MOUNT VERNON — Democrat Vince McGrail and Republican Shawn Stevens are seeking the House District 61 seat in the Nov. 3 election.
The 61st District covers the eastern part of Knox County and the western part of Delaware County.
Republican Beth Lear currently holds the seat. She elected to run for the 19th District senate seat rather than seek re-election to the 61st.
Stevens, 51, describes himself as a conservative outsider who believes the interests of the 61st District take precedence over the state. He advocates for local control and calls for increased government accountability.
McGrail, 60, said the state and country have become too entrenched in partisan politics and that representatives are not working to solve problems for all of the district’s citizens.
The candidates responded to a Knox Pages questionnaire about their positions. Below are their responses.
Vince McGrail
Age: 60.
Education: Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from The Ohio State University.
Qualifications: Executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association in Central Ohio for 12 years. Led drive to increase awareness of early detection and diagnosis, provided care and support planning, and raised funds to drive research. Worked with Republican and Democrat senators to get a state Alzheimer’s plan passed into law.
Prior to the Alzheimer’s Association, worked in the development office at The Ohio State University for nearly 20 years as the senior director of Development Communications, overseeing annual giving, major gift communications, and other fundraising efforts.
What inspired you to run for state representative?
I realized that in the last decade, my children have only seen chaos, division and erosion of rights for themselves and for those they care about, and they did not feel as optimistic about the future as I did at their ages. They worry they will not be able to afford to buy a home, or afford healthcare for children one day, and the daily chaos of news left them feeling worried daily about the future of our country.
I had decided to retire from my role as a non-profit leader and I feel that each of us need to do more to help our country come together – to solve problems together. And I believe that starts at home, in our communities, and in our districts across the state.
I believe we need representatives who are working to solve problems, not build political careers, and score political points. Most solutions are not developed by one individual but through collaboration and understanding. I hope to work with others in the statehouse to find solutions for our Ohio families.
What immediate policy changes do you think the district needs?
First, rising property taxes need to be addressed. Over time, the state has decreased its funding of public schools, shifting the burden to property taxes as voters must pass local school levies to cover the funding gap.
In 2022, legislators passed the bi-partisan Fair School Funding Plan but have refused to fund it. It needs to be funded. Additionally, the growth of the school voucher program diverts state taxpayer dollars to fund private school vouchers.
Second, we need to hold on building new data centers until we understand the negative impact on electric costs, environmental impact on water systems, and residents have a say in where and if data centers are built in their community.
Third, we need to protect the coming cuts to Medicaid in 2027. More than 3 million Ohioans, nearly 1 in 4, depend on Medicaid, including 40% of all children in the state. These cuts are expected to purge up to 356,000 Ohioans from Medicaid; this will have a damaging impact on Ohio’s rural hospitals. We need a plan to control the damage this will cause to our residents.
Finally, the biggest challenge we have is an imbalance in elected officials. Our state has 99 house districts; there are currently 34 Democrat representatives and 64 Republicans. With gerrymandered districts, too many of our Ohio house, senate, and congressional districts are not competitive. This leads to representation that does not have the best interests of the voters as elected officials do not have the need to win and keep votes.
How will you protect Ohio’s water resources from data centers?
We need a full study on the impact of data centers on Ohio’s water resources. I would push for legislation to require closed-loop or non-evaporative cooling to sharply lower or eliminate daily freshwater consumption for data centers and ensure that any water returned meets standards set.
There may be better solutions as technology advances, but we need to understand the negative impact on our water resources and pass legislation to monitor and regulate that, making sure our water used in data centers is not degraded.
We also need to understand the demands on the power grid and push for companies building data centers to cover the cost on our grid so that homeowners are not impacted negatively by electric costs.
Very soon there will be discussions on the use of Small Modular Reactors attached to some data centers for power generation. Communities must be aware of this coming technology and any usage as it is developed and deployed.
What steps will you take to support small businesses and job creation in the district?
Small businesses drive our economy and are impacted negatively by the rising cost of health care and health care insurance. Former Republican Gov. John Kasich expanded Medicaid in Ohio to help provide reasonable health insurance coverage through the insurance marketplace developed by the Affordable Care Act.
Coming cuts to Medicaid will drastically cut health care insurance access and affordability for Ohio’s small businesses. We must work to reduce the financial costs to Ohio families for health coverage and push for a national plan for health care access.
What is your plan to provide day care relief for working families?
A starting point would be supporting the Working Families Tax Cut being proposed by gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton. It includes an Earned Income Credit that supports up to 775,000 working families and a child tax credit of $1,000 a year for children aged 0-6 and $500 for children aged 7-18 for families making up to $85,000 in annual income. Under her proposal, a married couple with two children earning $60,000 a year could receive an additional $1,778 in tax cuts, providing some relief for child care costs.
Which of your proposals needs money that is not currently there, and where would it come from?
I do not have specific proposals with attached costs for each of these issues. As one Ohio representative of 99 in the state and 33 state senators, I would be working as a part of a collective group to fight for state budgets and federal funding requests for issues that support Ohio’s working families.
