to 5 workday. If you work a typical shift, you have a small window before work and maybe two and a half hours after work to vote. People are tired. People are picking up kids. People are commuting. So they skip it. That is not a personal failing. That is a designed outcome.

I think Election Day should be a federal holiday. If we are not going to do that, it should at least be Election Weekend, two or three days. Polls should be open longer, ideally a full 24 hour window with rotating paid poll workers. Mail in voting should be the default option people are nudged toward. And we should at least be having a serious conversation about secure online voting infrastructure.

2. The voter lookup tools work, but they are clunkier than they need to be.

I went to the Ohio Secretary of State site, ran the captcha (which gave me a hard time), pulled my polling location, my district, and my sample ballot. The information is all there. But the user experience screams "we are not optimizing for first time voters." If you have never done it, look up your polling location, pull your sample ballot ahead of time, and research candidates before you walk in. You can use your phone at the polls to look up candidates you don't recognize. Step away from the booth out of courtesy, but it is allowed.

3. My actual ballot, since people asked.

These are my picks for the Democratic primary in my district. Your mileage will vary based on where you are in Ohio:

• Governor: Amy Acton (uncontested)
• Attorney General: John Kulowicz (Elliot Foran's positions read as extreme to me)
• Auditor of State: Annette Blackwell
• Secretary of State: Dr. Bryan Hambley (I had him on the show. He has a strong anti gerrymandering platform. Allison Russo also has a solid track record if you want to weigh that)
• U.S. Senate: Sherrod Brown (best general election odds in my read)
• Ohio 8th Congressional District: I went into voting day not knowing this race well enough, which is on me. I researched Vanessa Enoch on air and only got a partial look at Madaris Grant before I had to head to the polls. Enoch's healthcare platform is what stood out in the time I had: capping out of pocket costs, empowering Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate drug prices, funding community clinics, and investing in preventative care. That is a meaningful policy stack, not just rhetoric. Grant deserves a fuller look than I gave him today, and I'll come back to this race in a future episode. If you live in the 8th and you've researched both, drop your read in the comments.

4. The SAVE Act framing keeps getting muddled.

Showing an ID at the polls is normal in Ohio and most places. I have no problem with it. The SAVE Act is not just "bring your ID." It introduces proof of citizenship requirements that disproportionately strip eligible voters off the rolls, especially women who have changed their names through marriage. Don't let people collapse the two issues.

5. Frank LaRose, your time is up.

That's all I'll say about that.

Bonus episode is live. It walks through the prep, the policy critique, my picks, and the trip to the polls. If voting access is something you care about, this one is for you.

Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/should-election-day-be-a-federal-holiday-my-live/id1626987640?i=1000766283851

What did your ballot look like today? What's your Ohio district? Anyone else feel like the 13 hour window is structurally rigged?

Sources:

• Ohio Secretary of State, Voter Information Lookup and Sample Ballot Tools: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/
• Ohio Secretary of State, Polling Location Finder: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/toolkit/polling-location/
• Ohio Secretary of State, Absentee Voting Information: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/absentee-voting/
• Butler County, Ohio Board of Elections: https://www.butlercountyohio.org/boe/
• Ballotpedia, Ohio Elections 2026: https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_elections,_2026
• Vanessa Enoch for Congress, Policy Platform: https://www.enochforcongress.com/
• Bryan Hambley for Ohio Secretary of State: https://hambleyforohio.com/
• Allison Russo, Ohio House Democratic Leader: https://ohiohouse.gov/members/allison-russo
• Pew Research Center, U.S. Voter Turnout vs. Other Developed Countries: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/01/turnout-in-u-s-has-soared-in-recent-elections-but-by-some-measures-still-trails-that-of-many-other-countries/
• Brennan Center for Justice, SAVE Act Analysis: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/save-act-explained
• League of Women Voters of Ohio, Voter Guide: https://lwvohio.org/

I just released a new episode of Purple Political Breakdown with Devin Neal, co founder of Civic, an app built to make democracy accessible by mapping out who represents you at the federal, state, and local level, with contact info, FEC campaign finance data, and eventually voting records, committee memberships, and sponsored bills.

A few things from the conversation that stuck with me:

Devin is not some random guy with a side project. He is a software engineer with experience at Google, Meta, and Cash App, holds degrees in computer science and mathematics from MIT, and previously built EulerStudio, an educational animation platform. He left full time tech work after the 2024 election to build this.

His core thesis is brutal and correct: government data is public in theory, not in practice. The FEC has an API. It is technically open. It is also, in his words, horrible to work with. Most voters will never touch it. The same is true for fifty one separate state government systems that all format their data differently. If nobody does the work to translate that data into something usable, the public information stays locked behind a wall of bureaucratic friction.

We talked about a lot in the episode:

• Why local elections matter more than presidential ones for your day to day life, and why most people cannot even name their state senator
• How the Mamdani strategy of radical transparency is changing what voters expect from politicians
• The right and wrong way to use AI in civic tech (Devin uses it as an internal tool, not in the user facing product)
• What happens if Republican states try to restrict access to public data, and why that would actually be great PR for the app
• His 2028 picks: Gavin Newsom (he wrote a book called Citizenville in 2013 that basically predicted Civic) and Mark Kelly
• Why he is racing to get this fully launched before the 2026 midterms

If you have ever tried to research your local ballot and given up halfway through because the information is scattered across six different state websites and a county clerk PDF from 2014, this episode is for you.

Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-civic-app-devin-neal-on-finding-your/id1626987640?i=1000764108550

Civic app: https://www.civicpolitics.com

Curious what people think. Would you actually use an app like this, or do you think the bigger problem is voter motivation rather than information access?