2 female Democrats vie to take on 12-term GOP incumbent

CINCINNATI (AP) — Some years, Democrats have struggled to field a viable candidate in Ohio's 1st U.S. House district. This year, they have two.

A career health care advocate, Kate Schroder, and a veteran Air Force pilot, Nikki Foster, have shown the ability to raise money and attract supporters as they prepare to clash in the state's March 17 primary for the nomination to challenge 12-term Republican incumbent Steve Chabot of Cincinnati.

Both have television commercials running and both are married mothers of two young children hoping to appeal to the kind of suburban women who helped Democrats in other states pick up enough seats in 2018 to win a House majority.

“I think that they both have great resumes, they both have great stories to tell,” said David Niven, a University of Cincinnati political scientist.

They also offer fresh faces: neither has held elective office before in contrast to Chabot, who was first elected in 1985 to Cincinnati city council.

For Foster, 38, her story is about flying 200-plus missions over Afghanistan and Iraq, having an Air Force husband and being the daughter of immigrants. For Schroder, 42, it's years of working for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, serving two years in Zambia and working on the Cincinnati Board of Health. She has deep ties to the community as a fifth-generation Cincinnatian.

Both have criticized Chabot for his votes against Obamacare and talking about their own personal experiences with health care: Schroder survived a bout with lymphoma, while Foster's second child had to overcome being born with a hole in his heart.

"The best defense is a strong offense, and Chabot gives us a lot of material to work with," Schroder said during a recent joint appearance with Foster before Bold New Democracy, a progressive group in Cincinnati.

However, their stories confront a grim reality: the district's deck is stacked, with boundaries that dilute Democrat-dominated Cincinnati by splitting the city between two GOP-friendly districts.

Chabot, first elected to Congress in 1994, was swept away in a Barack Obama-led 2008 Democratic wave, but won back his seat in 2010. Republican-controlled redistricting put GOP-dominated Warren County to his district for 2012, and he won three straight landslide victories.

Republican Donald Trump won 66% of the vote in Warren County in 2016 and campaigned there for Chabot in 2018, helping him hold off spirited Democratic challenger Aftab Pureval with 51% of the vote.

Niven testified in federal court for voter rights and Democratic groups who sued over Ohio's congressional map, which has 12 clearly Republican districts and four packed with Democrats.

The groups won a federal court ruling last year that Ohio's map should be redrawn because of unfair partisan gerrymandering, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it should stay out of the issue.

Foster ran unsuccessfully for the state House in Warren County in 2018, although her 39% of the vote represented significant progress from other recent Democrats in the deep-red county. Schroder has Hamilton County Democratic Party backing for her run.

Chabot, 67, has repeatedly described Democrats in general as increasingly embracing a “radical agenda.”

And the Democrats know Chabot can call in a big gun if needed.

“Donald Trump is coming,” Foster said, saying Democrats need to reach out to all voters across the district to increase turnout. She said that having mothers and strong veterans like her running can “counter Steve Chabot and send Donald Trump packing.”

___

Follow Dan Sewell at https://www.twitter.com/dansewell