OPINION: Mark Harris, candidate for Ohio House of Representatives, brings a new perspective
Danny Murnin is a junior studying journalism and assistant opinion editor for The New Political.
Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated to include the author’s information.
Mark Harris, a 25-year-old student at Ohio University, has announced he will be running in the 2024 election for the Ohio House of Representatives. Harris shared his intention to run under the banner of the Forward Party, which was founded less than two years ago by 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang.
Harris explained his hopes to advance the Forward Party in the state of Ohio and make a difference.
“I joined the Forward Party back in November, and we’ve been working real hard to try to build out stuff on the state level. Part of the thing for that was finding candidates for 2024,” Harris said. “Basically I realized the incumbent was terming out, there wouldn’t be a challenge with a big name, you look at people like Bill Hayes who had a lot of success with independents in the area. And if I don’t take the opportunity right now, I’m going to miss a chance that I could help out the cause."
Harris acknowledged that this will not be an easy race. While exact district boundaries are unknown due to the legislative lines being redrawn once again, Athens has been in the 94th district since 2012. The current district voted for former President Donald Trump by just under 18 points in 2020, while term-limited state Representative Jay Edwards easily won by just under 21 points last year. Still, Harris said he sees a potential path to victory.
“Before Jay, was Debbie Phillips, a Democrat. She is a former neighbor of mine, so I know her on a semi-personal level,” Harris said. “What she and Jay both did was be highly visible. The way they succeeded, the way they got the seat was just go to every local thing, show up, shake hands, be very visible and that’s kind of the trajectory I want to take from that.”
Harris said he has several priorities to take on if elected, one of which is cutting through partisan noise to deliver results for his constituents. He said that the two parties try to use wedge issues to score political points while ignoring what the public actually wants.
“In general, the two major parties use wedge issues that they aren’t actually going to address, in a real sense, to push people one way or the other, while they actually work against the general consensus of the populace behind the scenes,” Harris said.
The biggest issue Harris said he wants to address is the regional economy. Southeastern Ohio is known as being a very impoverished region, and Harris says he wants to find solutions in the statehouse.
“The big thing that I’m concerned about is economics. For the average person in Southeastern Ohio, we have a real crisis. So if there’s a lack of industry or any kind of meaningful way to make money in the region, I think the only way to address that is to take some issues to the statehouse,” Harris said.
While I am confident based on our conversation that Harris is authentic and seeks to tackle important problems facing Ohioans, his running under the Forward Party does concern me a bit. Unlike the policies and positions you see listed on the official Democratic and Republican Party websites, there is not one major issue addressed on the Forward Party webpage. Not one.
In a time when Americans are concerned about gun violence, abortion, the economy, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, healthcare and more, how can we take the Forward Party seriously if they are not willing to tell us what they stand for? On the webpage, they try to answer the question by saying they stand “for the American people.” They also say that “whether it’s abortion, climate change, or gun safety — the two major parties are not getting the job done.”
When the Forward Party says Democrats and Republicans are not “getting the job done” on abortion, what do they mean by that? While the Democrats certainly could be a lot louder and feistier about protecting abortion rights, the official party position on the issue is in line with what a solid majority of the public believe. Across the country, Democratic state legislatures and governors have taken measures to protect abortion rights. Meanwhile, the Republicans refuse to moderate on the issue, with full bans on the books in over a dozen states, and lawmakers pushing jail time and even the death penalty for women who get abortions and doctors who provide them.
A party that will not come out and officially say that they oppose jailing or executing women who get abortions and instead uses ‘both-sidism’ to discuss the issue is not a party that should be taken seriously. Simply put, if the Forward Party will not tell us at least where they stand on issues where a solid majority of the country prefers one approach, such as abortion, then they really do not stand for the American people.
I do appreciate Harris for having an actual solid stance on the topic, however. While my personal stance on abortion is a bit more to the left than his, his view may align more with what most Americans believe.
“I think the Roe decision was pretty well where the populace actually really is with it, I’m really comfortable with that late 90’s Democratic talking point safe, legal and rare. We got to do things to make it not as common of a choice to make other paths that are easier. But at the end of the day, if a woman needs to get it [an abortion], I don’t think the government needs to stand in the way,” Harris said.
At this point, the 2024 election is still over 14 months away. There is a lot that could happen between now and then to increase Harris’s chance of pulling off a major upset, but for now, even with no record of other declared candidates so far for the seat, he is still a major underdog. If Harris wants to pull this off, he needs to immediately start trying to increase his name recognition among voters in the area exponentially, as he said Phillips and Edwards have done.
I find Harris authentic and consisting of many good, important qualities that a state representative should have. An Athens native, he is obviously concerned about the local economy, and has reasonable stances on important issues.
Still, I wish he was not running under the Forward Party banner. I have discussed my issues with the Forward Party, but aside from that, third party candidates rarely find any meaningful success electorally, and there are no signs as of now that Harris could be an exception to that. There are 132 voting members in the Ohio General Assembly, and all of them are either Republican or Democrat. Most voters will disregard him without giving any attention to his platform just when they see he is a Forward Party candidate.
I wish Harris all the luck on his campaign, but he needs to ask himself if running as a Forward Party candidate is worth jeopardizing any chance he may have of winning this race.
