Jonathan is a local pastor and advocate who’s running for State Representative in Ohio’s 29th District. He is the kind of person whose calling to serve started early. When he was just 13, he earned a Presidential Volunteer Service Award. 13!?

That sense of service has been the through line of his whole life. Jonathan has always stood up for human dignity and has never been afraid to hold the powerful accountable. He’s spent years standing alongside marginalized communities in the fight for justice, equity, and equal protection under the law. His ministry goes beyond feeding the hungry. He’s the kind of person who wants to understand and challenge the systems that cause hunger in the first place.

Jonathan also brings a background that’s not what you’d expect from most pastors. Before entering full-time ministry, he worked in the hospitality industry. Even in that corporate environment he fought for fair wages and helped create safer, more equitable workplaces for his co-workers. Today, he continues that spirit of service by serving on both a local and an international nonprofit board, because he believes compassion should reach across every border.

At the heart of Jonathan’s campaign is a deep respect for working people. He believes that while the Civil Rights Movement is the soul of this campaign, the Labor Movement is the heart. He’s working to build a grassroots movement that refuses to pit neighbor against neighbor, one that unites Ohioans around the shared values of dignity, fairness, and real opportunity.

Jonathan isn’t interested in political theater or partisan games. He’s focused on the issues that actually affect people’s lives: good jobs with fair wages, strong and fully funded public schools, fair taxation, access to affordable healthcare, and true affordable housing.

If you talk to him, you’ll see right away that he’s not in this for the spotlight. He’s in it because he genuinely believes Ohio can do better—and that working together, we will.