OHIO — The 29th District encompasses portions of southern Ohio in the Cincinnati region.

The Democrat running for this state senate seat is Joe Salvato, who is running unopposed. But there is competition on the Republican side, with State Representative Cindy Abrams and businessman George Brunemann running for their party's nomination.

“My priority is keeping Ohioans safe, and I’ve done just that in my time in the general assembly,” said State Rep. Cindy Abrams. “So I am running for re-election to continue to work on all of my top priority issues for my constituents here in Ohio.”

“Politics is not where I thought my post-retirement time would be spent,” said candidate George Brunemann. “But, in this particular case, we had spent a lot of time looking at things at the local level.” 

Abrams is a former police officer and believes in public safety. She has put forth legislation to modernize the Ohio police and fire pension fund, and introduced legislation after Issue 2 passed to use the marijuana tax revenue for peace officer training. She also believes in reducing taxes and finding ways to work with her Democratic colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

“I was very proud to vote for our budget,” Abrams said. “Which lowered taxes for Ohioans, not just this general assembly, but last general assembly, again, giving parents the choice to send their child to whatever school they want to through the expanded ed-choice voucher program.” 

Abrams helps advise the Ohio Juvenile Justice Working Group and sits on the Commerce and Labor, Criminal Justice, Finance, Finance Subcommittee on Public Safety, and Homeland Security Committees. 

“I would say that I’m the proven conservative leader,” said Abrams. “Of course, I have a voting record to stand on, which I’m very proud of. It’s very conservative. All of the bills that I’ve personally sponsored, I can’t give you a count, but many of them have become law. So, again, whether it’s distracted driving, we’re down with less fatal auto accidents in the state of Ohio because of that piece of legislation.” 

Meanwhile, Abrams’ opponent Brunemann said he is a proven conservative candidate and relatable to the public because he is not a typical politician. 

“What makes me different is my career has been in engineering,” Brunemann said. “I have a knack for solving extremely complicated problems.” 

He also believes in bipartisanship to work on solid issues across the aisle. But, he wants to put forth a strong conservative agenda to solve problems affecting the 29th district. He believes it starts with local discussions. 

“A police levee just failed. Nobody was against the levy. There were no signs against the levy, no organization. And it still failed because the people don’t have that $400 a year to give to increased taxes. I think if they state their case, they can make it happen. But, I think the bigger issue is we have to fix how things are funded out of Columbus,” said Brunemann. 

Brunemann’s top priorities are improving the cost and quality of education, infrastructure, and restoring individual liberty when it comes to personal health care. He specifically pointed to the coronavirus pandemic and its effects that included some mask and vaccine mandates. He also wants to help with reducing taxes. 

“I am very focused on getting the spending to come down and that also involves getting the handouts to come down,” Brunemann said. “I mean, the billions of dollars we are giving to Intel. Are we ever really going to see that back? And if we don’t see it back, do we get the money back? So, that’s the tax angle I think we need to approach everything from. Is this a nice to have or a must have and get rid of them? Nice to have. The third thing is education. I think we need to solve the problem of quality schools. We need to solve the problem of cost. I’m a huge fan of competition for that.” 

Right now, in the final stretch ahead of the March primary election, the candidates are continuing their efforts of knocking on doors, holding phone banks, and advertising.