AudioWith a proudly grassroots approach, Jesse Vogel is running a different type of campaign for Columbus City Council

Editor’s note: Jesse Vogel was one of the top two vote-getters in the May 6 primary and now advances to the November general election.

Jesse Vogel has a vision and wasted no time in acting on it.

The out LGBTQ+ candidate is running to represent District 7 on the Columbus City Council and launched his campaign shortly after the November election with as grassroots approach as possible.

“We ended up knocking on over 1,500 doors throughout our district,” said Vogel, a staff attorney at Community Refugee & Immigration Services.

That effort is paying off big time. Vogel turned in his campaign petition with hundreds more signatures than required and reported raising  $71,324 between November 16-Dec 31 from more than 400 donors.

The Buckeye Flame spoke with the candidate about his vision for Columbus, what more the city could be doing for its LGBTQ+ residents and why it’s so very important to excite voters right now.

To listen, click play directly below or read our (edited) conversation beneath the audio link.

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Jesse, why the Columbus City Council and why now? 

Jesse Vogel: Well, Ken, this is a really important moment in our country, in our lives, in our state and in our city.

I was born here in Columbus in District 7, and I’ve lived and worked here in Columbus — mostly in District 7 — over the past five years. I think that this is a moment when we all have to think about how we step up, support our neighbors and wrap our arms around one another to make sure that we can live safe lives, we can get what we need and we can make sure that everyone in our community can thrive.

I remember watching the election results in November with a few friends and it was really devastating to see Donald Trump win the White House. [He’s] somebody who has been a presence of hate and someone who distracts us from the work we need to do together to lift each other up. And it was sad to see us lose Sen. [Sherrod] Brown’s seat in Ohio.

All my life I’ve been interested in connecting with neighbors around issues that matter and around politics. I grew up knocking on doors and I was a campus organizer at Oberlin College for the SB5 collective bargaining issue to protect the rights of public sector unions to collectively bargain. I always had a sense that we can get together and communicate with one another to try to make the world the way we need it to be.

So I wanted to dive in, especially motivated by all that I’ve seen and experienced from my work: representing low income tenants, representing immigrants, representing families trying to build wealth for themselves and not getting what they need in a city that is vibrant, that I love and that has a lot of resources to offer.

You’ve certainly seen some huge displays of support, both with the number of signatures you submitted and a staggering $71,000+ raised between November 16th and December 31st, which is quite a bit more than other candidates currently in the field. Why is it important to get out front like this with that support?

Ken, I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done since right after the November election. We started working really hard first at raising money and then at collecting signatures. And in doing that, we ended up knocking on over 1,500 doors throughout our district.

As you said, we hit a large fundraising goal. We raised $71,000 in about six weeks. And we raise money differently than how other candidates for city council in Columbus often raise money. We raise money from many, many grassroots donors: over 400 individual donors with a contribution average of under $170 per contribution. That takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of work.

And the reason it’s important is that we haven’t seen anyone in Columbus raise these kinds of resources to run a progressive campaign as a progressive Democrat for Columbus City Council. We’re doing it because we know there’s an uphill battle here. We know that there are some people in Columbus who don’t want to run politics this way. And we know that there are some people in Columbus who take money from big developers and $15,000 checks.

We know that in order to win on issues that matter to people — to make sure everyone has safe housing, to make sure that like families have the opportunity to send their kids to Pre-K, to get them ready for school and to deliver what people need — we need to build grassroots support and build a real campaign that excites people across the city. It takes that kind of resources and this kind of community support to do it.

I’m scared about the future of Democrats in Ohio, frankly. Sherrod Brown lost by 300,000 votes, and he lost those votes in the cities because we didn’t turn enough people out. So we need to excite people, and we need to run a campaign that communicates with people everywhere we can. It takes this kind of effort to do that.

Some sitting Columbus City Council members have made some past statements about who the next successful candidate should be demographically. You’re out about being gay, about being Jewish and about being the grandson of a refugee. Can you talk a little bit about the role of diversity when it comes to this candidate? 

I think we deserve diverse leadership in every way and every office across the city, the region, the state and the country. And I respect the need and the desire to make sure that we continue to have representation of all kinds, including a Black women in elected office in Columbus and in Franklin County.

I may not be the exact identity or fit the exact profile of what some folks in the community wish for this seat, but I think we should think broadly and boldly and from a vision of abundance. Let’s lift up Black women everywhere. Let’s lift up people of color everywhere, not just in this seat and not just for this particular candidate this year.

There may be a good candidate out there who’s different than me, but I think what I can offer is running a really strong campaign that is communicating with everyone. That’s knocking on many, many doors. That’s raising the resources to really get out there and share a message about a bold vision of how Columbus can do better. I think Columbus deserves that and I’m excited about my work to do that.

I am gay. I am Jewish. Those are parts of my identity that are important to me because of the community that’s helped me in my life, and because of my understanding as a gay person and as a Jew of the need for government that provides some kind of protection to people and that doesn’t scapegoat people who are different. I am drawn to continue to do that work of trying to build a vision of politics and government that lifts up differences and understands that our community is vibrant and diverse.

That’s what my identity teaches me. And it also teaches me to think differently about our options and about what’s possible. That’s part of what fuels me in this campaign. 

Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati all received a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign for LGBTQ+ equality and protections. But one could argue that Cincinnati City Council has taken that to further lengths: declaring itself a “safe haven” for gender-affirming healthcare and earmarking $500,000 for LGBTQ+ youth mental health support. What more can Columbus do for its LGBTQ+ residents?

I think this is a really scary time for so many queer people in Columbus. We’re so close to the statehouse, so we watch what folks in the statehouse are doing. Just this week, there was a discussion in the Columbus School Board about the transgender bathroom ban and the policy around that. I want to see a Columbus City Council that is unafraid to stand up and fight and speak out for our community.

I like you bringing up what’s going on in Cincinnati. I’d like to see more collaboration of Democrats and of elected officials across the state [asking], “What are best practices and how are you responding in this really scary and unprecedented moment?” We need good ideas here and we need to get them from wherever we can. I think it’ll take a leader who is able to galvanize community in order to be able to push those kinds of different ideas forward and say, “We may have a perfect score on the HRC list, but that might not be enough in this moment. Let’s stand up and fight”

Last question for you: what significance does it have for you to be an out LGBTQ+ candidate? 

As an out LGBTQ+ candidate and as a gay person, I grew up thinking that things are not always as they seem and that there’s an opportunity for us to build community with people to build a different kind of future. I am inspired by queer people who have come before me who really fought in moments of of hardship.

I have a poster in my house from an ACT UP protest: an image of Ronald Reagan that says AIDSgate. I look at that poster every day and I think about the older gay activists who gave it to me. I think about the folks like them who, when they saw government failing to protect people most at risk, said, “Let’s get angry. Let’s throw it all at the wall and do something differently and tell people to get out in the streets and organize and get smart and study up.”

We’re in a different moment of crisis today and I want to see that [energy] from our elected officials. That’s why, in part, I’m running for the Columbus City Council here in District 7. 🔥

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IGNITE ACTION

• Learn more about Jesse Vogel’s campaign by visiting his campaign website here and following him on Instagram here.

• Check your Ohio voter registration status here.