Zach Stepp, 24

24-year-old Zach Stepp is vying to being the youngest member of the Republican-held Ohio State House. He’s aiming to not only flip District 55, but create a bold new vision to reinvigorate his state by empowering Ohio's young people.

Name: Zach Stepp
Age: 24
Running For: Ohio State House of Representatives (District 55)

What was the best piece of advice you received before running for office?

You always have to act the part. Play the role that you want to be. If you're out knocking doors or speaking at an event, you always need to look the part and have the demeanor where someone can see you in that role. I think especially as a young person, if you are not always dressed well or not at your tip top shape, people will dismiss you as not serious. People will assume that you're unprepared for the task. 

I feel with older candidates, you can get away with not wearing a tie at your fundraiser. You're just being casual. If you're a young person, it says you don't care enough. If you look older, if you have a little bit of gray in your hair, you can get away with not always acting the part. You can hold a beer and an event and have it not be a big deal. But if you're a young candidate, you're definitely held to a different standard. 

Know that people are always looking at you and making assumptions about you. You just need to always be thinking about the perception of yourself as a candidate. I think everyone needs to do that. And I think even more so for women candidates. We have all these inherent biases, whether people realize it or not. And I think as a young man running for office, I certainly have fewer of those. Being a young white man, I have even fewer. Know that when people see you, they immediately make judgments about you and the way that you're supposed to be acting. As a candidate for any office, regardless of your background, know what those are. And unfortunately, you need to take that into consideration with the way that you're presenting yourself. 

You're a 24-year-old running for Ohio State House, which if elected, would make you the youngest person in the legislature. As a young person, did you find the prospect of running daunting? What convinced you that you could do this?

One of the early conversations I had early on was with Bride Sweeney. She's currently the youngest member of the Ohio State House. Early on when I was still considering this, she was the first person that I reached out to. Up until that point, I already had conversations with some local people. I knew I could run a good campaign. I was pretty confident I could raise the money. 

“Just seeing another young person doing it I think is really important. Being able to have access and talk to those people is important - to show you can get out there and do it.”

But all of that is not important if I don't actually want the job, so just kind of asked her point-blank, "Hey Bride, you're the youngest person there right now. Do you actually enjoy the job? Do you like what you do every day?" She was pretty instrumental for me in saying something along the lines of: ‘Yes, this is a really amazing job, the best job I've ever had. I love getting to advocate for my neighbors and my community where I grew up.’

Just seeing another young person doing it I think is really important. Being able to have access and talk to those people is important - to show you can get out there and do it. When I eventually get there, I want to be a resource for other young people taking a risk and going for something big.

What perspectives do you think are missing in the Ohio State House? What perspectives do you hope to bring?

I disagree with the way people down in Columbus think about short term and long term objectives of what we're trying to achieve down at the State House as Democrats. We think so much about just the short term and what we're trying to achieve in a single election cycle. When you look at what Ohio House Democrats are trying to achieve, it's all about breaking the supermajority. That's how bad it is here in Ohio. We are in the super minority. We have absolutely no power. We are not at the table more often than not. They don't need a single Democrat to vote for anything that happens down in Columbus. It's pretty demoralizing when you think about it. 

The reason that I all ultimately decided to go for this is because I don't think there are many people that have a long term vision for what we can try to achieve as Democrats in the State House. It's not just about picking up one seat here, one seat there. There’s no way we're going to be able to actually make progress on things like climate change, equitable school funding,  making sure that people aren't graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt from Ohio’s public universities - the things that are affecting young people - because there is no political will in the Republican Party to touch any of that. 

To be honest with you, me flipping this one seat is only a step in the right direction. But overnight, we're not going to be able to make progress on anything, because we're still not going to be even close to the majority. So it's not just about advocating for specific issues. It's about helping recruit other young people that can win in places that Trump won, helping recruit people that can win in the changing suburbs. 

Leaning into that, as you’ve mentioned, even if you win you are still in the superminority. So how do you hope to build power and make change as a legislator in a system where you don’t have a stronghold? 

We have to win the messaging war. This election cycle is all about which party has a winning message, and I’m banking on a hopeful message of generational change that can catapult my candidacy over the finish line. But in order to do that, we’ve got to talk to people where they’re at. 

Just being back home in Ohio and talking to working class people on a daily basis, and having parents who didn’t have much when I was growing up, I can marginally understand where people are coming from when they take a chance on a conman like Donald Trump. It's hard and it's demoralizing to see good-paying jobs day after day disappear. Down the street from where I live right now is US Steel, which used to employ thousands and thousands of people just last week, and they closed their doors to the last couple hundred people that work there. I just spoke at their union a couple of weeks ago and all those workers are out of jobs right now in the height of a very uncertain pandemic. It's hard to not empathize with those people. They have politicians like me coming in trying to say, “We're going to go fight for you” and then they come back and nothing happens. 

But I think there's a big advantage to being a young person, especially in this time because you're not someone that looks like or acts like the people that have been coming to them. You are a new person. You have a clean slate being a young person. I think a big part of it is building up a Democratic bench of people that we can see taking back some of these seats. I think one way we can do that in Ohio is trying to bring people back to the state. Trying to find other young people because I know I'm not the only one. 

There are so many people that grew up in Ohio, but they found opportunities in Chicago or New York or California because there weren't the jobs here. Everyone in this community either has a grandkid, a son or daughter, relative, just people that have moved away. I think it's a winning issue talking about the fact that more young people are leaving the state every single day. 

There’s an appetite for people to come back because people do want to. I want Ohio to be a place that I want to live. I want it to be a place that I'm excited to raise a family and I see to be on the upswing. 

“We need more smart, energetic, young people to throw themselves especially at the State House seats and City Council seats. If you don't believe me, go look at the people that are there now.”

Let's not get stuck in like all these nuanced policy ideas. Because the bottom line is we're trying to make this a place that young people want to live and it's a good economic message because it used to be the case if you invest in infrastructure the jobs will come. That's the Ohio model. But in the 21st century, that is not at all what the companies with the jobs are looking for. They're looking for good qualified people. Do you have the educated workforce that can fill these jobs? Companies have no interest in moving to a state where you're not investing in good, higher education, where you don't have a good young workforce looking for jobs, if they're gonna have to import their entire workforce, why would they move a big headquarters to a place like Cleveland. It’s those big movements and those big investments that we're gonna have to see if we want to revitalize a state like Ohio.

What is the best piece of advice you'd give to another young Dem looking to run for office?

Go for it. We need more smart, energetic, young people to throw themselves especially at the State House seats and City Council seats. If you don't believe me, go look at the people that are there now. Go take a hard look at your local elected officials and at your state representative. Look at some of the people that are in those positions and then try to come back to me and tell me that you cannot do as well or better than them. There are so many people in the Ohio legislature that should not be there. They are so utterly unqualified or bigoted that they have no business serving in an elected official role. I think that that should be all of the motivation in the world to see that. You shouldn't be mad. It shouldn't make you just hate politics or make you just feel disillusioned. It should get you excited at the tremendous opportunity that exists to make that change.

The views expressed in this interview are those of the candidate, and do not reflect the beliefs and views of Ballot Breakers or its staff.