Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article used incorrect maps to describe the district’s boundaries. This version has been updated.
With two contested Statehouse races and one contested state Senate election, Akron-area residents have choices to make.
The District 34 Statehouse seat held by Rep. Casey Weinstein is up for grabs after the three-term representative elected to run for the state Senate. Competing to replace him are Democrat Derrick Hall and Republican Adam Bozic.
RACE: Ohio House District 34
CANDIDATES: Derrick Hall, Democrat; Adam Bozic, Republican
With Rep. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, running for state Senate, the House seat that he occupied opened up. The district includes parts of Akron Wards 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8 as well as Hudson, Munroe Falls, Silver Lake, Tallmadge and Stow.
Former Akron school board president Derrick Hall, a Democrat, said he’s running to replace Weinstein in the 34th House District because he thinks his diverse experience will be an asset in the legislature.
Hall, 48, is the assistant vice president of accountable care and payment innovation for Integra Connect, a healthcare consultant. He’s also an international law officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, part of the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, or JAG Corps. And he grew up poor, he said, living in public housing in Akron.
“I think it’s important people representing us know what it’s like to be among the most needy,” Hall said.
He did not run for reelection to the school board, saying he saw limits on the impact he could have in that role. As a member of the school board and board president, Hall said he was proud of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with the Akron Education Association that gave teachers raises, increasing school security and approving plans to build a new Miller South-Pfeiffer on the location of the old Kenmore High School.
Hall was part of the board that had a public fallout with former Superintendent Christine Fowler-Mack, leading to her resignation. He said he learned the importance of good communication, collaboration and collegiality.
“Disparagement is not a tool of diplomacy,” he said. “You can be a fighter and still be civil and professional.”
Hall’s priorities if he moves to the Statehouse include improving access to healthcare, reducing property taxes for senior citizens and improving housing affordability in the state. He said he’s a “big believer” in public-private partnerships that could increase the amount of new housing. He also favors rent-to-own housing programs that the state could be involved in.
Hall said he intends to be a champion for reproductive freedom, including leading the fight to ensure that abortion freedoms that Ohioans approved last November are not undermined.
Hall thinks the state funding formula for schools needs to change; he said he’d like to roll back the use of vouchers while still allowing poor families access to good education. He called himself a pragmatist, saying he knew that and other proposals would not move forward immediately.
“Change happens incrementally,” he said.
If elected, he said he plans to create a community advisory board to help him keep abreast of neighborhood issues.
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Adam Bozic, 41, first ran for Tallmadge City Council in 2021 after working for the city as an assistant parks superintendent and seeing behind the scenes how the city operated — the good and the bad, he said.
Now CEO of a father-son floor-installation company, Classic Shine Flooring Specialists, and Tallmadge City Council president, the Republican said he decided to run for the Statehouse to continue to serve.
“I can really do more by being in a different position,” he said.
On City Council, he was involved in rejecting a rezoning proposal that would have put cluster homes in the city, a case that’s now subject to a lawsuit. Bozic said he voted against the plan because it didn’t fit “what our community is and what it envisions.”
If elected, Bozic said he wants to expand programs that help people work in the trades. He wants to limit barriers to entry that keep people from getting job training. Helping small business owners with succession planning is another priority, he said, including helping business owners who are ready to retire find buyers for their companies — so employers don’t shut down.
Bozic wants to reduce property taxes for seniors by expanding the homestead exemption, a move he said would help seniors age in place. He’d also like to expand tax credits for small businesses.
The state’s current school voucher program is working, Bozic said, though he said he’d like to look at ways to expand it. While he said his children attend public school, Bozic said he believes many schools have agendas that are “more political than it needs to be,” something he doesn’t agree with.
Bozic said he’d like to see an expansion of financial literacy programs and said he wants to help keep money in the pockets of Ohioans while still providing “programs we need to provide.” He thinks gerrymandering in the state can be improved but doesn’t think Issue 1 is the way to do that.
Prior to his foray into politics, Bozic was a Marine; he said he primarily serviced aircraft for the five years he was on active duty. Running for office, he said, is an extension of that service.
“I want to be a voice to them, be a good listener to them,” he said, “I want to be the voice for everyday Ohioans.”
