Republican Sandra O’Brien, seeking her second four-year term in the Ohio Senate, squares off against Democrat Michael Shrodek, a retired school teacher, in the Nov. 5 election.

Early voting starts Oct. 8.

The 32nd Senate District includes all of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties and most of Geauga County. The district favors Republicans by about 10.5% based on partisan statewide voting results during the past decade.

O’Brien, R-Lenox, beat state Rep. Mike Loychik of Bazetta in a bitter Republican primary that saw the Republican Senate Campaign Committee give $452,587 in in-kind contributions to her campaign. O’Brien received 63.8% of the vote in the March 19 primary.

Shrodek of Warren ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

O’Brien was elected to the state Senate seat in 2020. Before that, she spent 12 years as Ashtabula County auditor.

O’Brien said if reelected, she would continue to focus on bringing tax dollars to the district and on restructuring Ohio’s educational system.

O’Brien was able to convince her fellow Republican state senators to restore $3 million to the state budget last year to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport that is being used to leverage greater federal dollars for needed improvements.

O’Brien also got the Ohio Department of Transportation to permit the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office to use 5,000 tons of recycled asphalt grindings to resurface the county fairgrounds, and secured money from the state capital budget to help Trumbull County.

O’Brien also sponsored a bill to provide state funding to students at any public, community or charter school. It was incorporated into last year’s state budget bill.

“My proudest accomplishment is now tax dollars follow the student,” said O’Brien, a former public school teacher before getting into politics.

O’Brien also wants to eliminate Ohio’s income tax. Republicans introduced legislation in January to eliminate the income and commercial activity taxes by 2030. They bring in $13 billion annually.

O’Brien said the state has reduced the number of tax brackets and is financially sound.

“If we got rid of the income tax more people would move to Ohio,” she said. “If you attract more people, they spend more.”

Shrodek spent 36 years as a public school teacher, most of it in the Niles school district.

“In Ohio, we must provide every student and teacher with the resources necessary to facilitate a quality public education,” Shrodek said. “We must ensure that legislators fulfill their promise to fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan,” a formula for public education funding.

Shrodek also wants voting districts to be fairly drawn “to ensure that voters choose their elected officials, not the other way around.”

Shrodek also wants to protect voters’ rights, reproductive health care and protect a woman’s right to choose, and safeguard collective bargaining rights for all Ohio workers.

Shrodek said the state “must spur economic growth and make resources available to train and upskill our workers to meet the demands of the 21st century employers.”

As part of that, Ohio needs to use state funds and seek federal dollars to rebuild roads, bridges and buildings in disrepair, as well as for clean energy, water, rail, public transportation, ports and waterways, he said.

There must be a focus, Shrodek said, “on public health and welfare by investing in both school and community-based services to address children’s physical and behavioral health needs as well as focusing on substance abuse disorder.”

Shrodek said that he pledges “to be accountable and transparent, to listen to the concerns of the citizens with an open and an earnest heart, to implement policies to improve the lives of my constituents and to always be mindful that public servants are empowered by the people to serve the people, not the other way around. I truly believe that policy should improve the lives of people, not grant unlimited power to lawmakers.”