Ari Faber was raised on a homestead in Perry County. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ohio University. Before joining United Campus Ministry in 2022, Faber was a development specialist at Hocking College. (Source: Ballotpedia)
Athens County Independent Candidate Survey
What do you believe is the greatest challenge facing Athens County/southeast Ohio?
The high poverty rates and the issues that stem from them, such as food insecurity, housing insecurity, and lack of access to good-paying jobs, are the biggest challenges facing Athens County and Southeast Ohio.
Nearly ¼ of Athens County residents live below the poverty line. What would you do to reduce poverty in our community?
In order to address poverty, we have to get to the root of the problem and ensure people don’t fall through the cracks to begin with. It’s hard to hold a job if you’re starving, lack access to medical care, or don’t have a safe place to call home at night. I would propose strengthening SNAP benefits, supporting measures to help the 600,000+ Ohioans who lost some form of Medicaid coverage find coverage, and offering appropriations for new and affordable housing developments.
Secondly, we have to create good paying, permanent jobs. Union jobs are good jobs, and I’m committed to supporting any legislation that will strengthen our unions and use project labor agreements to get public jobs done. Athens County and much of District 30 was built by union labor, let’s embrace that tradition.
The USDA has designated much of Athens County as “low food access” — fewer grocery stores, lack of transportation to grocery stores and ability to pay for food. How would you address this issue?
As part of my job, I serve three community meals a week to anyone who wants food. I see food insecurity’s toll on our community firsthand. First and foremost, we need to increase SNAP benefits where we can. There’s a bipartisan bill sitting in the house right now sponsored by Rep. Edwards that would add supplemental benefits for seniors receiving SNAP. We have to get legislation like that done.
Next, we have to make it easier for people to get good quality food using their SNAP benefits. I would propose legislation that would allow people to use their SNAP benefits at farmers markets statewide. We would not just be lifting up members of our community in need, but investing in our farmers and those who feed our community too.
Finally, it’s time we have universal school breakfast and lunch. No paperwork, no red tape, and no means-testing. Our children are the future, and they deserve to know where their next meal is coming from.
What is your stance on Issue 1, which would establish a 15-member citizens’ commission to oversee state and congressional redistricting?
I support Issue 1. Politicians should not draw their own districts.
In a 2022 survey, a majority of residents of rural Athens County identified concerns they felt were “very important.” How would you work to address these issues if you are elected?
Reduce healthcare and prescription costs?
Over 600,000 Ohioans lost some form of Medicaid coverage in 2023 when COVID-19 policy ended. Most of these Ohioans lost this coverage not because they weren’t eligible, but because of a procedural or paperwork issue. Let’s cut the crap with the red tape and get serious about helping Ohioans. There’s no reason Medicaid-eligible people should be stuck paying out-of-pocket for their healthcare.
Next, action using money from the federal government has been taken to wipe out medical debt for Ohioans. Over $230 million worth of debt was abolished using just $800,000. We can help Ohioans get out of crippling debt and back into their lives for little public money while we work on getting people coverage.
Finally, there is a bill, HB174, that will enact an Ohio Health Care Plan, providing universal coverage to all Ohio residents. I would support this legislation to ensure that all Ohioans have access to affordable healthcare and prescription drugs.
I say it everywhere I go: You can’t hold a job or take care of a family if you can’t get healthcare and are in constant pain. Ohio needs to be better for our citizens.
Reduce food and grocery costs?
Ohio should increase access to SNAP benefits and re-evaluate how those benefits can be used, and start going after the corporations who are driving up prices.
There’s legislation right now that would increase supplemental SNAP benefits for seniors sponsored by Rep. Edwards and Rep. Troy, a Democrat from the Cleveland area. I support this legislation and I think that it is a great start for feeding our community.
Next, we need to get more inventive about how SNAP works and making sure that people have access to good quality food. I am proposing using SNAP benefits universal at Farmers Markets across Ohio. This subsidizes our farmers and lets people eat local food.
Finally, we need to be honest about what’s happening to our local food retailers. Everywhere across the country, dollar store chains are moving into rural areas with low prices, driving out local grocery stores, and then disguising higher prices as low ones after failing to update price tags. While there has been some legal accountability for these companies, we need barriers to entry to prevent predatory out-of-staters from price gouging Ohioans, and we need new ways to protect local retailers of fresh, local food.
Repair local roads and bridges?
We need to dedicate more appropriated federal and state money towards fixing our local roads and highways. Ohio is becoming a new center of industry. In Northwest Ohio, they’re building one of the largest solar plants in the world. In Central Ohio, there’s a 28 billion dollar investment from Intel into a new plant. Southeast Ohio and the Ohio Valley need the infrastructure to keep up and capitalize on this renewed interest in Ohio’s future.
We all grew up and cherished driving the winding backroads from one town to the next. Whenever I’m campaigning, I get excited when we take a route that takes us a little off the beaten path. However, it’s time for some of our roads and routes to modernize to ensure our people aren’t left behind.
Reduce utility costs?
Ohio’s utility rates are rising faster than the inflation rate, and multiple bills would help protect Ohioans from utility companies’ unjustly hiking rates.
HB79, which is currently sitting in the Ohio Senate, would create a voluntary program that could help Ohioans get easier access to more affordable energy-efficient products. These products could help Ohioans save money on their utility bills. This bill passed the House with a bipartisan majority. Let’s get it done for Ohioans.
