On the Issues
"I believe our best days are still ahead and our future is brighter than ever, and I am committed to investing in that future one issue at a time."
Common Sense Gun Safety
Neighborhood safety is Mayor Andrew Ginther’s top priority, that will never change. After nine of our neighbors in Dayton lost their lives in yet another mass shooting, Mayor Ginther joined Ohio Democrats demanding action, yet the state has refused to listen.
We know that the overwhelming majority of homicides in our city are committed with firearms, so Columbus is ready to act through common-sense gun legislation!
We’re leveraging our strength as a city to advocate for closing the loop on background checks and the passage of Safety Protection Orders.
We are providing protections for victims of domestic violence – with no exceptions for intimate partner violence.
We’ve spearheaded efforts to keep imitation firearms off the streets and out of the hands of minors.
We’ve added violent felonies to the nuisance code, allowing the city attorney to shut down properties that are a magnet for felony violence.
We’ve prohibited firearm sales in areas that are zoned as residential.
And through a partnership with Columbus Public Health, Columbus declared guns a public health crisis.
As a city, we have legal limits on the Common Sense Gun Safety Legislation we can enact. This is exactly why Mayor Ginther has spearheaded efforts to work together to find and support common-ground, bipartisan legislation that protects our kids, our families, our churches, our domestic violence victims, and our neighborhoods.
Time and again, Mayor Ginther has demanded state lawmakers listen to the overwhelming majority of our neighbors demanding action. Time and again, they refuse.
Mayor Ginther’s message is simple, join Columbus in allowing us to enforce common-sense measures that will keep neighbors safe or get out of our way!
Neighborhood Safety
I am proud of the accomplishments we’ve made together when it comes to neighborhood safety in the last eight years, firmly believing every address, no matter the neighborhood, should be safe for all who live there.
Together with Columbus Police officers, we have removed thousands of illegal weapons from our streets, hundreds of those considered assault-style weapons. We’ve seen reductions in crime rates citywide thanks to common-sense community partnerships.
Above all, we are putting more officers on the streets! Additional police officers on patrol means more community policing efforts making a difference in all our neighborhoods.
All our officers will have access to more crime data than ever before thanks to the Real Time Crime Center and Office of Violence Prevention coming online under my administration.
But we know there is more to be done. Crime data shows us a small number of our neighbors are responsible for a large amount of the crime in our communities. Unfortunately, we know youth are increasingly involved as well, and that’s why I’m also urging parents and neighbors to be advocates! Knowing where children are and enforcing curfew hours citywide is one of the simplest steps we can all take. We need our communities to say something if they see something.
Affordable Housing
In 2019, voters passed a Bond Package, which secured historic funding for Neighborhood Development and Housing that’s Affordable for Columbus Families.
Mayor Ginther remains focused on making sure families can stay in their homes as the city grows, instead of being priced out and forced to leave their neighborhoods.
Mayor Ginther routinely tells community members that anyone who works in this great city should be able to afford to live in the neighborhood of their choice.
We’ve been able to leverage a 100 million dollar investment from the private sector county-wide as a result of the committed 2019 bond funds.
We’ve launched the city’s first study into our incentives program in order to make sure the incentives are as effective as possible. We’re limiting tax abatements and tying them to housing that is affordable for working families.
We’ve piloted our Land Trust program, which permanently maintains affordability in a given neighborhood and ensures that we’re sustaining neighborhoods that are in the process of revitalization.
City leaders continue to have the Mayor’s back, passing expanded housing legislation in 2023!
There isn’t just one answer to this issue, but we’re working to find the best solutions for Columbus families.
Reproductive Rights
For my entire career, I have been a staunch supporter of ensuring choice when it comes to reproductive health care. That will never change.
After the fall of Roe last summer, I championed a package of legislation quickly adopted by Columbus City Council, giving Columbus neighbors every option available under Ohio’s restrictive reproductive laws radicals jammed into existence mere hours after the Supreme Court decision.
This fall, we have the opportunity to codify the right to choose on abortion and reproductive care into the Ohio Constitution. For me, this is a personal passion of ensuring health care decisions are made between a family and a physician, and not for a family by lawmakers on Capitol Square.
Success For Columbus
America’s Opportunity City is only that because we lead by example. I am proud to wake up every morning and fight to ensure everyone working and living in Columbus has every opportunity available to them.
Our city’s growth is only possible by working together. Together with our business partners, Columbus added 27,000 jobs since I took office. That’s enough workers to fill every seat in Nationwide Arena nearly one and a half times over. Despite the economic slowdown during COVID, our region is still expected to be home to three million people by 2050.
I am also proud to be a sustainable leader, with a clear vision for Columbus’s Carbon Neutrality by the same time. This year, we met our neighbors’ curbside concerns head-on and immediately cracked down on illegal dumping, while expanding curbside recycling to weekly collection. These simple actions mean less waste in our landfills and on our streets, and that means a safer and healthier Columbus for all.
On top of our local accomplishments, Columbus is a voice on the national stage, retaining major job centers and welcoming new ones like Intel and Amazon. Groups including the U.S. Conference of Mayors have held their annual conventions here instead of other major cities and the White House just named Columbus one of a select few “Workforce Hubs” across the country.
None of these opportunities for growth and success are possible without strategic, sound leadership in every city neighborhood. Columbus is my home. I am a proud graduate of Columbus City Schools and I would not be where I am today without what this amazing city has to offer and your continued support. But we can’t get Columbus to the next level unless we work together. I look forward to shaping Columbus’s future with you as your Mayor for years to come.
Make a donation.
Whether you can contribute $5 or $500, every dollar helps support Mayor Ginther’s mission to ensure that every child, every family, and every neighborhood shares in our city’s success.
Mayor Ginther is fighting to make Columbus work all of us.
Make a donation.
Whether you can contribute $5 or $500, every dollar helps support Mayor Ginther’s mission to ensure that every child, every family, and every neighborhood shares in our city’s success.
Mayor Ginther is fighting to make Columbus work all of us.
