Ohio’s House representative for the 60th District is up for grabs heading into next month’s election, with former Powell City Council member Brian Lorenz seeking a full term after being appointed to fill the remaining term left following Kris Jordan’s death in February 2023.

Lorenz is being challenged by Rachael Morocco, who ran unsuccessfully for the same position in 2020 but returned to the campaign trail this year with a heightened understanding of campaigning she hopes will have reached more voters when they hit the polls.

Both candidates took time to speak with The Gazette on what they aim to accomplish should they be elected next month.

Lorenz

While he lamented the circumstances of his appointment, saying he wishes “Kris was still with us,” Lorenz said it’s been a “blessing and an honor to jump into the seat and work for the constituents of the 60th District.”

“I’ve been really immersing myself and getting my hands in all kinds of things,” he said. “There’s been a lot of reading late at night, and it’s been really fun to be recognized for some of my talents in land use, development, taxation, and some of the knowledge, skills, and ability I have from things I have done in the special-needs community. A lot of the legislation you’ll see coming from me is sort of tailored from my past experience in those areas. I really enjoy it and am very passionate about it.”

Admittedly, the process of being appointed and hitting the ground running was a bit of a whirlwind for Lorenz, although he added that getting things done at the state level is rooted in building relationships, as was the case during his nearly 14 years in local government.

Following his appointment last year, Lorenz told The Gazette he has a “deep desire” to serve and was looking forward to being able to work for an even larger group of people than during his time on Powell City Council. While he said it’s been a privilege to do so, Lorenz noted the job is very serious, with daily decisions to be made that will impact so many Ohioans’ lives.

“Fundamentally, what we want to do is make sure the decisions we’re making are going to translate and really help the greater good,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been able to do a lot of that stuff through tax reform, through some of the bills I’ve put in for school safety, kids, our susceptible population, and some of the committees I work on as well.”

No single accomplishment has meant more to Lorenz during his short stint than playing an important role in getting “Braden’s Law” introduced in the Ohio House to increase the penalties for sextortion crimes. The bill was developed in response to the suicide death of Olentangy High School student Braden Markus in 2021 after falling victim to a sextortion money scam.

“That’s the most important thing I have done in my time down there, and it’s my sole focus for the Markus family,” Lorenz said. “The fact that we were able to work collaboratively with our county prosecutor and county sheriff to get really solid legislation through there just to tell people we’re not going to put up with this stuff in Ohio. I almost look at it like that’s my duty and my number one focus in terms of getting it across the finish line.”

Another accomplishment he’s particularly proud of is the historic project funding he was able to bring to Delaware County. Those projects included $1.5 million for the Delaware County Fairgrounds, nearly $1 million for Stockhands Horses for Healing, $480,000 for the new Powell pickleball courts at Adventure Park, money for the Ohio Wildlife Center, and money for the construction of a rowing house for local high schools at Hoover Reservoir.

“I bring these up because what they do inherently is they enhance these venues where more people are going to want to come, more people are going to spend more money while they’re there, and that money is going to stay right here in our local economy to help bolster our economic engine,” Lorenz said of the projects.

Other important areas Lorenz hopes to address in the future are taxation, taking measures to ensure seniors and veterans are able to stay in their homes, keeping kids safe from cyberbullying, and making communities more accessible amidst considerable growth.

Lorenz is the chairperson of the House’s Economic and Workforce Development Committee and previously served as the vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which handles much of the taxation issues. Lorenz said he hopes to continue to serve in the position, and as the only planner in the statehouse, believes he brings an advanced understanding of growth and development.

“I’m looking at a lot of opportunities for economic development projects,” he said. “You hear the term ‘smart growth,’ but I call it ‘intelligent growth.’ We have some infrastructure challenges in the district we really need to address, whether it be roads, waters, or electrical. We have transmission but we need more distribution and things like that, so developing policies that will help access our communities and get people around, all that will do is help drive our economic development engine and indirectly put more in everybody’s back pocket.”

Lorenz added that “aging in place” is important to him at a time when so many are being driven from their homes due to the rising costs of living in the area.

“People on fixed incomes, whether they’re seniors or in a circumstance where their finances are capped, there is no reason we should be driving them out of their homes,” he said. “These are people who have worked so hard to achieve the American dream.”

Additional efforts include a bill to address teenage driving and the lack of exposure to defensive driving skills, which is currently in the committee stage, as well as developing a voluntary 911 special needs database to help first responders be better informed in especially challenging emergency responses.

Lorenz said he has also been “very involved” in addressing concerns he’s heard from constituents about semi trucks “barreling up and down” state Route 315. In the coming weeks, Lorenz said an initiative will be launched to make Route 315 a hazardous cargo route to try and mitigate some of the truck traffic.

“That is one of the main thoroughfares in my district, and when we can get trucks in safer positions, I think it’s really going to benefit the residents … And I think it will really help traffic flow, not only here but on Dublin Road and on U.S. Route 23,” he said.

Although Lorenz has plenty of goals should he be elected to a full term, he feels his top priority is to remain accessible to the people he serves.