Then, we need to be honest about the corruption surrounding Ohio’s utility companies. We need to pass HB444, which will increase transparency surrounding utility companies’ political spending.
Lastly, we have to repeal HB6. The coal bailouts are costing Ohioans too much money to justify. We need to discuss these bailouts individually and ethically and overturn the bill at the center of Ohio’s largest public corruption scandal.
Improve mental health services?
In this part of Ohio, where you go to see a therapist is usually also where your family doctor and dentist are. Historic underinvestment in mental healthcare has led to a shortage of providers, which has then led to high rates of burnout, and lack of access to community mental healthcare for those in need. We need new investment in our mental healthcare system in Ohio to ensure that our providers stay in community mental health and that we have the capacity to treat everyone.
This also, once again, becomes an insurance issue. We have to improve access to health insurance in Ohio by getting those eligible back on Medicaid and making sure we mandate covering mental health services.
Clean up polluted areas and improve water quality?
Multiple parts of District 30 have had issues with injection wells that should be plugged, leaking, polluting local streams, and even threatening our drinking water. Ohio needs new legislation to protect us from companies who pollute and repeatedly fail to face accountability.
The one thing that everyone can agree on is that we all deserve clean drinking water. While the federal Clean Water Act is a good start to ensuring this, we need an Ohio Clean Water Act. Polluters aren’t learning their lesson when they pollute our streams, kill our wildlife, and never see any form of punishment for it. When wells leaked in Noble County recently, taxpayers were asked to foot some of the cleanup bill. When companies pollute, they should cover the bill.
An Ohio Clean Water Act that would tighten our standards and hold polluters accountable is something that I will be fighting for on Day 1.
Create more living-wage jobs that don’t require a college degree?
It’s simple: invest in programs and projects that will create union jobs. Many union jobs only require vocational training or an apprenticeship.
It doesn’t take a college degree to be a lineworker or a street department employee, and by simply investing in our community, we can create good-paying union jobs that you can not just take care of a family with but have some breathing room too.
As we work to rebuild our infrastructure in a way that is friendly to our future economic development, we can utilize things like project labor agreements (PLAs). PLAs protect workers and the public by guaranteeing that jobs get done safely and correctly.
All union jobs are good jobs, and one of my main goals as a legislator will be to uplift Ohioans through the ability to get a union job.
Improve access to affordable college and vocational training?
Going to college or receiving vocational training is an investment into someone’s economic future. While going to college is as popular now as it ever has been, we also have to make it known to students that vocational training is an option. I support increased investment in post-graduate vocational training so that anyone who wants to go learn a trade, can.
We can also make community college more affordable for Ohioans. People who go to community college to get nursing, agricultural, or 2-year business degrees, for example, should not be getting buried in debt. As Senator, I pledge to support a future with more affordable community college.
Improve K-12 education?
There are so many ways to fix Ohio’s broken education system: stopping divisive concept bills that would overstep teachers, increasing teacher pay, funding public schools over charters, constitutionally funding our schools, and reducing dependency on state testing for districts is just a start.
First, let’s stop debating Dr. Seuss and “To Kill a Mockingbird” and focus on real issues facing our schools. Some Ohio representatives have talked about “teaching both sides of the Holocaust.” We need to make sure we’re actually focused on educating our children.
Second, if places like Arkansas can afford to raise minimum teacher pay to $50,000 a year, so can Ohio. This will help our teacher retention, which in turn helps build culture and relationships within our schools.
Third, let’s stop using money to fund charter schools and fund our underfunded schools. We must reject universal school vouchers for charter and private schools that aren’t held to the same standards. Let’s keep public money public.
Fourth, let’s constitutionally fund Ohio’s schools. Public education matters and the way we’ve funded schools has been an abomination since the ’90s. I support the Fair School Funding Plan that’s been floated to get this done.
Finally, let’s stop making districts and teachers so dependent on standardized tests to secure funding. “Teaching to the test” only takes away from our goals to educate students and make sure we’re not leaving kids behind. This method doesn’t allow for any specialized work, it just makes teachers go full steam ahead, even when kids are struggling.
Support local small businesses?
When we work to revitalize Ohio’s economy, we must ensure we’re putting Ohio’s local businesses at the forefront. Ohio’s economy must grow from the bottom up with our workers and small businesses. We have to grow new and existing small businesses, and then ensure we’re helping them expand.
I support a Public Bank of Ohio that could help give out loans to our local businesses by protecting them from big banks and predatory lenders. This model has worked in other states and can work in Ohio.
Lastly, we can Ohio’s business laws more accessible by cutting out the red tape. Let’s help local businesses navigate the economy.
Reader-submitted questions
Would you support a right-to-work amendment if it came up for a vote?
No, I stand against any right-to-work legislation. Unions are the backbone of Ohio’s economy and the ticket to a good middle class life. I would never support any legislation that would weaken them.
How would you communicate with constituents to best represent their interests?
My office phone and mailbox will always be open to constituents reaching out with inquiries or concerns about their State Senator. Additionally, showing up and listening to people doesn’t stop after November 5th. I will continue to show up in public spaces, forums, fairs, and anywhere else where people want to talk.
