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Rachel Crooks: Honest. Authentic. Progressive.

You may have come across a few headlines in the national media about a woman who accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct running for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives this year.

She has a name. Her name is Rachel Crooks, and she is a fantastic candidate.

Let me make it clear: Rachel did not decide to run for a state house seat in Ohio because of what Trump did to her, in fact, Rachel makes this point clear in her campaign website's biography page. Rachel is running for a state house seat in the 88th Ohio State House district (includes all of Sandusky County and most of Seneca County) because she wants to make her community and her state a better place to live.

As someone with extensive experience working with international college students at Tiffin University and Heidelberg University, Rachel has helped do the hard work to make America a more inclusive country. As a state house candidate, Rachel has promised to support common-sense progressive ideals to make her community and her state a better place to live. When it comes to educating Ohioans, Rachel supports investing in public schools instead of investing in charter school boondoggles like ECOT, which recently lost a court case before the Ohio Supreme Court in its attempt to find a way to legally avoid repaying the state $80 million that it received for students who ECOT was unable to prove that they had participated enough in its online coursework. When it comes to jobs, Rachel wants Ohio to have more good-paying jobs, and Rachel noted that "the typical Ohio household had a higher income three decades ago than it has had in the past few years. When it comes to health care, Rachel has promised to fix a broken and expensive health care system in Ohio, and Rachel opposes efforts by politicians and the health insurance industry to allow health insurers to deny health care coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions. When it comes to energy policy, Rachel understands that climate change is a serious problem and views replacing fossil fuel-based electricity generation with renewable energy as a way to improve the environment, but she wants her would-be constituents to be able to have a say in proposed wind turbine projects.

If there's two adjectives I would use to describe Rachel, they would be honest and authentic. Rachel is certainly not someone who would lie to anyone about her values and what she stands for, as she is an honest person about who she is, and she is also a fact-oriented person. I've never met Rachel in person, but just a quick glance at her Twitter page gives me the impression that there is virtually no difference between how Rachel presents herself on social media and the kind of person Rachel is in real-life. A third adjective that I would use to describe Rachel is progressive. She truly wants to improve the lives of her would-be constituents and play a small part in making America a more perfect Union.

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