“I feel very strongly that it’s my job to be immersed in the community and to be available to you and have access to you,” Lorenz said. “I’ve met so many great people and business owners. As was the case in Powell, I take it as an obligation and my responsibility to be out there and involved in the community … I try to be at as many things as I can because people may want to talk to me, and that’s how it goes. It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Morocco

A pediatrician in Delaware and mother to two boys, Morocco said she decided to run again in this election due to her professional experience and “all the problems I was seeing in my clinic.”

“It really stems from frustration and seeing all these failed social policies and knowing I couldn’t do enough from my office to fix these problems,” Morocco told The Gazette.

In particular, Morocco said gun violence was her primary driving factor for throwing her hat back into the ring.

“I used to work in the Columbus area for several years and had a lot of patients who were impacted by gun violence,” she said. “I was just really frustrated by it because they were simple things like not having firearms stored properly, and I wanted to do more.”

Morocco began by joining Moms Demand Action, a “grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence,” according to the group’s website.

“We started advocating for some commonsense gun legislation, and I started spending some time in the statehouse,” she said. “What I was seeing went beyond the gun violence issue. There were so many other things I saw every day in my clinic, issues people were having that just weren’t being addressed at the state level.”

She said those issues include both the cost of healthcare and access to it, as well as the cost of child care.

“Ohio is at the bottom in terms of publicly-funded childcare, so lots of moms are making tough choices about going back to work and trying to afford child care and paying for it while working and trying to grow their careers,” she said. “All these things led me to run for office back in 2020 and now again to be a better advocate for these issues.”

One of Morocco’s two children was diagnosed with autism when he was 4 years old, and she said the journey as a mother with a special needs child was very “eye-opening” concerning the difficulties of trying to access services such as speech therapy and occupational therapy and even getting the initial diagnosis.

“All these things were so hard, so that was really a path to advocacy I didn’t think I’d ever go down but was a driving factor in me wanting to be a voice for families that were going through similar situations and trying to make it easier to access those services,” Morocco said.

Morocco’s interests in commonsense gun laws are rooted in protecting Second Amendment rights while also encouraging responsible gun ownership. She mentioned universal background checks and implementing red-flag laws as areas of focus should she be elected.

“These red-flag laws have actually been shown in the states that have them to lower the rates of suicide, so that can work to address that issue,” Morocco said. “When people think of gun violence, they often think of homicides, but two-thirds of gun violence is actually suicide. So addressing that aspect is really important.”

She added that promoting safe gun storage is also very important to reducing unintentional instances of gun violence. “That’s something I talk about a lot in our clinics to reduce the risk of suicide and unintentional injuries to children,” Morocco said.

Another important pillar of Morocco’s campaign is female reproductive rights and ensuring women remain empowered to make decisions about their bodies.

“In Ohio, we voted last November to support the amendment protecting those rights, and I think it’s something we really need to be aware of and making sure we are listening to the voice of the people and making sure we have access to reproductive healthcare in general, whether that’s birth control, IVF, or safe abortion care,” she said. “Those are all things Ohioans want and things we need to continue to fight for.

“There are still laws on the books in Ohio that can limit some of the funding and access to those services. We need to continue the fight to ensure every woman has access to reproductive healthcare, and that the government isn’t involved in it. These are decisions that oftentimes are very personal and very important, and they need to happen only between a physician and a patient. That’s who should be making these calls.”

As she reflects on her second attempt at winning an elected office, Morocco said she learned a lot about building campaign infrastructure during her run in 2020 which has led to a stronger push this time around.

“This time was definitely different because in 2020, we actually didn’t do pretty much any direct voter contact,” Morocco said. “We would drop literature at doors but wouldn’t actually knock and have conversations, which has been totally different this time around. And we did a lot of events this time whereas last time, everything was pretty much done via Zoom. But I definitely learned how to fundraise, which is a big part of running a campaign, and also how to build a team, which is why I think we’ve been so successful this time around…”

Asked what she’s most enjoyed about this campaign, Morocco said, “I just like talking to people and being out at different events in the community. I’ve enjoyed knocking on doors. I like getting the chance to know what people are thinking about and what they care about, which I didn’t get the chance to do last time.”

As for what she feels she can bring to the statehouse if elected, Morocco believes her professional experience is beneficial to ensuring every decision being made is with future generations in mind.

“For someone in my career where I see so many people every day, and as a pediatrician, you kind of become a part of people’s family,” she said. “So I hear a lot of stories and different situations. I feel like knowing that and having that knowledge is really helpful when trying to look at policy and how it’s going to impact people for real.”

Morocco added, “Having that experience and knowing people can give you a really unique perspective of thinking of aspects maybe someone else wouldn’t think of. And also working with children, I always think of how things will impact kids and the future of Ohio. What are we doing to build the foundation to be successful long-term?”

Whether or not the vote is in favor remains to be seen, but Morocco feels strongly that her team has put its best foot forward to resonate with voters.

“I feel like we’ve done everything we set out to do,” she said. “We built our goals and did the things we sat down last January and identified when we made our campaign plan. Looking now where I am, three weeks away from the election, I feel like we met our goals. I’m very proud of this campaign. Whatever the outcome is next month, we gave it our all.”

Morocco went on to say, “I’m a person who listens. My goal in this position is to be a voice for our community. My goal is to listen to everybody who wants to talk to me. If there’s something they want to talk about or there’s a problem they’re having, I will listen and address those concerns and bring attention to them.”

Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.