Election Day is less than a week away, and both candidates for governor have made early childhood education and health central to their campaigns, in part because of Vote for Ohio Kids. Vote for Ohio Kids is a nonpartisan statewide effort dedicated to ensuring all 2018 gubernatorial candidates commit to making children’s early education and health a top priority. The initiative is led jointly by Groundwork Ohio and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association in partnership with business, healthcare, and early education leaders as well as child advocates from around the state.

Last month, Vote for Ohio Kids hosted a Leadership Forum that included Republican candidate Mike DeWine and Democratic candidate Richard Cordray discussing why they vote for Ohio kids. During the forum, Rich Cordray said “there’s much that government can do to support families,” and that he “will stand up and fight for Ohio’s kids and make sure they’re a priority in terms of funding, in terms of attention, and in terms of making progress.” Mike DeWine said, “I want for every child in this state to be happy. My goal is to have every child in Ohio graduate high school ready, but to get there we have to get to our most at-risk kids.” He also said, “My number one priority is children.” You can watch both candidates’ full panel discussions and the rest of the event sessions here.

Each candidate also completed a questionnaire about early childhood priorities. You can read their full answers here.

With Election Day so close, we encourage you to get to know these candidates better and to #Vote4OhioKids on November 6^th! If you need to check your polling location or want to see a sample ballot, visit MyOhioVote.com.