Kate Baker, of Huber Heights, and Jordan Wortham, of Dayton, face off in the March 19 primary. The winner will advance to the Nov. 5 general election to race against a Democrat.
The commission seat is currently held by Democratic incumbent Judy Dodge, who is racing against challenger Youssef Elzein in their party primary.
Both Republican candidates say their skills and other qualities make them ideal candidates for the commission seat.
Kate Baker
Baker, a self-declared fiscal conservative, said her background in finance and healthcare, paired with her current experience as a city councilwoman, have equipped her to seek out and fulfill the needs of Montgomery County residents.
“Montgomery County is diverse. Each community has different needs,” she said. “But we want the same things: safe homes, safe streets, and the county programs or services to work for every constituent. They want water infrastructure to work. They want the sheriff’s office to be there when they call.”
Baker was appointed to a vacancy on Huber Heights city council for Ward 3 in 2020. She was elected to the seat in 2021.
Baker said that if elected as commissioner, she would focus on ensuring the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has ample resources, like training and equipment.
She has worked in banking and on the financial side of healthcare. During these experiences, she worked with topics like appraisals and farm credits to Medicaid and prenatal healthcare.
She said she’s running for a county commission seat because she likes hard work and wants to serve people on a larger scale.
For Baker, serving her community takes different forms: helping residents with mobility issues obtain wheelchair curb ramps or even just picking up trash at parks in her city.
“I have a servant’s heart,” she said. “And I’ll always listen. Helping people — that’s really important to me.”
Baker is a graduate of Wayne High School in Huber Heights, and she also holds a degree in financial management from Sinclair Community College and a degree from Wright State University.
Jordan Wortham
Wortham said he’s running for a Montgomery County commission seat because he wants to see change in his community.
Progress can be made through attracting new businesses, effective social services and the elimination of “bureaucratic red tape and wasteful spending,” his campaign website states. These are goals he would pursue if elected.
The Dayton man said he takes pride in his seven years of service at the Dayton Police Department. He describes himself as “unafraid and unbossed.”
“I was blessed as a police officer to see the ordinary citizen frustrated with their government, feeling that the government lacks transparency and accountability,” he said. “I’m going to fight for that commission seat to be more transparent and more accountable, not to political parties, but to ordinary people.”
His DPD job was terminated in 2019 after he was accused of making a false statement during an investigation into an off-duty interaction he had with two officers. The Dayton Civil Service Board ultimately affirmed the employment decision after Wortham appealed it, but the board noted that the statement Wortham allegedly made did not involve the public or the police department.
Wortham won the Republican primary for the Montgomery County commission seat held by incumbent Carolyn Rice in 2022. Rice barely won reelection with 50.4% of the votes during the following general election.
He’s a graduate of Chaminade Julienne High School and the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a degree in communications.
Wortham is the son of a Dayton police detective and a Dayton Municipal Court judge, and he also serves as the coach of his son’s basketball team.
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