Voters in 8th Congressional District to decide between familiar candidates

Voters in Ohio’s 8th Congressional District will decide between the same two candidates for the fourth election in a row this year.

Democrat Vanessa Enoch is once again running against incumbent Republican Warren Davidson for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans currently hold a thin majority in the House, and an upset in a seat the party views as safe could tip the balance.

Warren Davidson

Party: Republican

Campaign website: www.davidsonforcongress.com 

After multiple attempts to reach Davidson, a campaign staffer for Davidson told the Oxford Free Press he was “waiting for confirmation” regarding an interview. Davidson did not ultimately make time for an interview in time for publication.

Davidson has represented Ohio’s 8th Congressional District since 2016. During the state’s redistricting process in 2022, Davidson’s district was redrawn to exclude Miami and Clark Counties and include the western portion of Hamilton County.

Davidson’s campaign website includes information on seven issues: immigration, right to life, Second Amendment, religious liberty, national security, economy and healthcare. He lists national debt and government spending, protecting the constitution and national security as his top priorities.

On immigration, Davidson’s website states that he is opposed to “quick-fixes like granting amnesty to people who’ve illegally entered the country” and that the Census should be limited to U.S. citizens only to decide representation and federal funding. 

In the House, Davidson serves on the Financial Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee. He was previously a member of the House Freedom Caucus, one of the most conservative groups in D.C., but was ousted in July 2024 after endorsing a primary challenger to the Freedom Caucus Chairman.

According to the Congressional legislation tracker, Davidson has never been the primary sponsor for any bills that have passed. Of the nearly 700 bills Davidson has cosponsored, 32 have become law.

This September, Davidson introduced the “Brave Act,” a bill which would extend military tax exclusions to all non-permanently deployed service members abroad, rather than just those in combat zones. Davidson, a veteran, enlisted in the Army after graduating high school and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall while stationed in Germany.

Davidson voted with 138 other House Republicans not to certify the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

Vanessa Enoch

Party: Democrat

Campaign website: www.enochforcongress.com/

Enoch, a business and policy consultant, has been running against Davidson since 2018, and this is her fourth election as the Democratic candidate for the 8th District.

Enoch owns a consulting firm and has previously worked in a variety of roles, including in nonprofit management, as a federal employee for the Small Business Administration and teaching at various colleges. She began to run her own business full-time in 2014.

When Enoch decided to run for Congress in 2018, she said it was after reading a story about older white men in government deciding the fate of women’s healthcare, particularly reproductive issues.

“To me, it spoke to the need for representation, and I quickly understood that the people in that room were there to benefit themselves,” Enoch said. “That was just concerning to me, and that caused me to research and figure out who was in Congress … and so I just really wanted to ensure that we had real representation.”

In 2022, Enoch won 35% of the vote in the 8th District, and national organizations like The New York Times do not list the seat as a competitive race this year. Still, Enoch said the race is different this year. She pointed to the recent redistricting efforts in the state, which she said set her back in getting to know the district’s constituents. Now that she’s run one campaign under the current map, she feels better positioned for this election.

“As I’ve been out there, I’ve increased my popularity,” Enoch said. “People know me, they’ve vetted me, they voted for me, and so we anticipate that this year, my vote count will only continue to rise.”

Enoch identified her top three priorities as healthcare and women’s reproductive rights, economic development and immigration policy.

Davidson voted against the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, both of which Enoch said she would have supported to bring more jobs to Ohio. Davidson referred to the Inflation Reduction Act as a partisan spending bill after voting against it. Enoch said said she would support spending bills which bring manufacturing jobs to her district if elected.

Enoch tied immigration to foreign policy and said in order to address the root cause of illegal immigration, the U.S. needs to do more to support other countries so that their citizens don’t feel the need to migrate.

“Those folks are escaping war zones and unrest in their own countries,” Enoch said. “... There’s immigrants coming from all over the place to seek asylum, and I think that we need to look at policies that provide for good diplomatic relations in other countries.”

Foreign aid to other countries has become increasingly contentious in the past two years as the U.S. has provided aid to Ukraine and Israel, both of which are at war. If the U.S. doesn’t address the unrest that causes people to move to the country, though, Enoch said the increasing number of immigrants will put strain on local communities.

Enoch said she would also like to encourage more conversations about the benefits of immigration, particularly in filling jobs at businesses which may be struggling to hire.

Election Day is Nov. 5. In Ohio, the polls will open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. for voters who opt not to vote by mail or vote early.