On Sept. 1, Ryan took a tour of GE Aviation in Peebles, Ohio, after making a stop at Cruiser’s Diner in Seaman, Ohio.
By Ashley McCarty
People’s Defender
On his campaign trail throughout the state, Senate candidate and Rep. Tim Ryan (D) of Ohio’s 13th Congressional District made a few stops in Adams County on Sept. 1 to converse with locals.
Ohio’s 13th Congressional District is in northern Ohio and includes Akron, Warren, Youngstown and parts of Alliance, Ohio.
Ryan, 48, was born July 16, 1973, in Niles, Ohio, and currently resides in Howland, Ohio, with his wife Andrea and their three children.
Prior to his election into public office in 2002, Ryan served as president of Trumbull County Young Democrats and as chairman of the Earning by Learning Program in Warren, Ohio. He began his career in politics in 1995 as a congressional aide with the U.S. House of Representatives. Later, Ryan served as an intern for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office.
Ryan holds a law degree from the University of New Hampshire School of Law and studied abroad in Florence, Italy, as part of the Dickinson School of Law’s International Law Program. He graduated from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science.
Since his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, Ryan has been reelected nine times and is currently serving his tenth term. He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which controls the expenditure of money by the federal government. Ryan also serves as co-chairman of the Congressional Manufacturing Caucus, which examines and promotes policies to help American manufacturers find trained, educated workers, continue to lead the world in developing new industrial technologies, operate on a level playing field with their foreign competitors and obtain the capital they need to thrive.
According to his campaign website, timforoh.com, Ryan’s campaign quest is to “raise wages, make healthcare more affordable, invest in education, rebuild our public infrastructure, revitalize manufacturing so we can make things in Ohio again and make sure we’re cutting workers in on the deal every step of the way.”
“I grew up outside of Youngstown and my entire family was workers, union, small business; just people out there working hard and trying to do everything right. There’s been a huge shift from my grandfather and that generation where they could have a solid job, make a good wage and have a solid retirement. In my lifetime, I’ve watched 30 to 40 years of globalization, automation and the worker being forgotten. I want to go to the senate because that’s where the big decisions are being made — I want to cut these workers back in on the deal,” said Ryan.
In order to cater to the Ohio worker, Ryan vowed to travel Ohio and get their input directly.
“We want to let people know that where I grew up, we felt forgotten and were forgotten. When all of these changes started happening in the economy, nobody cared. I want to make sure that people in small towns and small counties like Adams and Brown know that I’m going to fight like hell for them. In the Senate, two-thirds of the senators are millionaires. We want somebody who understands what working people have gone through, and that means going to every corner of the state, including the small counties. We want to let people know we’re here, and we’re ready to fight,” said Ryan.
As he passed through Adams County, Ryan visited Cruiser’s Diner in Seaman, Ohio, before stopping in at GE Aviation in Peebles, Ohio, for a tour of the facility.
“We want to go where people are. We also had a nice piece of banana cream pie,” he laughed, “We want to meet people and go where they are. We want to have conversations with people in Adams County about the next generation of manufacturing jobs around electric vehicles, batteries, and how our state and country can become the manufacturing hub of the world again. If we really ramp up and go all-in on building electric vehicles, batteries, charging stations, we could pepper these small counties with manufacturing facilities, or at least in-range where people can drive to them like they did back in the day. There’s no reason why we can’t do it. We did it before, we just have to be focused, and that focus starts with helping these workers,” said Ryan.
If we’re going to dominate manufacturing, we need to make sure we have the workforce ready to take these jobs of the future, said Ryan.
“You need infrastructure. If we’re going to expand out of this particular facility, you need access to energy. Natural gas in this county is a huge issue. You need access to broadband; no company is going to locate here or be able to grow here if you don’t have broadband. If you want to have conversations about growing the economy, rebuilding the country, bringing manufacturing back, I’m your guy,” said Ryan.
He has a record of fighting for workers, he said.
“I come from working-class people. People here should know that I’ve worked with Republicans, I’ve worked with Democrats, I really don’t care about the politics of it. We know what we need to do, and we need somebody that is willing to work across the aisle to get this stuff done. Anyone can look at my record and see I’ve been doing this for a while,” said Ryan.
He will be back, he said — he loved the pie.
For more information on Ryan, visit https://timryan.house.gov/ or https://timforoh.com/.
