Primary Election Date: 03/06/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

Dr. Angela Zimmann, 38, is an ordained Lutheran minister and full-time faculty member teaching in the General Studies Writing Program at Bowling Green State University. An elected board member and past president of the Lucas County Educational Service Center, Dr. Zimmann currently serves as president of the Northwest Region of the Ohio School Boards Association. Valedictorian of the 1990 Springfield High School graduating class, she received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Toledo and graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg before earning her Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She lives in Holland, Ohio with her husband, Dr. Martin Zimmann, and their children and foster children.

"This campaign is about more than me; this is our journey and our opportunity. Ohio set a standard for the nation by repealing SB5. I hope that with your support I can be part of the ongoing change in our state that signals the end of a trickle-down mentality and the beginning of a new era, where government is once again in service to the people."

Why Am I Running?

I feel called to this office as one who has a calling to serve—one that is ironically in the middle of where we see so much brokenness in the world, namely the United States Congress. I was recently drawn into a new congressional district here in northwest Ohio where the incumbent is a multi-millionaire lackey to the likes of the Koch Brothers. Meanwhile, the people of NW Ohio—factory workers, farmers, teachers and nurses—are all feeling the brunt of the conservative austerity agenda. I will work to bring a unique and beautiful perspective on how to serve the interests of the constituents in this fourteen-county district. I carry with me the clarity of the beatitudes to every conversation and am not afraid to speak publicly as a Christian who proclaims grace instead of damnation.

Hold Me Accountable!

When elected, I intend to fight for student loan debt relief and incentives for businesses to bring jobs back from overseas.

My DFA values:

I believe at the heart of every community is our mutual obligation to care for one another. Regardless of political persuasion, gender, ethnicity, or any other "label," we belong to each other-- our greatest natural resource is us. When we exploit our neighbor for the sake of financial or political gain, the long term effects are devastating-- witness the power of a company like Monsanto that now holds a patent on soybeans, or those who created the foreclosure crisis and destroyed our economy.

In order to be secure at home and abroad, we need to remember that the goal of a nation is not to serve the economy and those who reap obscene benefits from it. The goal of a nation should be to provide every citizen with equal access to educational opportunities starting at pre-school and on up through the college years. We should provide affordable healthcare and vocational opportunities. We should be mindful of our diminishing natural resources and look to a new entrepreneurial spirit that will help us preserve the planet through developing alternative energy and food sources.

Liberty is compromised the moment we place limits on an citizen's ability to develop her/his full potential as an individual. Our ancestors who came to this land had a vision of liberty that belonged to a government of, for, and by the people-- we now know that "people" include individuals from a broad diverse pool of life, and that this life should be shared, cherished, and celebrated.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

My campaign has over twenty active people in the planning and implementation, the vast majority of whom bring a wealth of campaign experience to the table. At the same time, we are a campaign of mostly volunteers, on the ground, involved in direct voter contact on a daily basis. Rather than spending money on a campaign office, we work out of space donated by the Wood County Democratic party office. Many of our meetings and strategy sessions take place in my home-- there's always something on the stove (my husband loves to feed a crowd) and my kids and foster kids are always welcome in the discussion. We value creativity-- all of our YouTube videos were developed by volunteers (here's a link: http://zimmannforcongress.com/category/news/video/). When I am in parades, none of us ride in a car or a float-- we're on the ground, shaking hands, listening to people's concerns and stories. We have thirty townhall meetings ahead of us (and for each townhall meeting our volunteers are making over 2,000 phonecalls) all over the fourteen counties of this district. I have a short opening speech, but then I turn my attention to the people, answering questions, hearing their concerns, and simply being empathic to their needs. One of my favorite campaign supporters is an electrician out in Williams county. He's taken Christmas lights and constructed a huge lit "Zimmann" sign in his yard. All because I took the time to talk with him while visiting the striking workers at the Cooper Tire plant in Findlay, Ohio. When I speak in any venue, I tell the people that we belong to each other-- it doesn't get much more grassroots than this.