MOUNT VERNON — Mark Ramser has always attended the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner, but he was surprised to be called to the podium for Wednesday night’s event. In the minds of the Knox County Republican Party Central Committee, however, it was the perfect opportunity to honor the longtime member.
Chip McConville, chairman of the Central Committee, dubbed Ramser a “reliable gentleman” before announcing him as the 2018 Republican of the Year.
“He’s very involved in the community at large and he’s quietly and actively involved in our party,” McConville said. He noted that Ramser was a longtime member not only of the Central Committee, but also the Executive Committee.
“He’s always present. He’s always at events. He’s always at fundraisers. This is a guy you can rely on. He’s good-natured, he’s calm, he’s steady,” McConville said.
A humble Ramser was nearly speechless as he accepted his award. “I’m not quite sure what to say. I’m kind of surprised,” Ramser said. “I’m not really as involved as a lot of the folks in this room are in politics, but I do what I can.”
Ramser said he enjoyed being a part of the local Republican Party efforts, especially as a lifelong conservative. “I really do believe in the Republican philosophy,” Ramser added. “My family, my father and mother were conservative. That’s the way I grew up and I still believe the same way that I learned from them. I appreciate the fact that I live in a community that, in general, thinks the same way.”
The Lincoln-Reagan Dinner also featured Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who was filling in for Attorney General Mike DeWine. Husted is DeWine’s running mate as the current attorney general makes a bid for the Republican ticket for governor in the May 8 primaries.
“2018 could be a tough year,” Husted told the Knox County Republicans as he explained the reasoning behind the DeWine-Husted tandem. Before Husted elected to run alongside DeWine as Lt. Governor, he announced his candidacy for governor.
“What we would have done to each other is that we would have beaten each other up,” Husted said. “We would have been bloodied, bruised, and broke with only three months to try to raise all that money back before we had to go out and run another campaign. We just decided that it wasn’t about any one of us — it was about the mission we were supposed to serve on behalf of the Republican party to make sure that our conservative values were represented in the governor’s office.”
Husted said they needed to continue building an agenda that created a more prosperous future.
“There are a lot of people who don’t feel that the American dream is out there for them,” Husted said. “There is a little bit of a crisis in some pockets and we want to shine the light there. We want to shine the light there and help those people get ahead.”
Before that, Husted said, they needed to tackle three basic issues that have created roadblocks for Ohioans: a lack of 21st century job skills, the addiction crisis, and a welfare system that traps people in cycles of poverty.
“America is still the land of opportunity, it’s still home to the American dream — literally and figuratively, but we need to knock down some of the barriers that are standing in the way of people climbing that mountain,” Husted said.
A number of other candidates also spoke at the dinner, including current State Auditor Dave Yost, who is running for Attorney General; Mike Gibbons, a U.S. Senate candidate; Bob Gibbs, who is running for re-election as a congressman in Ohio’s 7th District; Senator Frank LaRose, a candidate for Secretary of State; Craig Baldwin, a judge currently on the 5th District Court of Appeals who is running for the Ohio Supreme Court; and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Mary DeGenaro, who is running for re-election.
