Two pastors face off in state house district representing Oxford, Hamilton

Two pastors are campaigning to represent Oxford and Hamilton in the Ohio House of Representatives this year.

Republican Diane Mullins successfully defeated Sara Carruthers, incumbent representative for the 47th District, in a primary this March, earning her party’s nomination. Mullins is facing Vanessa Cummings, a Democrat and Oxford resident seeking election in the reliably Republican district.

Vanessa Cummings

Party: Democrat

Campaign website: www.supportcummings.com 

Cummings, an Oxford resident since age 3, is a pastor at Payne Chapel AME Church in Hamilton and vice-president of the Oxford NAACP Chapter. She previously served on Oxford City Council, which holds nonpartisan elections, from 1994 until 2000, including as the city’s vice-mayor. Countywide, Cummings also serves on the  Butler County Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Services Board.

While Cummings was raised in Oxford, she has lived elsewhere, too. In 2017 and 2018, while working as a pastor in Hardin County, Ohio, she helped to form Hardin County Talks, a community organization focused on fostering discussions on issues facing the community.

Cummings is running in a solidly conservative district. In the 2022 election, Carruthers won comfortably with almost 65% of the votes. Still, Cummings said she’s running to win and highlighted her experience encouraging bipartisan conversations. With Hardin County Talks, for example, Cummings helped organize a candidate forum in which every candidate in the county from both parties except for the sitting congressman took part.

Within the Ohio House, Cummings said she would not focus on which party bills originate from, instead prioritizing the substance of the proposals. Republicans currently have a strong majority in the state legislature with 67 of the 99 House seats, so Democrats looking to pass legislation must get bipartisan support.

“I’m not going to walk in with a big D across my chest that says, ‘I’m here to tow this line, and you’re there to tow your line, and we’re gonna stay divided,’” Cummings said.

Cummings said her top priorities include public education, healthcare access and economic development. She highlighted her goal to provide access to quality education to all Ohioans regardless of socioeconomic status and said public education should be free of political rhetoric, teaching students the positive and negative sides of American history.

In terms of healthcare, Cummings said providing access to affordable medication can save individuals and insurance companies money in the long run by keeping people healthy rather than waiting to treat symptoms of common ailments like respiratory diseases and diabetes. 

Cummings also supports maintaining abortion access and keeping discussions about care for transgender Ohioans between individuals and their doctors.

“When you’re talking about children and making decisions for children and their families, no family should ever have to be in the position of having to ask the politicians what discussions and what decisions they need to make as far as their children getting counseling, getting therapy, getting medical care,” Cummings said.

While serving on Oxford City Council  in the ’90s, Cummings helped form Oxford’s Housing Advisory Commission and applied for a $500,000 grant to assist first-time homebuyers and people facing emergency repair costs. At a state level, she said providing similar resources for people would help to stimulate the economy and generate a bigger tax base for local communities.

Cummings and her opponent are both pastors, but Cummings said she supports the separation of church and state. While her faith informs how she treats people, Cummings said she is “not going to the State House to legislate my beliefs.”

Diane Mullins

Party: Republican

Campaign Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/VoteDianeMullins 

Mullins, a co-pastor at Calvary Church with her husband, first ran for office in 2020 and lost her primary to Thomas Hall. This year, she successfully ran a primary campaign against Republican incumbent Sara Carruthers, who voted with 21 other Republicans and every House Democrat to appoint moderate Republican Jason Stephens as the Ohio House Speaker. The move blocked Derek Merrin, who had won the support of House Republicans, from becoming speaker over concerns that he would be more partisan in the role.

Following that vote, Carruthers and the other Republicans who backed Stephens were dubbed “The Blue 22.” Mullins described Carruthers as a RINO — Republican In Name Only — during the primary. Despite that, Mullins said she’s ready to sit down and listen to those she disagrees with as an elected official.

Mullins said she doesn’t understand why people who disagree with one another become enemies, but she added that she would not step across party lines on a vote if the rest of her Republican peers disagreed. “I’m a conservative Republican,” she said, “and if an issue is good enough for me to vote with Democrats, then all Republicans are going to be voting with Democrats.”

Like Cummings, Mullins said her faith has shaped her approach in life. As she moves into politics, Mullins said her motivations are similar to her goals as a pastor to help people live their best lives.

Mullins highlighted three priorities she would focus on if elected to represent Oxford and Hamilton: supporting small businesses, protecting the lives of mothers and babies, and maintaining parental rights in schools.

To help small businesses grow, Mullins said she would focus on state-level deregulation efforts and tax cuts which she says would help businesses flourish. She also said the state should “never be allowed to close down business again,” referencing lockdowns at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I believe that strong businesses create strong families,” Mullins said, “and strong families create strong communities.”

Mullins, who is anti-abortion, said she would need to “see what I can do” once elected regarding reproductive rights. She acknowledged that voters chose to preserve abortion access in the state constitution in 2023 but said she needs to better understand how the constitutional amendment works before determining how to carry out her priority of protecting all life.

In terms of parental rights, Mullins said parents should know if their children receive medication at school and that the state needs to “keep boys out of girls sports” and girls restrooms. If children are comfortable discussing LGBTQ identities at school but not at home, Mullins said, the parents still have a right to know. Ohio’s House Bill 68 bans transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports at school.

“If they go to someone at school, the school should bring the parents in and talk to them and let them know this is how you’re child’s feeling,” Mullins said. “But the parent should not be forced to do anything like that … While they’re in the home, there needs to be communication.”

Early voting is already underway in Ohio. For more details on how to vote early, visit elections.bcohio.gov/how_do_i_vote_early. To check your polling location for Election Day, enter your address at elections.bcohio.gov/where_do_i_vote.