From Janitor to Congressional Candidate: What Ohio's Working Class Voters Actually Need

Introduction

The 2026 midterm elections are approaching, and across the country, a new generation of candidates is stepping forward with backgrounds that look nothing like the typical political resume. In Ohio's 12th Congressional District, one of those candidates is Jerrad Christian, a U.S. Navy veteran, self-taught software engineer, and father who grew up in Appalachian poverty and is now running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

I recently sat down with Jerrad on the Purple Political Breakdown podcast, a nonpartisan political analysis show I host on the Alive Podcast Network. Our conversation covered healthcare, education, taxation, corruption, and what it means to represent working people in a system that often works against them. What follows is a breakdown of the key issues we discussed and why they matter, not just for Ohio, but for the country.

The Candidate's Background: A Story Millions Can Relate To

Jerrad grew up in Athens County, Ohio, in a working poor family. Government programs were not theoretical concepts in his household. They were survival tools. He couch surfed as a kid, watched his mother fight cancer with Medicare keeping her alive, and saw Social Security barely stretch far enough for the people around him.

He joined the U.S. Navy and served as a flight deck fueler on an aircraft carrier during Operation Iraqi Freedom, then transitioned to meteorology and oceanography. After leaving the service and becoming a father, he took a job as a janitor in a factory. While working that job, he taught himself software engineering through free online resources, completed a tech placement program, and has been a software engineer for approximately eight years.

He is not running from a position of wealth or political pedigree. He is running because he got tired of reading the news every morning and getting angry about problems that nobody seemed interested in solving.

Ohio's Gerrymandering Problem and the 12th District

Ohio's 12th Congressional District spans from half of Delaware County to the West Virginia border, covering roughly three hours of driving distance. It includes Amish country in Holmes County, the rural communities of Perry County, and everything in between. Jerrad described the district's shape as resembling a Tetris Z, a product of the gerrymandering that has defined Ohio's political map for decades.

The recent redistricting compromise in Ohio required Democrats to accept a Republican drawn map because the alternative, requiring a massive signature collection effort in a short timeframe, would have resulted in an even more lopsided configuration. Jerrad acknowledged the frustration with that deal but recognized the practical constraints. His broader point is that gerrymandering, regardless of which party benefits, creates safe seats that destroy genuine representation. Politicians in safe districts stop working for their constituents because there are no electoral consequences for inaction.

Universal Healthcare: The Wait Time Myth and the Real Cost

Jerrad's healthcare position centers on a single payer insurance model where private doctors and hospitals continue to operate, but the insurance layer is managed publicly. He argues this would give the government the negotiating power to lower medication costs, procedure costs, and overall per capita spending. The United States currently pays more per person for healthcare than any other developed nation while being the only one without universal coverage.

When I raised the common objection about wait times, his response reframed the issue entirely. He argued that American wait times appear short only because millions of people are not getting in line at all. They cannot afford insurance, they skip preventive care, and they die of treatable conditions before ever seeing a doctor. The wait time for those people is not days or weeks. It is their entire life.

He referenced Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth" and modern monetary theory to address the funding question, arguing that the conversation about "taxpayer dollars" is often misleading. His most quotable point: the average American would pay less in a tax increase for universal healthcare than they currently pay in monthly insurance premiums. The savings come from eliminating the private insurance layer, which adds administrative cost and profit extraction without improving patient outcomes.

Property Taxes, Education Funding, and the Voucher Problem

Ohio's property tax crisis is directly connected to its education funding problem. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled the state's method of funding public education unconstitutional in the 1990s and has reaffirmed that ruling multiple times since. Despite this, the same political leadership that has controlled the state for four decades has not implemented a constitutional solution.

Jerrad connected the property tax increases to a pattern of fiscal policy that benefits the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Ohio has cut income taxes for top earners repeatedly, recently moving to a flat tax of approximately 2.5%. This shift reduced the tax burden on high earners significantly while providing minimal relief to those at the bottom. Meanwhile, property taxes have risen to fill the gap, and tax abatements for data centers and large corporations have further shifted the burden onto residential property owners.

On school vouchers, Jerrad cited data indicating that roughly 90% of voucher recipients were already attending private schools, meaning the program subsidizes families who could already afford private education rather than expanding access for those who cannot. He also noted that the Ohio Constitution explicitly prohibits public funding of religious schools, a provision the current leadership is effectively ignoring. His analogy was direct: if you do not like the public park, the government does not build you a private park. Public services serve everyone. Private alternatives serve those who can afford the admission price, or those who meet the institution's selection criteria.

Money in Politics and Accountability

Jerrad supports overturning Citizens United, eliminating super PACs, and ending congressional stock trading. He pointed to FEC filings showing campaign funds spent on $3,000 dinners and cross country travel, arguing that these expenditures reflect a system where representatives serve donors rather than constituents.

On accountability more broadly, he emphasized the need for faster legal proceedings against corrupt officials. He referenced the ongoing FirstEnergy corruption trial in Ohio as an example of a case that has dragged on while the same political structure that enabled the corruption remains in power. His position is that public accountability, including being willing to go to other districts and publicly challenge representatives who are failing their constituents, is a necessary part of restoring trust in the system.

Engaging MAGA Voters Without Demonizing Them

Perhaps the most nuanced part of our conversation was about how to engage with voters who identify as MAGA. Jerrad drew a clear distinction between MAGA politicians, whom he views largely as opportunists exploiting a movement for personal power, and MAGA voters, whom he sees as people who are genuinely frustrated with a system that has failed them.

His approach is not to demonize or dismiss. It is to show up, be honest, and demonstrate through action that he is working for the same things they want: clean water, affordable energy, honest government, and a future where hard work actually leads somewhere. He believes the heart of America is still good and that the division we see is largely manufactured by political actors and social media algorithms designed to keep people angry and disengaged.

Why This Matters Beyond Ohio

The issues Jerrad is running on, healthcare affordability, education funding, corruption, and genuine representation, are not unique to Ohio's 12th District. They are national problems that play out in local contexts everywhere. The 2026 midterms will be a test of whether candidates with working class backgrounds and populist (in the original, non-pejorative sense) platforms can break through in districts that have been locked down by one party for decades.

Whether you agree with every position Jerrad holds or not, the conversation is worth having. And that is exactly what the Purple Political Breakdown is built for: political solutions without political bias.

Listen to the full episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-a-working-class-veteran-fix-ohios-broken/id1626987640?i=1000756470002

Learn more about Jerrad's campaign: https://ChristianForOhio.com