Feeling like nothing ever changes, no matter who wins? That’s not an accident. Here’s who’s behind it — and why your vote is the one thing they’re most afraid of.
You might not be interested in politics, but politics is definitely interested in you.
Your boss? Interested in politics. Your health insurance company? Very interested in politics. The big corporations that set the prices of your groceries, your rent, your prescriptions? Deeply, obsessively, write-a-check-for-a-million-dollars interested in politics.
They show up. Every single time. Because they want you to do what’s best for them, not what’s best for you.
The late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan said it plainly: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” Right now, corporations and career politicians have a seat at the table. Do you?
Here’s just how valuable your vote is and how much power it holds.
Reason 1: Votes Are Worth Billions of Dollars
Seriously. Billions.
When the Supreme Court sided with Citizens United in 2010, it opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate money in elections. The court ruled that corporations could spend unlimited money on elections as a form of free speech. Just like that, a century of campaign finance limits was wiped out.
According to the Brennan Center, dark money more than doubled in the 2024 federal elections to $1.9B. We’re not talking about your neighbor writing a check to a candidate they believe in. We’re talking about corporations and billionaires pumping money into elections through shell organizations with names like “Freedom Frontier” and “Securing Ohio’s Future” — groups designed to sound patriotic.
That money isn’t being spent out of civic pride. It’s being spent to shape what you think, who you trust, and how you vote — or whether you bother to vote at all. Every misleading ad, every fear-based mailer, every attack you see on your phone — someone with very deep pockets paid for it. And they didn’t spend billions just to lose.
Here in Ohio, the HB6 scandal — the largest public corruption case in Ohio history — shows exactly how this works. Utility companies secretly spent $60 million to buy seats and votes in the Ohio House, securing passage of a billion-dollar bailout of failing nuclear and coal plants. Ohio ratepayers are still paying for it.
The Supreme Court assumed all this money would be transparent. It isn’t. Citizens United has allowed big money to spend billions influencing voters — often in secret, and in coordination with candidates’ campaigns.
Here’s what’s remarkable: 88% of Democrats, 85% of Republicans, and 84% of independents all say they support requiring outside groups to disclose where their money comes from. This isn’t a partisan issue. Most people, regardless of party, think this is wrong. Which means the people keeping it in place aren’t representing most of us.
When a corporation can spend more on an election than your entire zip code earns in a year, the idea of equal representation starts to look pretty shaky.
Maria believes people—not corporations—should have the strongest voice in our democracy.
If this all makes you feel defeated and disengaged — like the game is rigged and your voice doesn’t matter — you’re not alone. Most people in Ohio 14 feel exactly the same way. Maria calls that the Massive Middle, and it’s exactly who she’s running for.
Reason 2: Voter Suppression Proves Your Vote Matters
In Ohio, politicians have been drawing their own district maps for years — essentially designing the playing field to ensure they win. The Ohio Supreme Court struck down those gerrymandered maps seven times between 2021 and 2022. Seven times!
And the politicians in charge ignored the court. The highest court in Ohio told lawmakers their maps were illegal. The lawmakers said, “We don’t care.” And they got away with it.
That is voter suppression.
People don’t work this hard to cancel your vote if it wasn’t valuable. They do it because they’re afraid of you. And they should be.
Reason 3: Your Vote Is More Powerful During Midterms
Many people only focus on elections every four years when the presidency is on the ballot. But Members of Congress— the lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate who vote on issues such as healthcare, education funding, taxes, jobs, and national defense—are on the ballot far more often than the presidency.
Generally, about 64% of eligible voters show up for presidential elections. In other elections? That number drops to under 48%. Those votes determine who sits in Congress.
Think about that. A small, motivated group of people who show up when everyone else doesn’t — they’re deciding who represents you in Washington. Shaping the laws that govern your healthcare, your paycheck, and your family.
The corporations funding dark money ads know midterm voter turnout is typically lower. Career politicians know this. They are counting on you to treat midterms like they don’t matter.
They matter enormously. And so do you.
Ohio Needs You. Specifically, Actually You.
Ohio 14 has had the same representative for 14 years. Fourteen years of the same priorities, the same power structures, the same people deciding who gets a seat and who gets left out.
Change doesn’t happen on its own. It happens because enough people decide they’re done waiting for someone else to fix it.
Almost every problem facing this district has a known solution. The ideas aren’t the problem. The problem is that the people with the power to fix things are financially dependent on the people who benefit from keeping things broken. Maria’s running to change that.
We’re not simply asking for your vote. We’re asking you to believe in the power of your vote — in what becomes possible when people who care about this community show up and make their voices heard.
Ohio needs your vote. Ohio needs your voice. Ohio needs you at the table, not on the menu.
Let’s get to work.