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March 21, 2024

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Spring Housing Guide

Student hits campaign trail

A good candidate, according to Katie O’Neill, appreciates the beauty of the United States of America.

A good candidate, according to Katie O’Neill, can’t be bought.

And to O’Neill, a good candidate doesn’t leave you wondering where they stand on the issues.

This is why O’Neill believes in electing a man that fits this description, a man who happens to be her father.

Her father, William M. O’Neill is running on Tuesday’s ballot for Ohio Supreme Court Justice, battling Terrence O’Donnell for one of the state’s highest judicial positions and a chance to join the other six justices.

O’Neill is currently a judge in the 11th District Ohio Court of Appeals.

Katie, who has taken the year off at Bowling Green to hit the campaign trail, said her life has always been a little different than others her age.

Growing up, her father was an attorney and their family ran a restaurant in Geneva, Ohio called O’Neill’s Landing on the Lake.

But from a young age Katie remembers campaigning for her father.

“I feel like my father has raised me to help fight this battle with him,” Katie said.

Today, 22 years old and in charge of getting her father’s name out in western Ohio, Katie said she is thrilled with what she is doing and proud of what her father stands for.

One important part of his campaign is how he raises money, Katie said. He will only accept $10 from individuals and $1000 from organizations.

“He cannot be bought,” Katie said, expressing how important she finds campaign reform. “He has won two elections with the motto, ‘Money and Judges don’t mix,’ and people really enjoy it.”

The second difference in the O’Neill campaign is that her father is running as a Democrat, which goes against the state law in Ohio that says the Supreme Court should be a non-partisan race.

The Republican Party sued O’Neill in August but after O’Neill counter sued, a federal judge sided with Katie’s father, saying the First Amendment gives him the right to run as a Democrat.

Katie pointed out that before the primaries, candidates for election to the Supreme Court of Ohio are named on the Democratic and Republican tickets, therefore they are cannot truly be non-partisan.

“We said, ‘you know what, we are Democrats,'” Katie said. “And people should know we are Democrats. By saying you are bipartisan, what you are really doing is keeping voters in the dark. So we are allowed to run as Democrats, for now.”

Katie said it can be scary out there on the road, but the good parts outweigh the bad.

“When you are traveling the state it’s lonely,” Katie said. “You are on the road a lot, you have to work 12 hour days sometimes because it needs to be done.”

“I have people tell me to my face, ‘I am not voting for your father,’ and that’s not fun,” Katie said. “But it’s so important.”

Katie said she began to recognize her role in being politically active after she took a five-week trek in March, in which she coving 14,000 miles of the United States.

For three and a half weeks, it was just Katie and her dog Fritz. They camped, talked to people and observed the way Americans live. For the other week and a half she had a friend accompany her.

“I think that people need to go out and see what we are fighting for,” Katie said. Many people in America don’t understand the concerns — because they haven’t traveled, they haven’t smelled the air, they haven’t touched the ground. So I came back here … to make people understand just how wonderful this place is.”

Her experiences throughout the nation solidified one thing in Katie’s head — that America is worth the fight.

“Everywhere I went, I met good people,” Katie said. “And if God, if there are many gods or one God it doesn’t matter, it’s more of a belief, but if he wanted things to look awesome — just so people could stand around in awe and humbleness — he sprinkled them all over our country.”

So what if her father doesn’t win next week? Katie said life goes on.

“Life is great as usual,” she said. “My father keeps his job as an appeals court judge and he will continue nursing. We strongly believe change can happen every moment of your life.”

But Katie will be very disappointed if the energy that has begun churning in this nation fades after Nov. 2.

“If my father loses and everything else fails I hope young people my age understand we have to be loud now,” O’Neill said. “We have to be moving and awake and recognize that if there is anyone who should be on the front line right now, it is us.”

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