U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, visited the Washington County Democrat Headquarters Tuesday for a meet and greet with local residents. (Photo by Michele Newbanks)

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, visited the Washington County Democratic Headquarters on Tuesday for a meet and greet with local residents.

He is running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Rob Portman, who decided not to seek reelection.

Willa O’Neill, Washington County Democratic chair, said Ryan has been an advocate for the working class and working people throughout his time in Congress. He represents Ohio’s 13th District.

Ryan, 48, of Howland, said he was “super fired up about this race.”

“We’re running hard all over the state,” he said.

He said he comes from a working class family from a working class area.

“When I decided to run for this race, I made a commitment that I’m going to go to all of the communities in this state that feel left behind … that feel forgotten,” he said. “I want to meet the workers. I want to meet the families of the people who have been doing everything right.”

He said the federal government “has not been on our side, or not been on our side in a bold enough way, to help rebuild communities and rebuild the working class.”

Ryan said if people want to have a strong community, vote for police and fire levies and school levies.

Referring to his grandfather, Ryan said “but he had the luxury of making a good wage,” he said. “This campaign is about us reclaiming our position and rebuilding the great American working class. That entails us making sure we put the worker front and center in our economy.”

He said since 1970, the pay for CEOs has increased by 1,300 percent, while worker pay has remained stagnant.

“Can you imagine that we have a system that’s so out of whack that if you are a CEO, you get that kind of increase and if you’re a worker out there doing everything right, you’ve got to struggle,” he said.

He said workers are working six or seven days a week, missing birthdays and ball games.

“This is wrong, guys. This is wrong. What’s happening in this country is wrong,” he said. “They say wages are going up. Well wages are going up for the first time in 40 years and you want us all to go ‘OK, there’s nothing left to do here, we can all just pack up and go home.’ No. No,. This is not what this is about.”

He said taxes for working families need to be cut. The system needs to be rebalanced.

“No one’s going to do this for us,” he said. “That’s why we’re talking about the issues that are most important to most people.”

Ryan spoke at length about China, saying it’s not something he talks about to scare people.

“While we’ve spent the last two decades blowing trillions of dollars on wars we had no business being in, rebuilding Iraq, rebuilding Afghanistan, China was dumping that money into their economy, into their infrastructure,” he said. “This whole debate we just had about the bipartisan infrastructure bill was a discussion about 1 percent of our (gross domestic product). China every year spends 7 to 9 percent of their GDP on their infrastructure.”

He said if we’re to beat China, we have to make investments into the U.S.

Ryan noted his job, and that of other elected officials, is to make sure communities like Marietta are on the menu for growth. High end manufacturing jobs need to be brought back to the U.S., and to Ohio, but we need to make sure “the Marietta’s of the world have broadband, have good infrastructure, have a skilled workforce, and the government needs to make sure we make these investments.”

He said he wants to find the five or six issues that are most important to everyone — that will lift up everyone — like infrastructure, tax cuts for the working class, bringing back manufacturing and getting communities on the menu.

“And making sure seniors don’t have to pay like my mom does, $1,000 out of pocket when she falls into the doughnut hole for her prescription drugs,” he said. “These are basic things. These are things that should have been done 40 years ago.”

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At a Glance:

¯ U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan visited Marietta Tuesday.

¯ He is seeking the Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. Rob Portman.

¯ He met with local Democrats for more than an hour.

¯ Ryan will continue his tour with stops in Meigs and Monroe counties today.

Source: Times research.