The NRCC has vowed to target this district, and make Rep. Greg Landsman a one term member of Congress. Landsman isn’t worried about winning or losing per se, but about what the state of politics is in this country right now.
My biggest worry has nothing to do with me or my race. My biggest worry is where we are in terms of our politics.
What is it about this moment that leads to Mike Johnson becoming speaker? That led Kevin McCarthy to say to many of us — who were 100 percent ready to work with him to marginalize the extremism and let him govern — “No, I’m gonna pass on that”?
There’s real frustration because of how broken the economy’s been for decades, where you have the super wealthy who continue to consolidate power and wealth at the expense of the rest of us.
Instead of solving the problem, too many national and state politicians divide and fear-monger and get folks scared of each other. Solving the problem requires restructuring the economy and fixing the tax code, which they don’t want to do.
I’m determined to stay here as long as voters let me, to attempt to fix this economy and the tax code and how power and wealth is shared in this country, so that people can pay their bills and enjoy their lives.
Landsman has compiled a voting record that is more moderate than most of his fellow Democratic colleagues, but that is perfect for a marginal district that has voted Republican more often than not in the last 30 years. He has been a reliable vote against all of the MAGA crazy at least 95% of the time, and he has supported the Biden-Harris agenda when possible.
He has an assistant district attorney in Orlando Sonza as his opposition in 2024. Ohio Republicans seem excited about his candidacy, and are making a play to flip this district back to the GOP. Sonza makes some “moderate” pitches on his campaign website, but digging a little deeper shows that he is as MAGA as anyone else still in the GOP. The question is, can Rep. Greg Landsman win another term in the Cincinnati area in 2024?
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Greg Landsman for Ohio-1
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What’s the Big Idea?
THIS RACE LEANS DEMOCRATIC, with a D+2 PVI
Compared to other big cities, Cincinnati has always been more conservative and less amenable to Democratic candidates. The Republicans in the state legislature aided and abetted this by usually cracking the city and especially the Black residents downtown from other potential allies in the city. This usually resulted in Cincinnati being covered by two members of the GOP or one GOP member and one Democratic member of Congress.
The former Representative, Steve Chabot, used the 1994 Republican Revolution to ensconce himself in the district. The back to back blue waves at the tail end of the GW Bush era led to a rare political defeat for Chabot in 2008, in which Obama won the 1st district handily and Steve Driehaus rode on the coattails of Obama to give Cincinnati Democratic representation for the first time in over a decade. That would only last 2 years, however, as Chabot came back during the 2010 red wave.
Chabot would be seriously challenged again in 2018 and 2020, but with Trump winning the previous district it remained tough to defeat Chabot at the ballot box. Fair districts were supposed to be enacted for 2020 redistricting, but the heavily GOP biased commission decided to try and gerrymander this seat so Chabot could still win it. Even so, they could only create a district that favored Biden 53.5% to 45.0% — a far cry from what Chabot is used to. Rep. Greg Landsman finally knocked off Chabot by a 52.8% to 47.2% margin in 2022, and is now the incumbent in the seat.
Here’s where this race will be won in the 1st district.
- Cincinnati: It is important that Greg Landsman connects with the Black community in Cincinnati, as the residents of the city are the #1 source of votes in the district for him. If turn out is not good in the city, then Landsman will have a difficult re-election.
- Cincinnati inner ring suburbs: Redistricting cut out as many of these inner ring suburbs from the district as possible, but there are still some present, especially on the east side of the city. It is important that Landsman remain competitive in these areas if not win them outright.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
- Delhi: Republicans hypocritically attached a couple of blood red suburbs west of Cincinnati to the district in order to give the GOP as much advantage as possible. The hope will be that these areas do not swamp the city of Cincinnati proper, as Landsman will be trounced here.
- Warren County: Although Biden had a good showing (relatively speaking) and even won some precincts in the county, the fact is that this county is a Republican stronghold. Landsman cannot expect to win the county, but what votes are there need to show up and vote for him because Trump will likely win 60%+ of the vote from this county.
