WASHINGTON -- Melissa Ackison, a Marysville, Ohio woman whose health insurance difficulties were featured by the Trump White House as proof of Obamacare's problems, plans to run for U.S. Senate in 2018.
A Republican, Ackison presents a second challenger to GOP front-runner Josh Mandel, who already faces businessman Mike Gibbons.
Mandel is Ohio treasurer and ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2012. Although he lost to incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, Mandel proved himself a strong fund-raiser and already has support from influential conservative groups as he tries to take on Brown a second time.
Ackison, a 39-year-old mother of four sons, owns a surveying and engineering company with her husband. She says she has experience that Mandel and Gibbons lack. She has run a healthcare staffing agency. She worked in human relations for companies dealing with domestic and international operations and has seen how the push and pull of trade affects both sides, including plant closings in the United States. She says she grew up on the west side of Columbus, with strong blue collar roots she still maintains.
"I don't think the other two have their pulse on the real-world issues facing Americans, she told cleveland.com.
Ackison's Trump-health care connection:
Ackison was in the limelight in July when President Donald Trump invited her to the White House to share her story about the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. She has also appeared with Vice President Mike Pence as he held listening sessions on health-insurance problems he and Republicans ascribe to Obamacare.
Ackison said she has a rare bone condition but was mistakenly denied coverage for a necessary surgery. Meanwhile her then-eight-week old son was omitted from her family's insurance plan and couldn't get routine but necessary immunizations -- at a time another child was still contagious from an infectious disease.
While she was offered the chance to pay for the immunizations out of pocket, she said she couldn't afford to because the cost of premiums and deductibles for her ACA policy had drained her finances. U.S. Sen Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, helped resolve the coverage issues.
Portman, however, endorsed Mandel in May.
"I've seen firsthand what happens when you have a major issue and there are no resources," Ackison told cleveland.com. And, she added, "I know what a free market looked like before the ACA."
Ackison's competitive position:
Mandel and Gibbons hold similar views on the ACA and other policies. Ackison maintains her experience would make her more effective.
She said that when running a staffing agency that hired people for nursing positions, she saw firsthand how government social-welfare benefits discourage work and ambition.
"A lot of these women were really capable," she said. But the value of their housing, food-assistance and other government benefits made it financially worthwhile for them keep their incomes low -- and they quit when they might otherwise exceed the government's income limits and lose government benefits.
"I couldn't compete with the entitlements they were receiving," she said. "That makes it very difficiult and it puts them in a position where they are making wise economic decisions but they are really held back."
The ACA Medicaid expansion is another example of government losing sight of its mission, she said. The "Medicaid welfare program is a more robust plan" than private sector plans, she said, and that conflicts with what should be a goal for more independence and private-sector solutions.
Many of her positions are at odds with those of Brown, the incumbent Democrat. Brown supports the ACA and says the government provided solutions when players in the private sector, from health insurers and the pharmaceutical industry to banks, let Americans down.
Ackison, whose oldest son is in the Army, said she expects to formally announce her candidacy Monday.
Responding to news of Ackison's enry, Mike Biundo, a senior adviser to Gibbons, said in a statement, "The addition of another candidate in the race shows how vulnerable Josh Mandel is because voters don't want another career politician. Mike Gibbons is the conservative outsider and businessman who will match up best against the career politicians Sherrie Brown and Josh Mandel."