The Warren County Democratic Party (WCDP) expressed its disappointment as Issue 7, a millage issue for the Warren County Career Center, fell short of passage in the March primary on Tuesday.

Warren County Democratic Party chair Kelly Sakalas noted the substantial investment from the WCDP in favor of the millage, which also fell short in the November 2023 general election.

After endorsing the issue, WCDP sent postcards to 6,300 Democratic and Democratic-leaning households in the school districts served by the Career Center, urging them to go to the polls to vote yes on Issue 7 despite the fact that there weren’t any major primary races on the Democratic side.

But contested Republican primaries driving up turnout among the GOP’s far-right base created a deficit that Democratic and independent voters weren’t able to overcome.

“Let’s be clear: Ordinary working families in Warren County just missed out on a great opportunity because of the extreme anti-public education agenda of the Republican Party,” noted Sakalas.

On March 19, 2024, Warren County voters will go to the polls to vote in the March primary election. (Click here for more information about how to register and vote in the March primary.) Democrats don’t have any contested seats in the March primary, but there is an important ballot initiative for much of Warren County to build a new secondary campus for the Warren County Career Center (WCCC).

One of the Democratic Party’s top priorities is to open up opportunities for all Americans to find not just jobs but careers that will pay well, offer benefits and stability, and provide everyone with the chance to support themselves and their families.

A new analysis by the Warren County Democratic Party of voting data in the November 2023 election has found that Republican state representative Adam Mathews (HD-56) is vulnerable on the issue of reproductive rights.

The analysis, based on unofficial precinct-level voting data from the Warren County Board of Elections, found that voters in Mathews’s district supported Issue 1, the reproductive rights amendment, by a 53%-47% margin.

Deerfield Township and Mason in particular are pro-choice hotbeds, with the vast majority of precincts in the southwestern corner of Warren County solidly supporting reproductive rights.

Last night was a great night to be a Democrat!

The reproductive rights amendment passed in Ohio by a huge 57%-43% margin! Our right to abortion, contraception, fertility care, and miscarriage care will be enshrined in our state constitution, where far-right gerrymandered legislators can’t touch it.

LEBANON, OHIO, AUGUST 17 – At their meeting on Wednesday night at the Warren County Administration Building, the Executive Committee of the Warren County Democratic Party elected Kelly Sakalas as their new county party chair, as outgoing chair Bethe Goldenfield is retiring after decades of service to the party.

“I’m deeply honored to have been chosen as your new chair,” remarked Sakalas.

The Warren County Democratic Party and Butler County Democratic Party announced on Wednesday that they have collected over 10,000 petition signatures to put the Reproductive Rights Amendment on the November ballot, significantly exceeding their counties’ respective goals.

Warren County reported collecting over 6,000 signatures — more than doubling their initial goal of 3,000 — and Butler County reported over 4,000 signatures, exceeding their county’s goals as well.

A quick update on our progress gathering signatures for the reproductive freedom amendment: As of yesterday, we’ve officially met our minimum goal of 3,000 signatures! We’ve still got a month or so to go, so we’re going to keep gathering signatures in pursuit of our stretch goal of 6,000 signatures.

A huge thank you to our regional team leads, our data team, our petition circulators, and especially to everyone who has signed so far!

If you haven’t had the chance to sign the petition yet, you can drop in at WCDP HQ (1231 Columbus Ave., Lebanon) on Saturdays 10-4 or Sundays 1-4 to sign.

In case you missed the news yesterday, the Ohio GOP is so desperate to cancel our basic freedoms that they’ve called a special election on August 8 to try to ram through new restrictions on constitutional amendments that would make it all but impossible for We The People to serve as a check on our gerrymandered, far-right state legislature.

On Sunday, we were proud to be one of the sites to collect the initial set of signatures for the Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety amendment to go on the ballot in 2023. We collected 120 signatures at our county party headquarters, and today the coalition announced that they’ve gathered the required 1,000 signatures to file the amendment paperwork with the state’s attorney general!

Thank you to everyone who helped out with the event and everyone who signed the petition.

Last week, the WCDP Women’s Group relaunched with a Valentine’s Day donation to Safe on Main (formerly ARCS).

Due to all the generous and caring WCDP Women’s Group members who supported Safe on Main’s residents and clients, we were able to donate about $1,150 to Safe on Main along with our personalized Valentine’s cards!

Thank you to our “artistic director” Diana Contario, for creating this beautiful basket to deliver our cards, and to everyone who joined us and contributed to make this relaunch a success!