Ohio Democrats running for U.S. Senate debate for first time Monday

WILBERFORCE, Ohio (WCMH) — A popular Northeast Ohio congressman, an underdog Columbus lawyer, and a longshot Columbus activist on Monday morning will kick off a two-day slate of three debates hosted by the Ohio Debate Commission.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, Morgan Harper, and Traci Johnson, Democratic candidates to replace Sen. Rob Portman in the U.S. Senate, will take the stage from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Central State University, outside Dayton. Watch the debate live here on NBC4i.com.

Monday will be Ryan and Johnson’s first time on a debate stage for this election cycle, but it won’t be the first for Harper. She debated Republican candidate Josh Mandel twice in February.

In the only poll of the race, an Emerson College survey commissioned by NBC4, Ryan got 31% of the vote, while 51% were still undecided. Johnson, Harper, and LaShondra Tinsley (who was later disqualified from the ballot) pulled in single-digits.

Ryan has represented the Youngstown area in Congress since 2003. Harper is an attorney and a former senior advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She lost to U.S. Rep. Joyce Beaty in the 2020 Democratic primary for Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District.

Johnson is a community activist, former state employee, and current owner of a Dublin information technology company. She lost the 2012 election for Ohio’s 23rd state House district, which covers a western portion of Franklin County.