My name is Paul Michael Kurtz, and I’m a father, a husband, a business leader, a nonprofit board member, an accidental activist, and a proud Catholic.

 

I am running to fight for District 55 in the Ohio Legislature because everyone deserves to be heard and represented.

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I was born in Sandusky and grew up in a trailer park in a mobile home. My mom was a music teacher. My dad was a county police officer. I learned from a very early age that dignity doesn’t come from money or privilege. It comes from service, sacrifice, and community.

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When my mom got sick in high school, the medical bills nearly bankrupted us. That was my first lesson in how broken our healthcare system really is.

And after college, I was so happy when I got my first real job. Only to I find myself having to work two jobs just to pay rent and eat because of student loan debt.

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For the last two decades, I’ve worked my way up from the bottom to the top of a publicly traded company. I've negotiated multi-million-dollar deals, led teams through recessions, a pandemic and senseless trade wars. I’ve seen how bad policy can wipe out thousands of jobs through layoffs.

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Strong public education is foundational to my beliefs. My mother was a teacher. My wife was an intervention specialist and union representative. And through my work on the board of directors of the Kids in Need Foundation, the only national non-profit in the country that provides free school supplies to the most underserved classrooms, I’ve seen how poverty follows kids into the classroom and how teachers are forced to buy supplies with their own money just to give their students a fair chance.

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I’ve lived and am living what so many Ohioans have lived and are living, the stress, the sacrifice, the fear that doing everything right still might not be enough.

 

And while our representatives loudly claim faith and values, they often forget that what matters most is how we live them and how we treat others. My faith guides me in a simple belief: dignity and safety belong to everyone, no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you believe. Because I believe what I hope you believe, it should not have to happen to you for it to matter to you. 

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We need more fighters in Ohio who will take power back for working families. My life has been a fight, from health care to student debt to overcoming poverty and working my way up in business. But like so many Ohioans, I’m resilient and tough. And in 2026, Warren County will show the rest of Ohio that we’re ready to stand up and fight.

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