We simply need to have a shift away from providing tax breaks to the very wealthy individuals and corporations and have them pay their fair share and make our state budgets work better for Ohio’s working families.
Name one specific plan you have to end the red vs. blue divisiveness
There is no simple solution for this, but it comes from a change in the culture in the communities and the statehouse that starts with the elected representative.
When this campaign began, my opponent and I agreed to not make personal attacks or involving our families. We have both followed this agreement.
If elected, it will come from meeting with constituents in the district on a regular basis to listen and hear concerns, which builds trust and shows respect. I will work to listen and have respectful conversations from those on the opposite side in the statehouse and finding those who want to work together to help Ohio families.
You state Ohio needs to prepare for the future growth of its senior population and keep those costs down. What’s your plan to lower utility costs for seniors?
When companies want to build a new data center in my district, I plan to make sure the community is aware of the conversation and that they have a say in what is moving forward. The same may be true for water usage in a community. If a project is to move forward, the company needs to pay its way.
What is your plan to protect Medicaid for seniors?
The One Big Beautiful Bill will have a damaging effect on our senior population. Two out of every three seniors in nursing home care rely on Medicaid. We must work with others in the house and the senate to find ways to minimize the damage that will be caused to seniors and children in our state.
Do you believe the universal school voucher system needs to be reformed or eliminated?
At the very least reformed and create accountability for spending tax dollars and review of outcomes the same as public schools. Public tax dollars should not go to fund private schools. There are five components to the current school voucher program.
My concern is with the EdChoice and EdChoice Expansion program, which supplies school vouchers to families in the amounts of $6,000 to $8,000 depending on grade level. About 90% of these vouchers go to families who were already sending their children to a private school and can afford to send their children to a private school.
The public schools, which educate roughly 88% of the children in Ohio, continue to have funding cuts and struggle to provide the education needed for all. Public schools are a very important central piece to our communities and need to be funded to the level required to educate our young people.
Campaign website: Vince McGrail for Ohio House District 61
Shawn Stevens
Age: 51.
Education: Bachelors degree in Economics from Miami University; Masters degree in Business Management (MBA) from Ohio State University.
Qualifications: 30 years experience in the private sector: banking, farming, and owner of a land title agency. County Board of Elections board member for 10 years. Former president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials. Former Director of Public Affairs for the Ohio Secretary of State.
What inspired you to run for state representative?
While I am a private business professional and cattle farmer, I have always had interest in public affairs and the political process. I served as a board member of the County Board of Elections for 10 years, and I feel that the office of state representative matches my skills and interests. I care deeply about the future of Ohio — for my kids and my community.
What immediate policy changes do you think the district needs?
We have more work to do regarding property tax reduction.
How will you protect Ohio’s water resources from data centers?
I would require data centers to use closed-loop water cooling systems and heavily monitor water releases back onto Ohio land.
What steps will you take to support small businesses and job creation in the district?
As a business owner, I understand the regulatory burden on Ohio’s businesses, especially Ohio’s small businesses like mine. We need to fix unemployment and workers compensation in order to make Ohio the most attractive place in America to headquarter your business.
What is your plan to provide day care relief for working families?
My success in life has been because I work hard, every day. I want to make sure all Ohioans have the access to whatever job they want to work. Sometimes struggling families need help paying for day care (it’s very expensive).
I will always support measures that assist Ohioans to go to work. This may be tax credits to offset costs, or perhaps encouraging employers to have onsite care.
Which of your proposals needs money that is not currently there, and where would it come from?
Everything discussed here (property tax relief, day care relief, education) requires funding from taxpayers. Since Ohio requires a balanced budget (thankfully), we either need to cut spending or increase tax revenue from some source.
I would look first to DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) Ohio. We need to radically shrink the state government using technology, innovation, and better management. I will not support any tax increase.
How do you plan to restore local control over development?
We need to strengthen Ohio’s home rule powers of local self-governing. Specifically, the state should partner with townships to help with zoning. I support the state offering townships help putting together their comprehensive plans.
During your primary campaign, you said shrinking the size and scope of government is one way to counteract revenue lost to reduced property taxes. What would you cut first and why?
Every department of the state government needs to be audited for waste, fraud and abuse. If residents of this House district are asked to pay more at every turn, we owe it to them to make every dollar count more than ever. There is no one place to cut.
We need to cut every agency, every department and use technology to run a state-of-the art government with much smaller staffs.
Do you believe the universal school voucher system needs to be reformed or eliminated?
I support effective education of all varieties. Vouchers play an important role in allowing less advantaged Ohio children to receive adequate education when the school district they live in are failing.
We also need to be responsible with our tax dollars, and where there are charter schools that are not meeting standards, we should cut funding to them.
How do you prioritize which policies to focus on during your term?
If I am blessed to be elected, I will prioritize the needs of the residents of the 61st House district with every decision I make. I believe in tackling the toughest issues first, the ones with the largest impact. That means: property taxes, education, and eliminating fraud.
Campaign website: Vote Shawn Stevens for State Representative