Who is Rep. Greg Landsman?
Rep. Greg Landsman was a public school teacher. He holds degrees in economics, political science, and theology. He is responsible for the Preschool Promise being piloted in Cincinnati, which led to two years of quality preschool instruction for all 3-4 year olds in the city. He was elected to the city council in 2017, and then challenged for this district in 2022 and won. This CSPAN video expounds on his background.
- Better Health Care for All. Landsman has made health care a focus for his tenure in Congress. His first bill submitted capped the cost of insulin for children. He’s worked across the aisle to lower prescription drug costs for seniors. He has built a database meant to connect constituents with federal funding opportunities, including in health care.
- Education and Child Care. Landsman has been busy in Congress introducing legislation to reduce child care costs and increase the quality of nutrition in child care settings. He believes that all education should be affordable, from Head Start all the way until college or a trade school.
- Common Sense Gun Policy. Landsman signed onto legislation that would strengthen background checks, and also to ensure that gun owners properly store their guns. He even signed onto an assault weapons ban in order to curb the epidemic of gun violence in America. He has been a Gun Sense candidate from Moms Demand Action.
- Protecting Our Democracy. Landsman would be a vote for the John Lewis VRA, in order to protect that landmark law. Landsman also believes that it is important to pass the For the People Act which would increase voting rights. End Citizens United and Let America vote have both endorsed his re-election campaign.
- Protecting Abortion Rights. Landsman would be another vote to codify Roe v. Wade into law. He would also be a vote against a national abortion ban and a contraception ban. He is also concerned with infant and maternal mortality, and especially the racial disparities in both. He would be a vote for the Momnibus legislation that has been proposed. NARAL and Planned Parenthood have endorsed his campaign.
- Infrastructure Focus. Cincinnati has some crumbling infrastructure, and Landsman has helped bring home the bacon. An important bridge over the Ohio River is finally being replaced, and another for a planned boulevard. He has introduced legislation to curb train derailments, and even provided close to a billion dollars for broadband upgrades in the district.
- Environmental Protections. Landsman on the city council supported one of the largest municipal solar projects in America. He also worked on the Green Cincinnati Plan, which was an environmental justice ordinance. He will vote to hold polluters accountable and to mitigate the effects of climate change. The League of Conservation Voters has endorsed him.
- Caring for Veterans. Landsman is a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee in the House, which gives him a perch to set policy in that area. He has introduced amendments to help service members and veterans, and will make sure that veterans have full access to health care, especially when it comes to mental health.
Who is Orlando Sonza?
Orlando Sonza is a Cincinnati native who went to West Point for his college education. He served at Fort Benning, GA along with his wife. He got a law degree and started serving as a CPA and then in the Department of Justice under Trump. He is currently an ADA for Hamilton County and is a candidate for Congress in 2024. He doesn’t have much of an issues page yet on his website.
- Forced Birth Maniac. There is no section on his issues page for abortion, as many GOP candidates have scrubbed any mention of it from their pages. His only reference to it is in his biography, where he says he will “dedicate to protecting life — from the unborn to the elderly.” Sonza spoke out against the ratification of Issue 1 that protected abortion rights.
- Immigration Hardliner. Sonza wants to fix the broken immigration system, but his rhetoric spouts securing the southern border as his #1 priority on immigration issues. As an ADA, he looks at it through the lens of a criminal issue as opposed to a humanitarian one.
- 2nd Amendment Zealot. Another issue that is scrubbed from his issues page, Sonza would be a vote against many, if not all, gun safety measures. The only mention of the issue on his website is that he will “stand up for our 2nd amendment rights”.
- “Weaponized Government”. Sonza claims that the government is out to get Trump, and that the four indictments are merely political instead of actual crimes that Trump has committed. He also is a fan of impeaching Biden for the deals his family is alleged to have made.
