A longtime critic of a controversial Ohio congressman has launched a political action committee with one simple goal: Get Jim Jordan out of office. Officially registered as “Ohio CD4 PAC,” the organization is operating as “The Jordan Watch,” a grassroots effort that Janet Garrett says she founded in 2011 after meeting her new congressman, first elected in 2006.
[W]hen my hometown of Oberlin, OH was gerrymandered into Ohio’s Fourth Congressional District, Jim Jordan became my Congressman. I made it my business to learn more about Congressman Jordan, so I attended a public meeting to bring my concerns to him.
When I had my chance, I told him: “I am concerned about your kind of leadership.”“And why’s that,” he asked, smirking. “Because I’m a woman, and a teacher, and a union leader. And you stand against all of that.” There was a pause. He looked up, with that classic Jim Jordan smirk and said, “You know I’m against abortion in all cases too, right?”
I was appalled. Instead of assuring me that he would be a representative of all his constituents and seek to bring us together, he chose to mock me. From that moment, I swore that I would do everything I could to monitor his agenda and make sure that people knew who was representing them in Congress.
The next day, I founded The Jordan Watch.
Garrett has run against Jordan three times since meeting him, but never got close to victory, despite getting a surge in support after Jordan was accused by the wrestling team of the Ohio State University, for which he served as an assistant coach, of helping cover up sexual assaults. Now she’s looking for an opponent who can actually take the reviled Freedom Caucus co-founder down in his next campaign to represent the heavily gerrymandered district.