PRESS RELEASE: October 6, 2020
CONTACT: Erin Ryan, (440) 382-2900
Encourages voters to use their guide as a nonpartisan educational tool to understand candidates’ priorities on issues affecting women and families
COLUMBUS, OH – Today, as early voting kicks off in Ohio, the Ohio Women’s Public Policy Networked has launched their 2020 General Election Voter Guide website. The guide provides voters with a nonpartisan, unbiased tool to understand where candidates for the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate stand on policy issues affecting women and families.
“Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice uprising, we are facing an unprecedented and pivotal election cycle,” said Elizabeth Brown, Executive Director of the Ohio Women’s Public Policy Network. “The issues fundamentally important to women and their families, particular for women and families of color, hold an even greater weight this election, and our newly launched Voter Guide puts them at the center of each and every election contest here in Ohio.”
The information published in the Voter Guide was obtained by a questionnaire sent to candidates in contested general races for the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio State Senate. The questions were crafted by network partners to help raise awareness of the candidates’ stances and priorities on the three main issue focus areas within the coalition’s shared policy agenda:
1) Promoting economic security;
2) Ensuring fairness and opportunity in the workplace; and
3) Improving women’s health and wellbeing
“The Statehouse candidates elected this cycle will play an important role in shaping statewide decisions on economic recovery, health care access, and addressing systemic racial inequities,” Brown continued. “Our Voter Guide is exactly the kind of informative tool voters want and need to understand where candidates in Ohio stand on crucial issues related to women’s economic security, workplace opportunity, and health.”
Candidate responses are searchable by district on the Voter Guide website. The guide indicates candidates who did not respond to the questionnaire, but the group will continue to update the guide with responses received by candidates up until the date of the election.
More information about the project and the full Voter Guide are available online, at www.womenspublicpolicynetwork.org/voter-guide.
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The Ohio Women’s Public Policy Network is a coalition of nearly 40 organizations working collaboratively to advocate for public policy solutions that build economic opportunity for women and families. The coalition is united by a shared vision: an Ohio in which all women – particularly women of color, women with low-wages, and other marginalized women – have the resources to thrive and the opportunity to lead economically secure, safe, and healthy lives
Member organizations of the Women’s Public Policy Network include:
ACLU of Ohio
ACTION OHIO
American Association of University Women, Ohio
Catholics for Choice
Children’s Defense Fund – Ohio
Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap
Equality Ohio
Equitas Health
#Fight4HER
Hadassah Columbus
Innovation Ohio Education Fund
Jobs with Justice, Cleveland Chapter
Juvenile Justice Coalition
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio
National Association of Social Workers Ohio Chapter
National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Central Ohio Chapter
National Council of Jewish Women, Cleveland Chapter
Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence
Ohio Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)
Ohio Domestic Violence Network
Ohio Federation of Teachers
Ohio National Organization for Women
Ohio Progressive Asian Women’s Leadership (OPAWL)
Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (Ohio RCRC)
Ohio Urban Resources Systems (O.U.R.S.)
Ohio Women’s Alliance
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio
Policy Matters Ohio
Preterm
Restoring Our Own Through Transformation (ROOTT)
The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio
The Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation
UHCAN Ohio
URGE: United for Reproductive and Gender Equality
YWCA Columbus
YWCA Dayton
YWCA Greater Cincinnati