Medina Today

Ohio attorney and business owner Martin Kerr of Kerr Legal recently voiced his official support for GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci in his bid to unseat incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine. 

Kerr is one of 100 Ohio business owners who recently endorsed Renacci, Ohio Business Daily reported. Other entrepreneurs who have officially endorsed Renacci's campaign include Mario Innocenzi of Mario's Barber Shop and Andrew Pappas of Cleaner Concepts.

Medina Today reached out to Kerr to see what made him want to support Jim Renacci in this election.

"Jim Renacci is a former Congressman, but before he was politician, he was a businessman for number of years," Kerr told Medina Today. "He was very successful until the government made the unilateral decision to take his dealerships away during the whole GM takeover in the great recession." 

"And then he ran on a platform for government reform," Kerr added. "He went to Washington, and he did what he said he was going to do. When time to get things done had run out, he came back to Ohio realizing that the best way you can do good in government is at a more local level and Ohio needs a guy like Jim Renacci who actually understands business."

Kerr also told Medina Today that he would have supported Renacci for Ohio governor in the last gubernatorial election, but Jim decided to run for congress instead.

"I did not support Mike DeWine in the last election," Kerr told Medina Today. "Personally, I believe that most politicians should have second jobs. Mike DeWine is a career politician who, really, in my opinion, has never done a good for the state of Ohio or anybody else other than his own family."

Kerr would like to see the next governor of Ohio focus on rebuilding business and the economy.

"I think that Ohio needs to have a robust economy," Kerr told Medina Today. Small to medium business is the backbone of a good economy and Ohio's lost a lot of businesses with COVID and the lockdowns that Mike DeWine put into place that had absolutely no science behind them. Mike DeWine in the State of Ohio as it sat two years ago, in my opinion, actively destroyed small business in this economy."

"Jim Renacci is a former accountant he's a guy that understands the tax system which is pretty complicated in this country and he's somebody that's going to understand how to stimulate the economy and work with the people in the House, to make sure that that happens," Kerr added. "I think he's open to issues that are affecting younger businesspeople. The fact is that millennials are now middle aged, and I think Jim understands how some of these millennials are changing and changing really how businesses is done and I think he's somebody that supports those businesses."

Renacci, 63, is an accountant and entrepreneur. He was spurred to run for Congress in 2010 after the Obama administration forced General Motors dealerships across the country to close in 2009, according to Renacci's website. Renacci had been running one of those dealerships, and 50 Ohioans lost their jobs when it was shut down. He won election to U.S. Congress in 2010 as part of the Tea Party movement and went to Washington to defend the rights and livelihoods of hardworking Americans. He later endorsed Donald Trump over then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the 2016 primary for president.

DeWine, 75, was former Ohio Gov. John Kasich's choice to replace him in 2019, according to West Hamilton News. He is one of the longest-serving public officials in state history, having been in elected office for 41 years. That includes stints in the Ohio State Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Ohio attorney general and lieutenant governor.

DeWine will face off against Renacci in the May 3 GOP gubernatorial primary, according to Ballotpedia. The winner will go on to the Nov. 8 general election.