Wilson

Two members of Generation X are vying for the Democratic nomination to represent Ohio’s redrawn 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Jen Mazzuckelli, 53, is a mother and homemaker in the Clermont County community of Eastlake. Growing up with family members in public service, she said a trip to the United Nations helped convince her that was a path she wanted to walk as well.

“I was just fascinated at the idea this was where all the world leaders came to solve their problems,” she said.

Initially wanting to pursue international studies and be a diplomat, she wound up majoring in English and became a teacher. But her interest in governance continued and “I just generally fell in love with our government and how it worked,” Mazzuckelli said.

However, she said the government hasn’t worked in a long time, prompting her interest in running for Congress.

Mazzuckelli

“I got tired of the Christian nationalists who were running our government making decisions for women,” Mazzuckelli said. “I wasn’t seeing anybody run and represent us that was actually representing us.”

Having pressed domestic violence charges against a partner and been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, whose symptoms have since stabilized, Mazzuckelli said she went from middle class to extremely low income. She said she struggled to find affordable housing across multiple counties in the district and kept “running into walls” seeking assistance.

Meanwhile, Mazzuckelli was frustrated by the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration, doing things like dismantling USAID under the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, initiative.

Mazzuckelli said she’s run for office one other time, a 2024 campaign for county commission in a “very red” area where she received just over 30% of the vote. She said the new Congressional district map makes it more possible to flip the seat, calling Marietta and Athens “the first blue areas we have in this district.”

If she wins the nomination and election, Mazzuckelli said expectations will need to be regulated.

“Because we’re going to have a president that will veto anything he doesn’t like,” she said.

Her experience teaching at a drop-out recovery center with little funding helped her learn to develop creative solutions to solve problems, Mazzuckelli said.

“We’re in a financial emergency right now, and before we can solve any of the affordability problems, we need to find a way to do it in cost-effective ways,” she said.

Mazzuckelli said the sex-trafficking network of Jeffrey Epstein represents a security risk that needs fully investigated. She said the country needs to focus on mental health and treat substance abuse as a mental health issue rather than a criminal one.

Todd Wilson, 53, is an Albany resident and the learning lab coordinator for the Department of Engineering Technology and Management at Ohio University. He said the seed of his run was planted when Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

“That kind of let me see that, in my opinion, our democracy was existentially threatened,” he said.

He filed to run the day after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer in January in Minneapolis. Officers said the shooting was in self-defense, but others called it reckless and unnecessary.

Wilson said he did not want a government running the country that denied what many saw with their own eyes.

“Flipping the House and the Senate are critical to changing the direction of the government,” he said.

A 1994 graduate of Ohio University with a degree in mechanical engineering, Wilson has worked for a supplier to Honda, run a restaurant, managed the Lowe’s in Vienna and been the general service manager at a lawn and equipment business in Pomeroy. He went to work at the learning lab in March 2023 and then earned his master’s degree in project management at OU. He’s now pursuing a bachelor’s degree in marine, freshwater and environmental biology.

Wilson said he’s researching ways to address the “ever-growing” wealth disparity in the country.

“The hoarding of wealth by such a small percentage … it’s preventing us from accomplishing the goals we need to accomplish,” he said.

Addressing that can affect other issues like education, health care and environmental concerns, Wilson said. The latter should be important to folks in rural communities that depend on hunting, fishing and farming, he said.

“Those things are threatened by things like data centers and fracking,” Wilson said.

Wilson said he wants to see people united as Americans more so than members of the Democratic or Republican parties.

“For me, that is a goal that we need to achieve in this country to accomplish anything,” he said. “We almost can’t communicate with each other in a civil way.”

Wilson added that the focus of elected leaders should be serving those they represent.

“We have too many leaders in Congress (trying) to accomplish selfish goals rather than goals for their constituents,” he said.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.