As focus now shifts exclusively to the 2020 election cycle, Ohio will once again be in the spotlight as candidates battle for the state’s all-important 18 electoral votes. While there will be constant coverage of what candidates are visiting what places and what they say (or what they didn’t say), spotlight will also focus on the issues at the state and local level that impact Ohioans most directly, and how the candidates for state and federal office will address those issues.

While more often than not, the issues discussed on the campaign trail focus on policies that affect individuals, candidates now are being confronted with addressing the often-overlooked challenge of addressing economic disparities not just among people, but also the economic disparities of places.

This is not a unique issue to Greater Ohio, where we work every day to address these challenges, bringing a spotlight to Ohio’s small and midsized Legacy Cities as they work to lift themselves up after decades of decline and neglect.

Recently, Politico Magazine wrote about this issue as it relates to the democratic presidential candidates. In an article by Clara Hendrickson titled “Why Democrats Don’t Have a Plan to Save ‘Left Behind’ America”, Hendrickson writes about how the two parties’ candidates don’t have a large-scale, economic program for suffering small towns and rural areas. While the article is focused on the democratic candidates for President, it is not a unique challenge; candidates for public office from both parties at the state and national level often lack specificity on how to address issues impacting communities where economic stagnation and decline have been an issue not for years, but in many cases for decades.

Greater Ohio has been working to address these issues since our founding. Earlier this year, we partnered with the National Resource Network, Arnold Ventures, and the Just Transition Fund to create the Ohio State Resource Network (OSRN) to provide nationally-renowned expertise to economically distressed communities in Ohio. The OSRN partners will help local governments build capacity, develop a plan for multi-year fiscal sustainability, and provide guidance on how best to fulfill community priorities that improve quality of life and local economic competitiveness.

Two years ago, we launched the Reinvention Cities Network, the new face of Ohio’s 16 small legacy cities - cities with an industrial past who have lost population since their 20th century peaks. To present a bold vision for the future of their communities, a bipartisan, cross-sector network of leaders from small legacy cities released “A Vision for Ohio’s Reinvention Cities.” Endorsed by more than thirty organizations representing the private, public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors, this forward-looking agenda outlines achievable state policies that are key to ensuring the revitalization of Ohio’s Reinvention Cities.

Early next year, Greater Ohio will release our public policy agenda for 2020-2021. This agenda will focus on the work we will be advocating for at the Ohio Statehouse over the next two years. We hope this agenda will provide a clear vision for all candidates, regardless of party, as they campaign for public office next year, for ways to improve the communities of Ohio through smart growth strategies to revitalize Ohio.