Calfee Connections

On the latest episode of Calfee NOW, Leah Pappas Porner and Michael Bowen spoke with Ohio State Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou.

Topics included:

• State Representative-Elect Demetriou's background and what made him decide to run for office
• Details about the issues facing District 35 and his plans to address those issues while in office
• Issues he thinks will be addressed in the upcoming Ohio General Assembly
• The vision he has for the future of the state of Ohio.

Watch the full episode.

Video Transcript

Mike Bowen:

All right. Welcome to another edition of Calfee NOW, along with my colleague, Leah Pappas Porner, Partner and Chair of our Government Relations practice group. My name is Mike Bowen, and today we are joined by State Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou. Good morning, Representative. How are you?

Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou:

Hey, Mike. I'm great, Leah. Mike, thanks for having me. Doing great. Thanks.

Mike Bowen:

Absolutely. So we'll, we'll get right into it. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and why you decided to run for office?

Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou:

Sure. Yeah. I so I moved to northeast Ohio as a young boy. And after high school I attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Got earned a degree in economics and then served five years as an infantry officer in the Army which was, you know, kind of my first lesson in leadership. Mainly served as a platoon leader and then as an aid to camp to a general officer, deployed to Afghanistan in 2014, and then left the service a couple years later to start my first business and employed just over 60 people at our peak and had 10 retail locations and a mobile fleet. We prepared like consumer electronics and it was fun growing that business. I sold that to a larger company last summer. And then now, as you know, Mike, I operate an investment real estate investment business with my family but really been kind of found myself as a full-time candidate during this, my first political campaign this past year.

More importantly than that, though, I'm a husband, and my wife Carly, we've been together over a decade. So she experienced all this journey with me that I just kind of laid out. And we have two beautiful boys, Steven, who's 15 months in Theodore, who's three months, and also very active in my church, Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Cleveland Heights, and that's also a very big part of my life. So that's kind of me in, in a minute. I think hopefully that was less than a minute, but that's a quick background on who I am.

Leah Pappas Porner:

Well, thanks for sharing your great background. Tell the listeners a little bit about your district and where some of the issues that are maybe that as you've campaigned, that you've learned from your district and what you'll be bringing to Columbus with, with that knowledge.

Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou:

Sure. Yeah. So District 35, which is newly drawn after this you know, latest round of redistricting that Ohio went through this past year. It is a new district. It encompasses parts of three counties. So the southern part of Geauga County, where I live with my family. So we have Bainbridge Township over to Middlefield Township, then we wrap around Portage County. So I have the Eastern and Southernmost townships in Portage County, and then we go into the Summit County. So, you know, essentially the southeastern ring of Akron, those suburbs. And you know, it's, it's a very diverse geographically, socioeconomically, and it encompasses a lot of different people and places, you know, so it's been fun kind of learning about the ag community and parts of Portage and Geauga County, and then dealing with, you know, affluent business owners in other parts of the district.

And you know, everything in between, you know, we have a big Amish population in Middlefield. So it, it's been fun learning about all the challenges, issues and, and the good things too that, that people are facing in their, you know, lives and their businesses, and that their families are facing. So obviously we live in a dynamic world. These things are always changing. I'd say that my background that I just kind of went through really has helped me understand and empathize with people. So, especially being a platoon leader in the Army where, you know, leading 40 young men and men that were older and more experienced than I was in combat and in in military service, has really allowed me to understand and connect with people on a broad level on this political campaign and will certainly help me as an elected official.

 You know, during those five years in the service, I dealt with every, you know, people from all over the world, all different life experiences. And as a young leader, I learned how to, you know, connect with them and, and address their needs. And that's certainly something I'm going to bring to the table as in the, in the Ohio House. So and then kind of piggybacking on the end of Mike's question, which didn't get to, I think, you know, just my, my experiences as a business owner and as a family man you know, those are kind of the two main reasons why I decided to run, owning and operating a small business during COVID was challenging. And I certainly empathize with a lot of the business owners and employees I've talked to over the last year and also families as well that, you know, want to see more options when it comes to education. And as a new dad, that's something I'm really interested in just for my own family and to address for, for others in the district and, and the state really. So.

Mike Bowen:

Great. Well, Steve, as you know we're approaching lame duck session here for the 134th GA, and although you technically will not be sworn in until January, what are some issues that you see kind of coming up in the next couple of months here as we wrap up session? And I guess as a second question to that, what do you see some issues that'll spill over in the next year and some issues you'll have to have on your table?

Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou:

Yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of big issues that we're going to address in the next general assembly, but certainly some that will hopefully get addressed, you know, in this lame duck session that you laid out, Mike. But I think over the next couple months, you know, we've already read about it in the news, but you know, there's an, a big surplus of ARPA funding that, that we're sitting on in Ohio, which is exciting. But hopefully the, the legislature gets it right on how to deploy the billions of dollars that, that we're, we're sitting on and in, in surplus. So I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, what that looks like and potentially that's something that'll kind of flow into the next general assembly. You know, most recently we all read about the Constitutional Protection Act, which is going to raise the threshold of popular votes required to amend the Ohio Constitution, which was kind of introduced by two of my mentors and friends, Representative Brian Stewart and Secretary Frank La Rose.

 They've been really great to me on, on over this past year. And, you know, two really smart guys. So looking forward to seeing that get through the legislature as well. And lots of others. The other important issues, social and economic, I think going into next year you know, I don't want to get into kind of some questions I think that will be coming, but we're going to see a lot on school choice and tax reform, which is exciting. Those are two things I talked a lot about on my campaign and that I would definitely like to help champion. So I, you know, I look forward to addressing a myriad of issues and I always say you can't predict the future. I'm going to be a freshman member of, of a team of 99, so I definitely want to find my legislative niche, so to speak, and I look forward to doing that. But and championing, you know, championing conservative issues that I'm passionate about that I know a lot of my constituents are as well.

Leah Pappas Porner:

Speaking of your constituent’s big news in Columbus was the informal election of Speaker-Elect Merrin. Talk a little bit about what you're anticipating with his leadership and maybe some of the ways that you will work with him and topics, et cetera.

Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou:

Sure. I'll just say this about Speaker-Elect Merrin. He definitely was helpful to me and many other first-time candidates across Ohio and especially northeast Ohio, where we had a lot of tough Republican races. So I was appreciative of that. I got to, I fortunately got to meet him early on in the campaign and he made a couple of trips up to northeast Ohio to meet with me, support me. Got to run into him a couple times in Columbus as well over the past year. So I was really happy for him that he got the nod last, last week in, or two weeks ago in Columbus. And you know, look forward to, to working with him and, and being a champion for his agenda. I think you know, we aligned on a lot of issues that was pretty clear from our first meeting.

 He's kind of a tax expert and has spent a lot of time, you know, reading about his kind of legislative career in the house, a lot of time focusing on some tax issues. We share desire to eliminate the state income tax and some other taxes that target small business owners, like the Corporate Activities Tax. So I think that'll be something we see a lot of going into the next general assembly. You know, I know Derek's also really passionate about implementing school choice across the state. I think something that you know, I hope to bring to the table is, you know, just some local knowledge of how that's gone down in places like the Cleveland Public School system where we, we have a flavor of school choice already and kind of taking the good, leaving the bad and, and rolling that out across the state to give parents and kids more, more choice when it comes to how they get educated and where, where their harder and tax dollars go to work.

 So I think those are two of the big things that I've heard Derek talk about or Speaker-Elect Merrin talk about you know, over the past year and certainly as we've, as we kind of wound up towards his nod in the caucus to be our next speaker. So, you know, I think you're going to see young, conservative, passionate leadership. I think he's a rising star in Ohio and especially in the Republican party. And he's a straight, straight shooter. He does what he says. That's what I've seen from him the last, you know, year or so. And I'm really excited to work with him and push his agenda forward.

Mike Bowen:

Great. Steve, to piggyback off of that kind of conversation and Leah's question, generally speaking, you know, what would you like to see and how would you like to see the state of Ohio form? You know, so long as you're an elected official? I mean, I know that's a, a kind of a long question there, but you know, we're, I think you're going to have a long runway in politics, so trying to see what you want <laugh> trying to see what you want the state of Ohio to accomplish moving forward.

Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou:

Yeah, I'm going to sound like you know, a broken record here, but I think we are going to do, I think school choice will be, you know, implemented to some degree in this next general assembly. I think it just generationally, which I, I'd like to see Ohio kind of, you know think and, and plan and, and execute kind of in a more generational mindset. I think there's nothing more important than making sure kids get the best education possible. And, you know, that's going to, that's going to overflow into so many aspects of our lives. Like, you know, I know the business community appreciates that because we're going to have a stronger workforce a more skilled and educated workforce that, you know, will output better products and services for, for, for their customers. So that's exciting and we're just going to have stronger leaders in Ohio if we get that right.

