Free School Lunch, a Livable Wage, and Universal Care: Can Daquan Neal Bring Progressive Policy to Ohio's Statehouse?
About this episode
Daquan Neal discusses his campaign for the Ohio Statehouse and his progressive policy proposals.
What does it take for a young, progressive Democrat to run for the Ohio Statehouse in a district that leans Republican? This week on the Purple Political Breakdown, Ohio Edition, I sit down with Daquan Neal, the Democratic nominee for Ohio House District 39, covering Northern Montgomery County and the Dayton area: Vandalia, Englewood, Huber Heights, Clayton, Northridge, Fort McKinley, Harrison Township, and Butler Township. Daquan is 30 years old, a Central State University graduate, and a former staffer in both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly. He won his May 2026 Democratic primary and is running under the slogan "Our Time Is Now." We get into his core argument that Ohio is not a red state so much as a non-voting state, with more unaffiliated voters than registered Democrats and Republicans in his district, and what it would take to actually turn those voters out. From there we break down his policy stack: a state public option as a first step toward universal health care, a percentage-based "livable wage" built on the MIT Living Wage Calculator with price-gouging protections attached, a progressive marginal income tax to replace Ohio's new flat tax, and the bill he says…
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