westerville Archives | Innovation Ohio

Below you will find brief profiles of the candidates running to represent Ohio House District 19 and overviews of the demographic and geographic makeup of the district.

View a list of all candidates running for the Ohio House of Representatives.

See what else is on the state-level ballot in Ohio’s 2020 election.

Did we miss anything? Email corrections or updates to info@innovationohio.org

Candidates

Mary Lightbody (D) – Incumbent

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

	About Lightbody
Residence	Plain Township
Previous experience	Elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 2018. 27 years teaching both K-12 education and at the collegiate level in Central Ohio, most recently in a position at Ohio State’s Newark campus.
Education	Harvard University, B.A. East Asian Studies Ohio State University, M.Ed. and Ph.D. in science education
Facebook	facebook.com/marylightbodyOH19/
Instagram	@Mary_Lightbody
Twitter	@MaryLightbody
LinkedIn Page	linkedin.com/in/mary-lightbody-district19
Campaign website	marylightbody.com
Wikipedia	Mary Lightbody (Ohio politician)

Meredith Freedhoff (R)

Photo Source: Facebook, Meredith Freedhoff

Residence	New Albany
Previous experience	Former journalist, stay-at-home mom, diabetes advocate, and volunteer.
Education	Capital University, Bachelor’s degree in Marketing Ashland University, Master’s of Divinity
Facebook	facebook.com/FreedhoffforOhio
LinkedIn	linkedin.com/in/meredithfreedhoff/
Campaign website	meredithforohio.com

Media coverage

Columbus Dispatch, 3/4/20 – Ohio GOP not giving up suburbs without a fight

About House District 19

Ohio House District 19 courtesy of OpenStreets

Demographics

Population
121,416

Voting Age
73.63% age 18 and over

Race
White	78.3%
Black	11.2%
Hispanic	2.6%

	Median Household Income
District 19	$81,292
Ohio	$52,407

	Educational Attainment (Age 25+)
Higher degree	58.8%
High school diploma	37%
No high school diploma	4.3%

Health Insurance	HD19	Ohio
Uninsured	4.7%	7.4%
Medicaid	7.8%	19.7%
Disability status (with a disability)	8.7%	13.8%

Geography

Counties
Franklin

Cities
Columbus, Gahanna, New Albany, Westerville

Townships
Blendon, Jefferson, Mifflin, Plain, Sharon

Sources

Center for Community Solutions – Ohio Legislative District Community Fact Sheets
Ballotpedia – Ohio House District 27
StatisticalAtlas.com – Ohio Overview

Columbus, OH – A new poll from Public Policy Polling and Innovation Ohio shows that Ohio is set to return to its traditional status as a battleground state in 2020.

A memo on the results and the cross tabs can be found on Innovation Ohio’s website.

Link to Ohio Poll Memo
Link to Ohio poll cross-tabs

After winning the state by 8 points in 2016, the PPP survey finds President Trump trailing a generic Democratic 47-48% and an underwater 47-51% favorable/unfavorable rating. Given that state’s swing from 2012 to 2016, it is especially notable that President Trump trails a generic Democrat 37-51% with independent voters.

“As Democrats gather to debate in Ohio, these results show that Ohio will once again be a battleground in 2020, and any Democrat would be foolish to write off our state,” said Innovation Ohio President Janetta King. “Given his unpopularity with Ohio voters, it is clear that President Trump’s failures and broken promises are catching up with him in the state.”

“Ohio is a must-win state for President Trump. His poor numbers in this poll help to explain his early spending on TV and digital ads here,” King continued.

The poll also tested President Trump against five Democratic candidates; he failed to top 47% against any of them. This survey comes on the heels of similar results from Emerson Polling.

Founded in 2011, Innovation Ohio is a nonpartisan, nonprofit thank tank that blends policy research and advocacy to fight for working families in Ohio.

PPP surveyed 776 Ohio voters on October 10th and 11th on behalf of Innovation Ohio. 60% of surveys were completed by telephone and 40% were completed by text message. The survey’s margin of error is +/-3.5%.

House District 19