So that's something I certainly look forward to, probably the most out of anything just because it affects, it affects our lives now and in many, many decades into the future if we get that right. And then secondly is you know, really being a champion for small businesses, and I know that's something your clients will appreciate and to me, you know, from a guy who operated a small business in a place like Texas where the economy's booming there is no state income tax you know, a lot of businesses both small and large, or moving to places like Texas and Florida I think we, we can create that mojo, if you will, here in Ohio too. And I think it starts with you know, a really smart tax, tax base tax reform policy that gets people excited about moving to Ohio and doing business here.

And I think we have a great opportunity to do that. Lastly, I'll say this is, you know, I hear a lot of folks talk about economic development, and I think that's good. And I think though, in order for it to be good, you have to do it the right way. And, you know, hopefully that's where, you know, my experience as a, as a small business owner and investor you know, I can kind of provide some real world insight to how we can get that right in Ohio. And I know that'll be an important issue moving into the next general assembly as well. So that's, those are just a couple things I'd like to see. And then, you know, lastly, I talked about kind of getting into my own rhythm as a freshman legislator. I think one area that I'd like to champion, in addition to all those other issues I laid out, is really being a subject matter expert on China and how we can combat, you know, Chinese communist influence at the state level.

And you know, reading, there's a lot of literature out there about, about how unfortunately organized the, the Chinese Communist Party is, and they can get down to the kind of the most local levels of government and society across the globe, including here in the United States. And I think both for, you know, our families and our business community, it's really important that we start thinking about that to make sure that we're, we kind of eliminate some of those vulnerabilities here in Ohio. So that's something I'd like to kind find a niche in the, in the legislature the next couple years and beyond.

Leah Pappas Porner:

It's great to hear from you today. And you know, it strikes me to say thank you for your service, not only to our nation, but also now to our state. And that term “servant leader” comes to mind in listening to you today. And I just want to say thank you for joining Calfee and this Calfee NOW and to for getting to know you over this last year. It's been wonderful to hear how you think and your enthusiasm for coming to Columbus and serving your district and the state of Ohio. So thanks for those of us that participate in the process. Thank you for your service, Mike. I'll kick it over to you.

Mike Bowen:

Yeah. You know, Steve, we're both personal friends, but on take the personal side out of it, you know, congratulations, you know, I'm looking forward to, and I know the whole Calfee team's looking forward to working with you in the future and we're, we're excited for January. And so, you know, with that, I don't know if you have any closing remarks you want to make to just our client base and whoever's listening and, you know, we'll wrap up from there.

Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou:

Sure. well first, Leah and Mike, thank you for your friendship and your support and thanks to the entire Calfee team for, you know, supporting me and investing in my campaign, helping me get to where I am now and, and hopefully a lot of good things in the future. So thanks to Team Calfee and you guys are first class organization and it's exciting that you have a big base in both Northeast Ohio and Columbus, which is great for me. And I think our state, frankly, and to your clients, I just say, look, I'm your champion in the State house, whether you're in my district or not. You know, I've pulled supporters in and outside of my district that, that if you can't vote for me, that's fine, because my vote's going to affect your life if you're, if you live here, if you do business here or all the above.

So I look forward to being a servant leader like Leah laid out for, for your clients and for your team. And you know, you know, I think that's, Leah said it, I want to be a servant leader, big and small, right? I think some of the, the things I've enjoyed the most on the campaign or just hearing some old lady come up to me and say, “Hey, I don't have cell phone service, or I have slow internet. What can you do? Is this something you can help me with?” And I, I can't wait to tackle those small issues that are a big deal to people. That's something that'd be a big, big deal to me. And you know, I look forward to solving those issues big and small and just working hard for, for Ohio, especially northeast Ohio. So just all I can say is thanks for having me on and, and really appreciative of your support and let's, yeah, let's just go get some good things done in ‘23 and ‘24.

Mike Bowen:

Yeah. With that, I think we'll conclude this Calfee NOW. Thanks again, Steve.

Leah Pappas Porner:

Thanks Steve.

Representative-Elect Steve Demetriou:

Thank you.