Cara Jacob

Why we endorsed Cara

Cara Jacob spends her days with Ohioans whose lives are being reorganized by Parkinson's disease, dementia, and other neurodegenerative conditions. She is a neurologist at the University of Cincinnati, a mom of two raising her family in the northern Cincinnati suburbs, and a first-time candidate who reached a straightforward conclusion: if the Statehouse would not listen to doctors, a doctor should run for the Statehouse.

Her advocacy did not begin with this campaign, which is what moved our Screening Committee. Before she was a candidate she was a petition captain, twice over, for the Reproductive Freedom Amendment and for the SB 1 referendum. She has submitted written testimony against legislation moving through the General Assembly, including SB 113, the Senate DEI ban our tracker still lists as live in committee. That is a record of showing up for this fight in the chamber she is asking to join.

In the Senate she would be a vote for the Ohio Fairness Act, so that no Ohioan can be fired or denied housing because of who they are, for writing marriage equality into Ohio law, and for protecting access to the medical care Ohioans need, including gender-affirming care. On conversion therapy she is direct in the way only a clinician can be: a practice that is neither medically nor psychologically safe has no business being legal in Ohio.

She makes that case in the language this district actually speaks. Equality, she argues, is an economic issue. Ohio cannot afford to lose talented workers, entrepreneurs, and families because they do not feel welcome here, and protecting people from discrimination helps the state attract businesses and keep its workforce. She has knocked thousands of doors on that argument and says she has yet to meet a voter who turned away from her campaign because of it.

The stakes are not abstract. Sen. Steve Wilson is term-limited, so District 7 is an open seat, and it is one of the races that decides which direction the Ohio Senate turns. Cara is offering her neighbors a doctor's judgment, a parent's stake in the future, and a simple promise: healthcare decisions belong to patients and their doctors, and dignity belongs to everyone.

Her record

• Petition captain, Reproductive Freedom Amendment
• Petition captain, SB 1 referendum
• Submitted written testimony opposing SB 113 and SB 1
• Says she would have voted no on SB 1, SB 104 (bathroom ban), and HB 8 (Parents Bill of Rights)
• Committed to the Ohio Fairness Act (SB 70) and to marriage equality in Ohio law
• Committed to a conversion therapy ban and to protecting gender-affirming care
• Neurologist, University of Cincinnati