Teska defeated Ben McCullough in the March GOP primary, while Davis was unopposed in March. Both lead organizations and this year are seeking elective office for the first time.
In recent interviews with this news organization, they offered mostly differing top legislative priorities: education, and affordable healthcare and housing for Davis; economic growth, small businesses, crime and healthcare for Teska.
Credit: FILE
Credit: FILE
They also spoke in contrasting ways on topics such as abortion, gun rights and state Issue 1, which proposes to create an appointed commission for redistricting.
The 55th District includes all of northern Warren County, plus much of its eastern and southeastern areas.
State representatives will receive a base salary of $63,007, according to Ohio records. They receive higher salaries if they serve in a House leadership position or as a committee chair.
Davis, 32, lives in southern Clearcreek Twp. She runs LM Engagement LLC, which trains organizations in the U.S. and Canada to improve communication “among diverse teams and ultimately create stronger communities,” according to its website.
She began her career with AmeriCorps in rural Ohio. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Case Western Reserve University and a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University.
Credit: FILE
Credit: FILE
Teska, 53, lives in northern Clearcreek Twp. She is president of Miami Valley Golden Heart, a regional non-medical senior in-home health care business.
Teska earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Dayton. Teska has 25 years of private sector experience, including serving as a national sales manager for Cox Media Group Ohio, the former parent company of the Dayton Daily News.
Candidate priorities - Davis
Legislative priorities for Davis include continuing to change a school funding method heavily reliant on property taxes. A previous system’s overreliance on property taxes was ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court more than 25 years ago.
Davis leans toward the ongoing effort called the Fair School Funding Plan. The proposal’s key components, according to state education records, include:
•Fund students where they are educated rather than where they live.
•Establish an input-based funding model informed by professional judgment.
•Acknowledge that school funding has always been a partnership between the state and local school districts.
•Provide supplemental money based on student need and demographics.
“It’s not perfect, but it would get us several steps in the right direction,” Davis said. “So, I would look forward to getting that plan codified and continuing to be in conversation with educators about how to better our school funding.”
Along with school funding, Davis said she also wants to address affordable housing and healthcare.
“I think healthcare and housing are two of the top concerns for folks across the country right now,” she said. “As far as what can be done as a state representative for those issues, I think really taking a hard look at how our budget is spent, where money is going, making sure that we’re actually supporting the services in terms of access to healthcare that people need.”
On housing in Warren County, Davis said she would work with local developers and planners “to make sure that we are creating the kind of sustainable, accessible development that we want and need for our communities.
“This area is experiencing a lot of growth,” she said. “A lot of houses are being built, and yet a lot of those houses are not affordable to the people who need them.”
Candidate priorities - Teska
Legislative priorities for Teska include fostering economic growth, small business issues, crime and healthcare.
“As a small business owner, I want to do what we can help incentivize those small businesses to help them,” she said.
“I think small businesses are the backbone of America, and we need to support those people that put their neck out on the line,” Teska said.
“And I know what it’s like to work and make sure that your employees are paid before you get a paycheck,” she added. “I think it is very magnanimous when you start your own business. And it takes a lot of courage to do that.”
The growth and impact of fentanyl and other illegal and lethal drugs are also a concern, Teska said.
“I want to make sure that Ohioans feel safe, and especially those within my district,” she said.
Operating a small in-home senior care business, “healthcare has become very important to me, as I see many of the challenges that we all face,” Teska added.
Warren County is “an amazing place to live, worship and raise your children, and I really want to keep it that way and fight for it,” she said. “I want Warren County to prosper, but I also want to continue to reflect the conservative values that many of us share.”
Teska said she aims to encourage “economic prosperity through small business” and “champion limited government.”
Stands on issues
When it comes to abortion rights, Teska said she believes that life begins at conception and “that we should do everything that we can to save the life of the mother and the child.”
Teska said she continues to study the abortion issue as it relates to exceptions and her pro-life beliefs. But “I’m dedicated to protecting the unborn,” she said.
Davis said she would work to protect access to reproductive health care. Last year, Ohio voters approved a state constitutional amendment granting abortion rights.
“That’s something that’s very important to me, personally, and to a lot of folks that I talk with,” adding that she wants “to make sure that those protections are actually put in place in our constitution as the voters decided.”
Davis said she also supports “common sense measures” on gun-rights restrictions, such as red flag laws and background checks.
“We are facing a gun violence epidemic in our country; it is impacting the mortality of our children, and this is a really serious concern that I hear from a lot of families,” she said.
As a gun owner, Teska said she will advocate “safeguarding our Second Amendment” rights.
“I am not sure I am an advocate of red flag laws,” she said. “I think they’re dangerous. And again, I support the Second Amendment.”
The candidates also have different stands on state Issue 1, with Teska opposing it and Davis supporting the proposal.
“I think issue one is a very bad deal for Ohio,” Teska said. “If it passes, it will forever change the political landscape of Ohio.”
She said establishing a new way to configure the state’s political districts has been debated enough and she said those who live in the Buckeye State don’t support it.
In a recent Dayton Daily News report, records showed that less than 20% of the more than $23 million in funding to support the issue is from Ohio.
“It doesn’t give the decisions back to the residents of Ohio,” Teska said. “It basically gives it to, we’ll say, a secret commission, almost as to who is going to decide the district lines for Ohio, and it won’t be a fair representation of the people.”
But Davis said she favors the issue, saying it would bring an “independent” approach to the issue.
“My opinion on the existing system is that we have a structure right now in which politicians are drawing their own district lines, and that is not working,” she said.
“We’re seeing folks manipulate their power to keep themselves in office, and we need to change it,” Davis added.
“I do think that an independent citizen-led redistricting committee is a good solution,” she said.
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