Emily Adams of Mansfield new Democratic candidate for 76th District state representative

Ohio state Rep. Marilyn John, R-Shelby, has some new competition in the Nov. 5 election.

Emily Adams of Mansfield on Monday night said she wants John's job and she wants to protect women's reproductive freedom.

She decided to jump into politics now because of Issue 1 and because the Democratic candidate jumped out.

"When the voters passed Issue 1 and the state Legislature started to work to stop that from coming to fruition I thought we have to have representatives who listen. So that's what I want to do," she said.

The 40-year-old Mansfield woman was elected by the Richland County Democratic Party's Central Committee to oppose John Nov. 5 for the 76th Ohio District state representative seat after candidate Alomar Davenport withdrew.

Adams told the crowd at the Democratic Headquarters on South Park Street that, as a newcomer to Mansfield from Missouri in January 2020, she became active as a volunteer and then a poll worker thanks to local Democrat Venita Shoulders, who also nominated her Monday night.

"I am mostly excited to get out to voters and hear about what's important to them," she said.

"As a transplant from St. Louis, Missouri, one of the first ways I started to get to know my new community (was) by coming here to the Democratic Women's Caucus and then I started volunteering as a canvasser and became a poll worker, and so that has been a great way to get to know my community and what's important to people here" she said.

In many ways, she said Ohio closely mirrors her home state of Missouri.

"Especially when it comes to our fight for democracy statewide," she said. "A Republican supermajority in the state Legislature has won the ability to crack and stack our districts to their liking.

"If you come for my rights, I'm coming for your job," Adams said to applause.

She holds a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the American University and a master's degree from Duke University. She started her career working for three years at a think tank in Washington, D.C., studying the transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy.

"One thing that was clear then and now, we have the technology and the resources to have a clean, stable grid. We just have not had the political will," Adams said. "The political will in Ohio for too long has been dictated by big money interests. And in fact the scandal around HB 6, that we all know about is not just a story of bribery and corruption, it's a story about stealing two of our most precious resources, time and trust.

More: Columbus utility giant AEP funded dark money spending in HB 6 campaign

"In the times since Ohio's renewable energy standards were frozen and then repealed in HB 6 we could have been putting investments into jobs here in Ohio. Clean, good-paying jobs for Ohio wind and Ohio solar. So when you just think about the time that we lost and what kind of investments and what kind of community we could have right now if we hadn't put big corporate interests over people," Adams said.

"And the break in public trust breaks my heart. The more we learn about the far reach of the HB 6 scandal, the more the public wants to disengage from politics. It's hard to pay close attention when there's so much bad news," Adams added.

There has been no new legislation to prevent scandals like HB 6 from happening again or even right now, she said.

"We need to force dark-money groups to disclose their donors and their spending," Adams said. "I'm running to serve the public, not dark-money masters."

She said she is interested in looking at local economic development and to find ways to have clean, stable, good-paying jobs for people here, she said.

She intends to defeat John by talking to and listening to voters.

"That's where the power really is, it's in the vote," Adams said. "I really mean it when I say I want to talk to as many people as possible. I know I am there for them and once they find that out I know they will be interested and want to vote for me."

Her message to independents is she wants to represent them in their interests.

"I'm not interested in ideology. I'm interested in values, and I care about protecting people and in protecting the environment and I care about a safe future for our families," she said.

Adams is an instructional assistant at Discovery School for the first grade in the morning and also teaches woods class in the afternoon. She is a member of the Mansfield Charter Review Commission.

She and her husband, Steve Hiltebeitel, have two children, Rapunzel, 9, and Teddy, 6. In her spare time she enjoys running, swimming and bicycling. She enjoys being part of a trivia team at The Phoenix.

lwhitmir@gannett.com

419-521-7223

X (formerly Twitter): @LWhitmir

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: New Democratic candidate Emily Adams will face Rep. Marilyn John