- “Woke Warrior”. Sonza is a big proponent of “parental rights”, which has warped into conservative parental rights to challenge the curriculum. He is also a fan of vouchers, which is a stealth tax cut for the wealthy patrons who typically use them. He blames the divisiveness in this nation on “wokeness” coming from the Biden administration.
- Debt and Deficit Peacock. Sonza takes the traditional conservative line that government spending is the problem, and he would look for ways to cut it. But he also proposes tax cuts, which shows he isn’t serious about deficit reduction.
- Banking Baloney. Sonza shows his lack of seriousness on important issues by blaming environmental, social, and governance (ESG) for bank failures instead of banks making risky investments. He does not believe that “failing banks” should be bailed out.
How Can You Help?
If you are far away from the city of Cincinnati, don’t fret. There are ways you can help Rep. Greg Landsman win re-election. All you have to do is give a donation to his campaign and you’ve helped plenty! It doesn’t even have to be a large donation — a smaller one (even as little as $1) can make a difference if enough people decide to donate!
Rep. Greg Landsman is fundraising at a lackadaisical pace, but Orlando Sonza also struggles to raise campaign cash. The incumbent raised a mere $262k for Q4, which isn’t stellar for an incumbent. Sonza raised a laughable $39k during the same time period though, and risks being seen as not viable. Landsman has a much better $1.22M cash on hand, while Sonza only has $84k to spend. We cannot let our guard down on this race yet, so Landsman can still use some donations!
If you live in the Cincinnati metro area, the best way to help would be to volunteer for the Greg Landsman campaign. As the weather gets warmer, canvassing and other traditional campaign activities will kick into a higher gear. Helping Landsman will also help Sen. Sherrod Brown in his critical re-election campaign as well. Sen. Brown will need every vote he can get!
The last way you can help out is through boosting Greg Landsman via social media. For an incumbent, that involves boosting both his campaign account and his official accounts. The official accounts tend to show the accomplishments of incumbents, while the campaign accounts tend to focus on what is needed to win the election.
For his official Twitter page, Landsman has around 3.2k followers. He’s been using it more to communicate his views on legislation than I thought he would, and less about his legislative successes. Below, he is taking a tour of an urban farming company in Cincinnati. Urban farming is a growing industry in cities with a lot of vacant buildings or land.
Rep. Greg Landsman posts almost the same material on his official Facebook account as his official Twitter account. He has around 1k followers on that platform, which is middling for an incumbent. In this clip, Landsman shows everyone what a day in Congress is like on November 14th, 2023, from start to finish. Of note is that this is right before the laddered CR was adopted.
Landsman’s Twitter account for his campaign is now borked, so there is only a Facebook account to follow right now. I will update this section if and when he re-activates a Twitter account solely for his campaign.
He didn’t post on his Facebook account for a while, but since the start of 2024 he has posted on it more. He only has 739 followers on the account, which is miniscule. He really needs the help on this account. Here, he helps me fill in the blanks on who Orlando Sonza really is. Apparently, Sonza doesn’t even live in the district...
Help spread the word today by following Rep. Greg Landsman and boosting his accomplishments and his campaign in the critical realm of social media!
Rep. Greg Landsman fits the district found in the Cincinnati area well. Between his work on the Cincinnati city council and his tenure in Congress, it is clear that he cares deeply about his community and aims to serve it to the best of his ability. His combination of moderate and liberal stances truly reflects the slight Democratic lean of his district. His work on the Small Business and Veteran’s Affairs Committees is to be lauded.
I don’t know if Orlando Sonza will be a tough challenger for Landsman or not. It is better to take this race seriously and treat him as someone who can defeat the incumbent as opposed to taking him lightly. Landsman is rated as having the 26th most vulnerable Democratic seat by Daily Kos. I doubt the Landsman campaign will take their opponent lightly, but it can be difficult to define someone without much of a record, especially when you now have one yourself. Only time will tell how this race will develop!
Greg Landsman for Ohio-1
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