Editor’s Note: we reached out to State Rep. Juanita Brent to include her in our review of this district race. She failed to keep multiple appointments with our reporter or to respond to questions that were emailed to her after she failed to meet.

As both a minister and a teacher, Rev. Vincent E. Stokes, II sees himself driven to protect the residents of Ohio’s newly reconfigured House District 22 and beyond from what he deems the immoral consequences of one legal bombshell and the negative school funding byproducts of another.

“I think we have prevalent and pressing issues in regards to the state — that is the overturning of Roe — and in my district, one of the pressing concerns for a large number of constituents is the issue of ed choice and vouchers,” says the University Heights resident.

Stokes, 36, hopes to win the nod from voters in next week’s Democratic Party contest for the House of Representative’s 22nd district seat by the time voting in Ohio’s primary election closes August 2^nd. He is facing off against two other candidates, District 12 democratic incumbent Juanita Brent, 38, of Columbus and former District 9 democratic challenger Danielle Dronet, 57, of Cleveland Heights.

If elected, Stokes said he will fight to return to women critical rights they lost when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade last month.

“The issue is women having access to reproductive health and reproductive rights, and … a woman’s right to the autonomy of her body. In the inverse, as a man, I would have great pause if I wanted a vasectomy and I could not get one. Also, in the inverse of Roe, what if it was ruled that you were obligated to get an abortion? We’re talking about body autonomy, which I think is very relevant as a state issue and in my district. That’s why we need to continue to send people downstate who will fight for not only the reproductive rights of humans, but for the body autonomy.”

Stokes likewise believes Ohio school district funding regulations are far overdue for change.

“The [Ohio] Supreme Court has stated that the way Ohio funds schools is unconstitutional,” he says, citing the court’s 1997 ruling.

The court left the task of restructuring the funding process up to the state, but state constitutionally compliant change has yet to happen. Many of the state’s districts with high percentages of children living below the federal poverty line have been routinely underfunded as a result of the state’s reliance on property valuations to determine dollars-per-student allocations.

“So you have a city like East Cleveland whose properties are not valued as high as, let’s say, Shaker Heights. So East Cleveland is not able to fund their schools in the way that Shaker or Cleveland Hts.-University Hts., and those residents pay some of the highest taxes in the entire state.”

Stokes sees the inequity as an indirect driver for parents to seek in private or charter schools what they believe will be a better education choice, only to be disappointed in the end.

“We’re giving people access to tax dollars to fund their children’s private education, or sending them to charter schools, and we don’t have means as taxpayers to tell the charter schools how we want our tax dollars to be spent,” he explained. “In Cleveland Hts.-University Hts., or in Shaker, Warrensville, or East Cleveland, you can vote on who want to see on the school board. You don’t get to do that in charter schools or parochial schools, yet they want our tax dollars. It’s really taxation without representation.”

That Stokes sees education as a central issue is no surprise. He counts among his several degrees a bachelor's from Fisk University, where he was student body president, and Yale University, where he received a Master of Divinity. He earned his doctorate of divinity from Azusa Pacific and has plans to earn a law degree.

Stokes first attempted to enter state-level politics in 2020 when he challenged then-Rep. Janine Boyd but came up short. He says he did not intend run again, but a student’s personal concern caused him to reconsider.

“I took about fifty of my students downstate last November [when the General Assembly] was voting on House Bill 99, which allows teachers to carry firearms in the classroom,” he recalled. “On the ride back, one of my students asked me if we were now going to have guns in our schools. So that experience was triggering for some of my students, and they often deal with gun violence on a daily basis.” I told the student that the bill will likely pass because it is backed by Republicans who hold a super majority in the House. I told him that I would do all I can to make sure we are safe in my classroom. That’s really what propelled me back into this fight.”

Boyd’s resignation this past April — to become the Region 5 director of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services — convinced Stokes that the race for the seat would be wide open, especially considering how the state’s Republicans redrew the 9^th district, adding several communities — including Shaker Hts., Warrensville Hts., the Villages of North Randall and Highland Hills, the Lee-Harvard and Ludlow areas of Cleveland — to the district’s former core of Cleveland Hts., East Cleveland, and parts of Collinwood.¹ The Ohio Supreme Court’s has ruled the realignment unconstitutional, but a federal court has upheld its use for the current electoral cycle.

Stokes sees as problematic Ohio’s use of a bipartisan redistricting commission, which was established by constitutional amendment and designated for first time implementation this year.

“I think the way we get to more equitable lines is to have a commission that is not run or led by elected officials. It should be run by people who … are not themselves state representatives who are paid by their own people.”

The issues connected to gun safety, ed choice, school funding and reproductive choices all exact a heavy emotional toll on residents in the new district. Stokes says any school-level interventions must contain an important element. “I think it is very important that we have more social-emotional learning in our schools where students have access to not only therapy and counseling with professionals, but opportunities for students to share their struggles inside the classroom, and for it to be a safe space. I believe every school needs a social-emotional learning class that is required.”

More on Rev. Stokes’ campaign priorities and endorsements may be found on his website.

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¹ Bishara Addison of Shaker was selected by the House Democrats to serve the balance of Boyd’s term. She is not running for election to a full term.