2 female Democrats vie to take on 12-term GOP incumbent

CINCINNATI » Some years, Democrats have struggled to field a viable candidate in Ohio’s 1st U.S. House district. This year, they have two.

A career health care advocate, Kate Schroder, and a veteran Air Force pilot, Nikki Foster, have shown the ability to raise money and attract supporters as they prepare to clash in the state’s March 17 primary for the nomination to challenge 12-term Republican incumbent Steve Chabot of Cincinnati.

Both have television commercials running and both are married mothers of two young children hoping to appeal to the kind of suburban women who helped Democrats in other states pick up enough seats in 2018 to win a House majority.

“I think that they both have great resumes, they both have great stories to tell,” said David Niven, a

University of Cincinnati political scientist.

They also offer fresh faces: neither has held elective office before in contrast to Chabot, who was first elected in 1985 to Cincinnati city council.

For Foster, 38, her story is about flying 200-plus missions over Afghanistan and Iraq, having an Air Force husband and being the daughter of immigrants. For Schroder, 42, it’s years of working for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, serving two years in Zambia and working on the Cincinnati Board of Health. She has deep ties to the community as a fifth-generation Cincinnatian.

Both have criticized Chabot for his votes against Obamacare and talking about their own personal experiences with health care: Schroder survived a bout with lymphoma, while Foster’s second child had to overcome being born with a hole in his heart.