Paul Kurtz

Why we endorsed Paul

Paul Kurtz was born in Sandusky and grew up in a trailer park. His mother taught music and his father was a county police officer, and when his mother got sick the medical bills nearly bankrupted the family. After college he worked two jobs to cover rent and student loans. Over the next two decades he climbed to senior leadership at a publicly traded company, where he has negotiated multimillion-dollar deals and led teams through a recession, a pandemic, and trade wars. He serves on the board of the Kids In Need Foundation, the national nonprofit that puts free school supplies into the country's most underserved classrooms.

He calls himself an accidental activist, and the record backs it up. As an organizer with 50501, he stood at the microphone at rallies and named the attacks on LGBTQ+ Ohioans, and on trans Ohioans in particular, out loud and on video. In his business role he built a partnership with the It Gets Better Project that put school supplies on the shelves of major retailers with a share of every sale going to an organization that exists to lift up LGBTQ+ youth. That is what moved our Screening Committee. He was showing up for this community before he was asking for its vote.

In the House, Kurtz has committed to vote against every anti-LGBTQ+ bill, without exception. His three pro-equality priorities are the Ohio Fairness Act, so no Ohioan can be fired or denied housing because of who they are, restoring access to gender-affirming care, and protecting LGBTQ+ students by ending forced-outing policies and the censorship of LGBTQ+ books. He supports a statewide conversion therapy ban and puts it plainly: the legislature should be passing bills that support Ohioans, not bills that seek to harm them.

He is running the campaign the way this district needs it run. Alongside Dr. Cara Jacob, our endorsed candidate for Ohio Senate District 7, he is knocking thousands of doors across suburban and rural Warren County with a message about working families, property taxes, and public schools. What he hears at those doors, from voters of every political stripe, is that the Statehouse's fixation on bullying marginalized people is a distraction from the problems that actually matter.

The incumbent, Rep. Michelle Teska, voted for the drag ban in House Bill 249 and scores 10 out of 100 on the Ohio Pride legislative scorecard. Kurtz's faith leads him to a simple belief: dignity and safety belong to everyone, no matter who you are or where you come from. House District 55 deserves a representative who governs that way.

His record

• Committed to voting against every anti-LGBTQ+ bill, without exception
• Committed to the Ohio Fairness Act and a statewide conversion therapy ban
• Committed to restoring access to gender-affirming care
• Spoke out against attacks on LGBTQ+ and trans Ohioans as a 50501 rally organizer
• Led a corporate partnership with the It Gets Better Project
• Board member, Kids In Need Foundation
• Two decades in business, now in senior leadership at a publicly traded company