Former State Rep. Connie Pillich released a video announcing her run for governor yesterday, and it prominently features Over-the-Rhine, Washington Park and local iteration of January’s Women’s Marches in protest of President Donald Trump.
Pillich, who represented the Montgomery area in the Ohio House of Representatives, casts herself during the three-minute announcement as someone who will oppose the agenda of the new president and makes an appeal directly to those who turned out for the march and others who aren’t Trump fans.
“We cannot let the energy and determination fade away,” she says of the women’s march. “That’s what Donald Trump wants.”
The Hamilton County Democrat makes several nods to Cincinnati’s march during the announcement. More than 10,000 people turned out for the rally there protesting Trump’s inauguration.
“That’s why here today in Washington Park, I’m announcing my campaign for governor,” Pillich says. “This is where we proved that Ohio is ready to fight.”
She also highlights her time in Cincinnati, her working class background and her service in the Air Force. Pillich, who has been exploring a gubernatorial run for more than a year, looks likely to woo Ohio’s working class voters, some of whom voted for Trump in the last election.
Pillich is one of at least three Democrats running for governor in 2018. She joins Ohio Senate Minority Leader Joe Shiavoni and former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton in the race. Other high-level Democrats, including Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, could also jump into the fray. Pillich left the State House in 2014 to run for state treasurer and has some level of national name recognition from that race and a decent amount in her campaign fund — about $400,000 so far — to make her pitch to become the Democratic Party’s nominee. Pillich lost the treasurer’s race to Josh Mandel during a punishing year for Democrats.
Republicans have their own crowded field to replace term-limited Ohio Gov. John Kasich, which includes Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor.
This article appears in Mar 8-15, 2017.
