Election 2020 | Graphic created by Dylan Collison | The Wright State Guardian
On Wednesday, Oct. 21 the College of Liberal Arts in partnership with Wright State Votes hosted a virtual Meet the Candidates event. The event featured local candidates and representatives from the presidential campaigns. Each candidate pitched their campaigns while students, faculty and staff posed questions to the eager speakers.
Local candidates
Running for judgeship on Ohio’s second district appeals court is Chris Epley and Marshall Lachman. Epley is a local Republican lawyer and law professor at the University of Dayton. He serves on the city council of Dayton and has won several awards for his legal work.
Marshall is a local Democratic lawyer and part-time magistrate for Montgomery County and has experience in death penalty cases along with juvenile court matters.
Opposing candidates Kim McCarthy and Brian Lampton for Ohio’s 73rd State Representative seat shared their differences at the event. McCarthy, a Democrat, runs on the liberal ticket supporting issues such as Medicare for all and fixing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy. McCarthy was a participant in the 2019 strike at Wright State University. She assured students that she would fight for public university funding if elected.
Lampton, a Catholic Republican, describes himself as “pro-life” and is “endorsed by Right to Life Ohio,” according to Lampton.
House of Representatives election
A major seat up for grabs this election is the House District 10 which Desiree Tims, a Democrat and Mike Turner, a Republican, are campaigning for. If elected, Tims would be the first woman and first African American to hold this seat. She runs on environmentally friendly investment, racial equality and criminal justice reform and believes in keeping the Affordable Care Act.
Turner runs on a platform that is supportive of the military and that is anti-immigration. Turner was not present at the event.
Presidential campaigns
Both former Vice President Biden and President Donald Trump campaigns were represented at the event. Dalton Throckmorton, the Dayton field manager for the Trump campaign, focused on the president's accomplishments, some of which he falsely quoted. Throckmorton stated that Trump lowered the federal deficit. The administration has actually added $2.8 trillion dollars to the debt. Throckmorton correctly claimed President Trump's support of Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
Vice President Biden’s field representative Mitchel Herr cleared up the campaign’s stance on LGBTA+ issues, stating that “[Biden] would pass the equality act” and that “[Biden] would ban conversion therapy.” These stances have not been widely talked about before by the Biden campaign.
