Paul Cameron

Paul Cameron served in the U.S. Army from 1988 to 2014. Cameron earned a high school diploma from Weir High School. Cameron earned an associate degree from Cochise College in 1999, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona in 2003, and an associate degree from Belmont College in 2012. Cameron's career experience includes working as a construction manager.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I'm an activist and organizer from Belmont County. I work with Belmont County Unify, a chapter of Indivisible, and Ohio Valley Mutual Aid. I'm a member of the Ohio Progressive Democratic Caucus. I'm a Scout leader, retired Army with 24 years of service and 18 years of leadership experience, and a member of the NAACP and the ACLU.

As a mail carrier, census worker, field surveyor, and construction project manager, I've spent the last 20 years traveling and working throughout District 95. I've seen the small towns which were once proud centers of the coal production that fueled the industries along the Ohio River. I've seen the boarded up and abandoned buildings that speak of a time once prosperous. I know first hand the failure of industry. I grew up in a steel town in the 1970s and 1980s and watched the mill that was the economic center of my hometown fail.

The challenges facing our district are daunting, but as your representative I will focus on community revitalization, restoring the downtown areas of our small towns and helping to establish small, locally owned businesses within those spaces. Recentering our communities will give us the foundation to address the other problems facing southeast Ohio. I have the leadership experience and familiarity with District 95 to work with local leaders to establish a new era of prosperity for southeast Ohio.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Southeast Ohio has suffered greatly since the coal industry collapsed. Once prosperous small towns and villages now find it difficult to find basic services such as grocery stores, medical clinics, banks, and daycares. I will focus on community revitalization, getting funding to restore or replace abandoned downtown buildings in our small towns and putting small locally owned businesses in those spaces. Local business will spur job and opportunity growth, rebuilding our communities at the core. This will make our area more attractive to small manufacturing and attract more qualified educators for our schools. It will provide locations for the essential service businesses necessary for thriving communities.We have an abundance of natural resources in District 95 with 8 major lakes and state parks. We have an opportunity to benefit from the tourist industry, but we must be smart about that development. Vibrant small towns near parks and lakes provide shopping experiences, but we must discourage large resort developers or private equity firms who gobble up residential property to use as Air B&B's, siphoning away the wealth of our district to investment firms elsewhere. We must not eliminate property tax, which is an initiative designed to benefit property investors at the expense of the people actually living in Ohio, who would find property tax replaced with a substantially higher sales tax. We must keep tourist development local.Our very rural areas offer an opportunity to develop wind and solar energy projects, which can significantly lower energy costs. Such projects, however, must occur in such a way to benefit the district and not just become another extractive industry. Ideally, new energy initiatives would be developed as county owned co-ops. However, as a consequence, increased energy production paired with our plentiful lakes will be attractive to data center developers, who use resources, create pollution, and provide no jobs. We must work to ban data centers.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Community revitalization, small business development, job growth and income improvement, availability of basic services, education, utility infrastructure, rural high speed internet, universal healthcare, universal basic income, social justice

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Bernie Sanders continues to fight for the working class against the wealthy who want to oppress and control the working class

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Integrity and a willingness to represent and advocate for all of their constituents

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

To represent the interests of my district at the state level; to fight for state policies and programs which benefit my district; and to inform the constituents of my district regarding ongoing legislation

What legacy would you like to leave?

A new era of prosperity in southeast Ohio

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

City park groundskeeper, it was a summer job after my senior year of high school

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Keeping my mouth shut in the face of injustice

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

The role of the governor is to enact and supervise policies which carry out the statutes passed by the legislature

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

The continued degradation of essential services in rural areas coupled with the increasing divide between the wealthy investor class and the rural poor

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Compromise is often necessary to ensure that the perfect does not become the enemy of the good. However, there are also times where policies are so harmful that reasonable compromise cannot be found.

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

The American bicentennial