Ohio's 8th Congressional District encompasses five counties in southwest and western Ohio, including Butler, Darke and Preble counties, and portions of Hamilton and Miami counties. Former House Speaker John Boehner held the seat from 1991 to 2015, when he resigned. Warren Davidson was elected to finish Boehner's final term and has held the position since 2016.
Learn more about candidates Vanessa Enoch and Madaris Grant below. Candidates were given the same survey questions and word limit of no more than 250 words to respond to each question. All candidate responses have been lightly edited for grammar and style.
Vanessa Enoch
Campaign website: enochforcongress.com
Biography
Vanessa Enoch is a public policy expert, business leader, and award-winning journalist dedicated to advancing economic opportunity and social equity. She is the president and CEO of Cultural Impact, LLC, a management and technology consulting firm that helps organizations navigate workforce transformation and economic change. With over 25 years of business experience, she has worked across sectors to support job creation, workforce development and community resilience.
Dr. Enoch holds a Ph.D. in public policy and social change and an MBA with a concentration in information technology from Xavier University. Her work as a journalist — recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists — has focused on criminal justice, government accountability and community impact.
She has been the Democratic nominee for Ohio’s 8th Congressional District in multiple election cycles, demonstrating a sustained commitment to public service and advocacy. Her policy priorities center on economic mobility, workforce innovation, health care access and equitable infrastructure development.
Dr. Enoch is also a community builder, leading initiatives that address food insecurity, workforce readiness and sustainable development. She is currently advancing innovative models such as smart village communities and technology-driven workforce platforms designed to connect people to opportunity. Dr. Enoch considers her most important job to be mother and grandmother.
What life or professional experiences make you the best person for this position?
My career uniquely combines business leadership, public policy expertise and frontline community engagement. As a CEO, I have built and led organizations that solve real economic problems — particularly workforce displacement, job access and organizational transformation. I understand how policy decisions impact businesses, workers and local economies because I operate at the intersection of all three.
My academic training in public policy allows me to analyze complex systems and design evidence-based solutions, while my journalism background has sharpened my ability to investigate issues, communicate clearly and hold institutions accountable. I have spent years listening to people’s lived experiences and translating those realities into actionable insights.
Additionally, my work in workforce development — through consulting, training programs and the Career Impact platform — has given me direct exposure to the barriers people face in securing stable employment. I have helped individuals transition from layoffs to new careers, and I understand both the human and economic costs of policy failures.
Having run for this seat multiple times, I bring continuity, deep district knowledge and a long-term commitment to the people I serve. I am not entering this work to learn the issues — I have been doing the work. That combination of practical experience, policy expertise and sustained engagement positions me to be effective immediately.
What concerns or themes are you hearing in conversations with people in your district? How do you specifically plan to address those issues?
Across the district, I consistently hear concerns about economic stability, rising costs, access to good-paying jobs and a sense that the system is not working for everyday people. Residents — both urban and rural — are also deeply concerned about health care affordability, infrastructure gaps and the lack of pathways into skilled trades and emerging industries. Most recently, people across the district are complaining about the cost of groceries and gas.
To address these issues, I will focus on legislation that strengthens workforce pipelines and economic mobility. This includes expanding federal investment in apprenticeship and trade programs, incentivizing public-private partnerships to create local jobs, and supporting workforce transition services for displaced workers.
On cost-of-living pressures, I support targeted measures such as prescription drug price caps, housing affordability incentives and increased competition in key markets to reduce consumer costs. I will also advocate for policies that stabilize supply chains and support domestic manufacturing, particularly in regions like ours.
Infrastructure is another priority. I will work to ensure federal funding reaches both rural and urban communities for broadband expansion, transportation, and resilient energy systems — critical for economic growth.
Finally, I will push for greater accountability and transparency in how federal resources are distributed, ensuring that communities in this district see measurable outcomes. My approach is pragmatic: identify what works, scale it, and ensure it reaches the people who need it most.
Do you feel it is important to work across the aisle? Why or why not?
Yes, working across the aisle is essential to governing effectively. Most of the challenges we face — economic stability, health care access, infrastructure and workforce development — are not inherently partisan issues. They require practical solutions and durable policy frameworks that can withstand changes in political leadership.
My approach is grounded in results, not rhetoric. I am willing to collaborate with anyone who is serious about solving problems and improving outcomes for constituents. That means finding common ground on issues like job creation, support for small businesses, and strengthening local economies.
At the same time, bipartisanship should not come at the expense of core values. I will not compromise on issues that undermine fairness, equity or basic rights. Effective collaboration requires both openness and clarity about where you stand.
To appeal to constituents who are not aligned with my party, I focus on shared priorities — economic opportunity, community safety and accountable government. I listen first, engage respectfully and communicate clearly about how my policies will benefit them directly.
Ultimately, people want leadership that works. If we can deliver tangible results — better jobs, lower costs, stronger communities — partisan labels become less important than outcomes. That is the standard I intend to uphold.
What can Congress realistically accomplish in the next two years to support people struggling with high prices?
In the next two years, Congress can take targeted, practical steps to ease cost pressures while maintaining economic stability. One of the most immediate actions is expanding efforts to lower prescription drug prices, building on recent reforms to allow broader negotiation and caps on essential medications.
