By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
With Thursday being Constitution Day, Brian Shaver spent the day teaching his students in Fostoria about the nation’s founding document. In the evening, he continued defending the document during a town hall meeting in Bowling Green.
Shaver, the Democratic candidate for Ohio’s Fifth Congressional District, believes Congress needs a refresher course on exactly what the Constitution says.
For starters, Congress needs to show up to work rather than continuing to lengthen their recesses, he said. Next, they need to fulfill their role of providing checks and balances on other branches of the federal government.
And, hitting on a sore spot for his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, Shaver said members of Congress need to meet with their constituents – and not just a select few.
As Shaver travels the nine counties in the Fifth Congressional District, he has heard from people who are tired of not being able to meet with their current congressman – who hasn’t held a town hall for more than a decade.
“They’re frustrated that they don’t get to see their elected official,” Shaver said.
So holding a town hall in Bowling Green – Latta’s backyard – held particular relish for the Democrat.
“You guys have been asking for a town hall since 2015,” Shaver said, adding that he has asked Latta’s office for an opportunity to debate. “We have not heard anything.”
Since he began campaigning in February, Shaver has put 36,000 miles on his pickup. Meanwhile, filling up his gas tank this week is likely to cost him $150, and putting food on the table continues to cost more.
“I blame 100% of the affordability crisis on the failure of Congress to do their job,” Shaver said to the audience of about 35 people who gathered at Grounds for Thought to meet the candidate.
Thursday’s town hall was the second public event held by Shaver in Bowling Green, the first being during his “Tacos and Transparency Tour” across the district in July.
Shaver was born and raised in Fostoria, where he still lives on a small family farm with his wife and daughter. He is the current president of Fostoria City Council and teaches social studies at Fostoria Junior/Senior High School, where he also serves as union president.
He advocates for reforms such as campaign finance reform, term limits, stronger checks and balances, transparency in legislation, and clear guardrails to prevent elected officials from profiting from their positions.
Shaver believes elected officials must put people before party, and should be committed to the three “A”s – affordability, accountability and availability.
During his town halls across the district, Shaver has heard from constituents disgruntled with their leaders. On Thursday, he heard from a college student looking for change in the national political climate.
“I’m 20 years old,” she said. “I’ve never known a non-polarized nation.”
Shaver said he, too, is troubled by the divisiveness.
“I believe the polarization is destroying this country,” he said.
The candidate fielded unvetted questions from others in the audience on education, labor, data centers, health care and more.
“We need to have pro-education candidates,” said Shaver, who has taught for 27 years. That means history and social studies curriculum should be designed by educators – not by politicians. That means the area of expertise for the national head of education should not be World Wrestling Entertainment.
The U.S. should not value weapons and bombs more than intelligence – “unless it’s artificial,” he said.
And education for people with disabilities should not be entrusted to U.S. Health and Human Services. “They can’t handle lettuce,” let alone educating people with special needs, he said.
Shaver also shared his belief that politicians have been going after public education teachers because they want to weaken unions. He cited propaganda campaigns that have been attacking unions and promoting “right to work” states.
“Right to work is a right to get fired for no reason,” he said.
When asked about AI, Shaver said he believes the experts who are warning the technology is moving too quickly. He noted the stat that 70% of Ohioans are against the way data centers are coming into the state. And he argued that data centers are not true economic development. Once construction is over, the centers will offer very few jobs, putting profit over people and the environment.
Shaver also shared some of his other priorities:
- Getting insurance companies out of doctors’ offices. Health care should not be dictated by insurance firms, he said.
- Cracking down on members of Congress making money on investments, “which is a violation of the Constitution.”
- Making real reforms of campaign finance reform.
- Passing bills for veterans that have been languishing in Congress.
- Working on single-issue bills, rather than throwing numerous unrelated issues into one piece of legislation.
- Fulfilling the Constitutional duty of providing checks and balances.
- Teaching the real U.S. Constitution – which gives every person living in this country the rights mentioned in the document, except for the two rights reserved for citizens – voting and running for office.
