Election 2024: 4th Senate District race sees incumbent challenged by 2

The election starts in earnest on Wednesday, Feb. 21, when early voting begins in Ohio. There is still time to register to vote ― which can be done online now at VoteOhio.gov or by Tuesday’s deadline at your local county board of elections. The Butler County Board of Elections is open as late as 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

George Lang

Lang is seeking a second term representing most of Butler County (Wayne and Milford townships, and the city of Trenton are represented by the 5th Senate District). His business-first approach in Columbus, he said, has been a reason why Ohio is a top state for businesses. He said he’s championed a large tax cut in the last budget, including eliminating the Ohio Commercial Activity Tax for small businesses, representing more than 90% of all Ohio businesses. It won’t start until 2025.

He’s also working on eliminating the income tax altogether as one of the lead Senators, “and I am confident that I will have a bill put in place next year that will get passed, but it will take a couple more years after that to get it fully implemented, and I just want to see that through.”

Lang said Butler County benefits from him staying in office.

“As we continue to reduce regulations, Butler County is in a better position than any other county to attract businesses,” he said. “Businesses are coming here for the business environment that we have ... We have the lowest taxes, we have the lowest sales tax. It’s one of the reasons Butler County has been leading the state before the Intel project.”

Lang said he has “been taking the lead in the whole property tax fiasco” happening in Ohio and said he wants “to see that through.”

“We can’t afford to have our senior seniors on a fixed income be priced out of their homes because their property taxes are going up,” he said. “That’s what’s happening in Ohio right now. Even though the state doesn’t get any property taxes ― it all stays local ― there are still some things we can do at the state level to mitigate the increases, especially as it relates to senior citizens on a fixed income.”

Another priority he wants to address is continuing to reduce regulations.

“I call it the Butler County model. I want to continue to reduce debt at the state level, continue to reduce expenses, and continue to reduce regulations and taxes,” he said. “And look, it’s working. Businesses are coming back to Ohio at a pace they haven’t been doing since 1940.”

Candice Keller

Keller, of Middletown, said she hadn’t planned on running against Lang again ― she and West Chester Twp. Trustee Lee Wong lost to Lang in the 2020 Ohio Senate GOP primary ― but it was his backing of Senate Bill 132 in September that changed her mind. He is the only Republican to co-sponsor that bill.

S.B. 132 is known as the Ohio Fairness Act, which would specify any provision in the Ohio Revised Code respecting discrimination on the basis of “sex” including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

Keller said this bill “literally puts men in little girls’ bathrooms,” and after calling his office with no response and being ignored, she decided to join the race because “enough is enough.”

“I didn’t think I was going to run again,” she said. “When you hang red meat in front of me, I’m all over that.”

Beyond being against bills like S.B. 132, which has not yet received a hearing in the Senate Government Oversight Committee, Keller said she would focus on the substantial increase in property taxes, and the increases in electric costs.

“My electric bill tripled,” over the past month, she said. “And I’m reading online that everyone I know is having these issues.” She’s planning a community meeting and calling in some legislators and city officials to find out how they’re going to assist people between rising electric costs and real estate taxes.

Keller would also continue to fight against State Issue 1, which has been codified but abortion litigation continues in the Ohio Supreme Court, specifically the 2019 heartbeat law that Keller helped champion when she was in the Ohio House.

She was critical of tens of millions of dollars funneled into Ohio to push the issue by people “who have no interest in the welfare of the people of Ohio.”

Keller said she is willing to debate Lang “anytime.”

“I cannot wait to debate George,” she said. “I am not afraid to confront George Lang on his record or mine. Not at all. I’m very anxious to debate him on all of these things.”

Mark Morgan

Mark Morgan had spent many years in the Washington, D.C. area, away from his hometown, he moved back home several years ago and is ready to make a difference.

He left Butler County after college at Miami University, taking a job with the Maryland Republican Party under then-chairman Michael Steele, who later became chair of the RNC. Eventually, he took a few shots at public office, losing a bid for a Washington D.C. City Council seat, but then winning a term on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission.

But the reason he moved back to Ohio in 2018 was due to his son’s death. Marine Sgt. Mark Morgan Jr., 24, was killed by a drunk driver in California, and he wanted to be close to family following that tragedy.

Morgan’s been active in community organizations, such as the NAACP, and manages four Planet Fitness gyms in Butler County. He’s been inspired to seek Ohio’s 4th Senate District because of the people in the community, and has knocked on thousands of doors in the Ohio Senate district.

“But I always wanted to encourage people to look at who’s representing you here at home. To know your state representatives or state senators, your governor, who are your city council members or school board members, because those individuals have a direct impact on your life,” he said.

He said people he’s talked with often don’t know the name of their state senator.

And the property tax issue is of great concern for many of the members at his gyms, who are seniors and politically knowledgeable.

“They’re very fluent in local politics, and they were very concerned about this property tax increase,” he said.

He is running because he knows his grandfather “would not want me to sit on the sidelines.”

“This legislature, this outgoing legislature, has probably been the most insignificant state legislatures that we’ve ever had in Ohio,” Morgan said. “They’ve done absolutely nothing.”

Seniors on low and fixed incomes are likely impacted the most, Morgan said, “and it didn’t seem as if Mr. Lang or anyone on the Republican side really wants to win the fight for seniors or low-income residents.”

“We’re already dealing with increasing inflation. We’re already dealing with gas prices that are high,” Morgan said, adding that Lang and the other elected Republicans “should have done more to stand up for senior citizens, and they’ve done absolutely nothing.”