Kelly Wicks, owner of Grounds for Thought, will be the Democrat candidate for Ohio District Three’s House of Representatives open seat.

After Thursday’s Democratic Central Committee decision, Wicks kicked off his official campaign right away Friday morning.

“We’ve really been working behind the scenes for the last couple weeks getting the nuts and bolts of the campaign together,” he said

Some of these clerical tasks include getting a team together, creating stationary and signs, updating his website and social media, and filing officially with the Secretary of State in Columbus.

Wicks decided to run after Tim Brown, Republican, announced his resignation as representative to take a position as president of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments. This resignation has given the Democratic Party new hope in taking over the seat.

Wicks said over the next few months he wants “to get out there, meet the voter and listen to concerns.”

While he’s just starting to lay out his calander, constituents will be able to see him at “as many public events in every corner of the county” as possible, including parades, Haskins chicken bbq and other events across the county. 

During his campaign in 2012, Wicks receirved roughly 26,000 votes. 

“We will sit down and look at the numbers and come up with something called our win number,” Wicks said. He anticipates this years goal to be around 31,000 to 32,000 votes.

“If you look at the true role of the definition of the state legislator…it’s to be the voice or the conduit to the consituents,” Wicks said.

He plans to do just that by being the people’s choice in Columbus, especially in economic development and creating jobs.

“Really all politicians say that,” Wicks said of creating jobs.

He said the difference is his background in small business, giving him the tools to actually make changes.

Some of these experiences include owning Grounds for Thought, a local coffeehouse, for 27 years, owning and producing for GFT Record company since 2010, cofounding the Black Swamp Arts Festival as well as serving as the Performance Chair until 2015 and serving as the business and government liaison for the Ohio Higher Education Rail Network since 2010.

He wants to ease restrictions on windmills to allow more modest setbacks for the industry to move forward, which will create new jobs.

Education is also a main concern for Wicks as testing time is high and he wants to “look at really, truly what’s going on with for-profit charter schools in the state…make sure they’re being held accountable.”

One of Wicks’ other passions is public transportation.

“Transportation options solve problems,” he said.

Lack of access for transporation causes problems from getting to jobs to safe travel to school and church.

The Toledo Blade reported two potential Republican candidates in Northwood Mayor Edward Schimmel and Bowling Green City Council member Theresa Charters Gavarone. The Republican Party has made no formal statement on who will finsih Brown’s term or run in November’s general election.