Magaw makes second bid for Ohio House seat

• By Lauren Shows
• Published: October 16, 2026

Yellow Springer Krista Magaw is again asking voters to send her to Columbus — and asking what they need from the state when she gets there.

A local resident and former executive director of Tecumseh Land Trust, Magaw is running as the Democratic candidate for Ohio House District 71 against Republican incumbent Levi Dean, who won the seat in 2024, running against Magaw. District 71 encompasses all of Clinton County, eastern Greene County — including Yellow Springs — and a southern portion of Clark County.

Speaking with the News last week, Magaw said she believes she could win the election if she had the chance to meet everyone in the district. She knows she won’t reach everyone, but still holds a keen optimism as she knocks on doors and visits municipal meetings across the three counties. The conversations she’s had on doorsteps and in meeting rooms, she said, have reinforced her concerns about the state’s priorities, particularly as rural communities contend with rising costs and large developments.

“They feel like the state’s been ignoring them,” Magaw said of the people she’s met during her campaign. “The truth is that there’s great inequality in Ohio, and that some people are doing perfectly well, and other people are doing worse every day.”

Her first campaign began in June 2024, when she replaced James Duffee after the Democratic primary winner withdrew from the race. This time, she started organizing in February, and said about 60 people are now volunteering for her campaign.

Magaw said her experience in running in 2024, in part, taught her that Democrats have too often overlooked rural districts where Republicans have historically held an advantage — something she hopes this campaign can help change.

“Well, the Democrats haven’t felt like they had a chance to win in districts like this one, and so they’ve put their effort where they felt like they would have the most impact, which is mostly cities,” she said.

Getting out and talking to the electorate at their homes, she added, has brought a different response than some volunteers anticipated.

“The people who answer their doors are surprised that a candidate is coming to their door, because it’s been so rare, especially for Democrats,” Magaw said.

Having grown up in McConnelsville on the Muskingum River, Magaw said that in her first campaign the decline of rural small towns was a motivator for her candidacy. This year, she’s been visiting the district’s 26 townships to hear directly from the people responsible for keeping those communities functioning.

At the Miami Township Trustees meeting Monday, Oct. 5, Magaw said she had four more townships to visit after Miami Township; that very evening, after speaking with the trustees of her own township, she was headed to a school board meeting in Xenia, and then to a meeting of Caesars Creek Township Trustees.

She asked the local Township trustees and others present what they needed more of — or less of — from the state. When Trustee Chris Mucher asked about her views on the state’s Local Government Fund, which offers a dedicated share of the state’s General Revenue fund to local municipalities, she said she’s in favor of increasing it, particularly as the state’s funding models put the majority of the burden of funding local government bodies on property taxes. She also called for examining road funding to better account for rural road mileage and maintenance needs, including the effects of heavy construction traffic.

In her interview with the News, Magaw spoke about local funding difficulties and state tax cuts that, in her view, have shifted too much responsibility onto townships and municipalities.

“So the Township trustees are trying to keep the holes in their roads filled,” she said. “You know, they’re doing a lot of the labor themselves.”

Data center proposals have also brought concerns to District 71, particularly in Clinton County, where a proposed 471-acre Amazon data center is currently stalled amid legal challenges about transparency and public input on development. At Monday’s meeting, Magaw said township officials in Clinton County had described being excluded from decisions about other developments affecting their communities. She questioned nondisclosure agreements between local officials and developers, and said she would support legislation addressing their use.

“If a government wants to get a tax break to an industry to locate there, that’s something that people should know about ahead of time, and have a chance to weigh in on it,” she told trustees.

Magaw’s platform includes protecting water and farmland, regulating utilities and supporting local business startups. Her years with Tecumseh Land Trust, where she served as executive director from 2001 to 2021, put her in contact with farmers and rural communities throughout Greene and Clark counties.

She said public education also remains a central priority, crediting public schools with the opportunities her own family has had. Her mother was a teacher, she said, and her platform opposes diverting public school funding to private school tuition and calls for funding that meets Ohio-Supreme-Court-mandated requirements.

“I want to see constitutional funding as required in the state of Ohio for our schools,” she said at Monday’s meeting. “We really need to invest in our public schools.”

Before conservation work, Magaw spent 25 years in mental health. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University and previously served as policy program director for Pennsylvania’s Office of Mental Health. Drawing on her mental health work, Magaw said strengthening support services means connecting education, health care and employment programs, and making sure legislation delivers what it promises.

“Overall, I would say a difference for me as a candidate is that I have a lot of experience with policy implementation,” Magaw said. “You can pass a good law, and it can be implemented terribly, and result in none of the expectations of the people who voted for it or supported it. … You have to build measurable benchmarks into the legislation.”

To that end, Magaw said she sees both listening and responding to the folks an official is elected to legislate for as crucial to understanding when policies fall short.

“Constituent service is a huge piece of a legislator’s job, because that legislator needs to know that the policy isn’t working,” she said.

Amid her concerns about distrust of government and barriers to participation, Magaw said she aims to find joy in connecting with people and taking time to listen.

“I mean, you lean into joy every chance you get,” she said. “You know, I think that’s the biggest thing. And just to connect with people, just to listen to people, take the time, be present, as much as you can. That’s what I strive for, and on my good days, I do more of that.”

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