Housing affordability is another critical area. Congress can incentivize the development of affordable housing through tax credits, zoning reform support and funding for innovative housing models that increase supply without compromising quality.
To address everyday costs, Congress can strengthen competition policies to prevent price gouging and monopolistic practices in key sectors such as food, energy and transportation. Supporting domestic manufacturing and supply chain resilience will also help stabilize prices over time.
Workforce policy is equally important. Expanding access to job training, apprenticeships and reskilling programs can increase earning potential, which is one of the most sustainable ways to offset high costs. Policies that support wage growth — particularly in high-demand industries — should be prioritized.
Finally, Congress can provide targeted relief through tax credits or direct support for working families, ensuring that assistance reaches those most impacted without overheating the economy. The focus should be on practical, measurable actions that reduce costs, increase income opportunities and strengthen economic resilience at the household level.
What values do you think your constituents expect of you?
My constituents expect integrity, accountability and results. They want a representative who is honest about challenges, transparent in decision-making and committed to delivering tangible outcomes — not just promises.
They also expect fairness. In a district that spans both urban and rural communities, people want to know that their needs are being considered equally and that resources are distributed in a way that reflects real needs, not political priorities.
Pragmatism is another key value. Constituents are less interested in ideology and more interested in whether solutions work. They expect leadership that is focused on problem-solving, grounded in data and responsive to changing conditions.
Respect and accessibility are equally important. People want to be heard, regardless of their political affiliation or background. They expect their representative to engage with them directly, listen to their concerns and respond thoughtfully.
Finally, they expect a long-term vision — leadership that not only addresses immediate challenges but also positions the district for future success. That includes preparing for shifts in the economy, investing in infrastructure and workforce development and ensuring that the next generation has greater opportunities.
My commitment is to embody these values consistently and to measure success by the real impact on people’s lives.
Madaris Grant
Campaign website: madarisforcongress.com
Biography
I grew up in a hardworking, middle-class family that taught me the value of perseverance, integrity and community. My parents believed that if you worked hard, treated people with respect and kept your word, good things would follow, and those values have guided me every step of my life.
That mindset carried me to Ball State University, where I earned a full athletic scholarship. On the field, I learned lessons that go far beyond football: the importance of teamwork, discipline and never giving up, no matter the odds.
After college, I became a small business owner, working to provide for my family and create opportunities for others. As a husband and father of two, I understand firsthand the challenges families across Ohio are facing: rising costs, struggling schools and a government that too often forgets who it’s supposed to serve.
What life or professional experiences make you the best person for this position?
As a former Division 1 athlete, captain and hall of famer, I developed the hard work, determination, selflessness and respect for teamwork that I need to work with my colleagues on each side of the aisle to make a real impact in government.
As a small business owner and someone who grew up in the middle class, I have seen and felt the struggles that everyday Americans go through and crafted solutions on how to solve those issues.
As a person whose father was a benefactor of diversity policy which allowed him to provide a better life and opportunities for his family, and having a special needs sibling who directly benefited from the department of education, I have seen the difference in our government works to provide opportunities to people. As a U.S. Representative I will work tirelessly to do the same.
What concerns or themes are you hearing in conversations with people in your district? How do you specifically plan to address those issues?
Through conversations in my district, the main topic that comes up outside of the overt cruelty and corruption of the current administration:
Affordability: Many people, predominantly of the middle class and lower, struggle to afford essential goods. To the point where people are going into debt just to put food on the table. People also struggle to afford housing with rising home prices. Health care has become unaffordable for many people as well, to the point where they are considering cancelling their policy and just risking going without it.
The long term solution to all of these things, and many other problems, is to actually enforce the rules and norms that we have already put in place, but have not been enforced by decades of corrupt Congresses. We have anti-trust laws that are designed to prevent monopolistic practices. Yet across three key industries, we have allowed a mass consolidation of resources to occur, resulting in a captured and unhealthy market.
I would build coalitions to oversee enforcement of those very anti-trust laws and restore fair competition to the market.
Do you feel it is important to work across the aisle? Why or why not?
Yes, it is very important to work across the aisle. We have too many hardliners unwilling to compromise in Congress. In this diverse country we don’t get everything we want, but there are certain people and fringe groups who refuse to operate that way. I will appeal to people who are not aligned with my party by clearly and authentically displaying to them my more moderate stance on most key issues. I am pro-business, anti-exploitation, for example.
What can Congress realistically accomplish in the next two years to support people struggling with high prices?
Citing the example that I used in Question #2, we must prevent any new monopolistic practices from occurring, while at the same time investigating the last 30+ years of massive consolidation. This may result in breaking up some companies and forcing the sale of others to create a healthier market place. We can also provide subsidies on other essential goods while we wait for the longer term reconstruction of the market to occur. It would be a much better use of tax payer dollars than domestic tyranny, cruel immigration practices, and foreign wars.
What values do you think your constituents expect of you?
I think the number one value people expect is integrity. People want honest representation that will execute the job as it is supposed to done. Come and listen to the people, then work to address their needs. That is how it is supposed to be done in a Representative democracy. It's quite simple actually, but due to rampant corruption, it rarely gets done.
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