Nelsonville City Auditor speaks on his campaign for state auditor, public service upbringing

After being raised in Nelsonville, a Southeast Ohio community of hardworking-people, Taylor Sappington naturally gravitated toward a life of public service. He’s served as a city councilmember in Nelsonville, and currently serves as auditor. 

Now he is hoping to be Ohio’s State Auditor come November. 

Sappington, a Democrat, is one of the youngest people to run for the position, the first openly gay candidate to run and, he said, “as far as anyone can tell the first person from Athens County to run for the position.” 

Sappington stated his childhood experiences are what inspired his campaign. 

“I grew up through a lot of struggles,” Sappington said. “Single-parent household, low income, sometimes no income, no stranger to benefits and disconnect notices. My mom was able to shield me and my brother from the worst statistics of poverty, but she didn’t do it alone. There were people like coaches, business owners, teachers, band instructors, people who did their part – some big, some small.”

Before running for city auditor, Sappington first served a term on Nelsonville’s City Council. As council member, he primarily focused on all the finances and the budget of the city. However, at the end of his term he saw something that was not right. He saw an issue with how City Hall was operating, primarily around the city auditor position. So, he decided to run.

A city auditor is responsible for overseeing everything from the financial pieces to city programs and departments by conducting information technology audits. The former deputy auditor for Nelsonville was found guilty of secretly stealing more than $300,000 under the previous city hall administration. The money was stolen via payroll, income tax and cash theft schemes.

“Where there was smoke, there had to be fire,” Sappington said. “I felt like I could do a better job than the guy who had the position, so I ran for city auditor. I still wanted to keep contributing and I felt like it was a good move for me to say, ‘I’m good at this and want to give back.’”

Running for state auditor was not something Sappington had originally planned for, however, he was approached by other officials from within the state who encouraged him to run. 

A state auditor is responsible for making the state’s government more efficient by placing checks and balances on local and state governments for taxpayers. 

“When I was approached, I gave it good consideration and I thought about the things we accomplished in Nelsonville,” Sappington said. “With Nelsonville elbowing its way into a higher stature and level of success within the region, I felt like I could accomplish that on the statewide level as well.” 

Sappington previously ran for the Ohio House of Representatives in 2018, losing the 94th district to incumbent Republican state Rep. Jay Edwards. The election was profiled by The New York Times opinion section, where Sappington was described as “the Perfect Red-State Democrat.” Sappington lost the race by 15 percentage points. 

With the campaign trail in full effect, Sappington has big plans for campaign outreach as he now focuses on the auditor position. With the COVID-19 pandemic winding down, Sappington was able to move his campaign from fully virtual to a true in-person campaign.

“We’ve been starting to travel,” Sappington said. “I’ve been to Findlay, Adams and Brown County, Hardin County, Hancock County, Zanesville, and Saint Clairsville. We have a tour where we are going to hit Toledo, Lima, Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus and Zanesville again. We are excited to be getting out there, into people’s neighborhoods and we are going to continue to grow that into the summer and fall.” 

Sappington has been met with some challenges along the way, adding that sometimes it is hard being the new guy. He said being the “rookie in the room” is never easy and at times he thinks people listen to him differently based on his age and where he is from. 

“I feel like when I’m speaking sometimes, I’ll see people’s faces change and then afterwards they’ll tell me, ‘Well nobody has said that before.’ I am learning that people have expectations based on the candidates they’ve had in the past,” Sappington said. 

If elected, Sappington has two primary objectives he would like to focus on: first, he hopes to construct a team to examine how corruption affects the state and contracting process. Second, he wants to fight against creation of district maps that unfairly benefit a particular political party or discriminate based on race. 

“I want to start a task force or at least an examination on how corruption impacts our legislative process in the state contracting process,” Sappington said. “In general, how corruption and money is distorting the government in Ohio and how it is impacting the taxpayer. The second is redistricting, considering that the legislative maps are not agreed upon by Democrats and Republicans. They almost certainly are going to be 4-year maps instead of 10-year maps and the state auditor will have a vital role in a new round of redistricting and I want to fight for fair honest maps that don’t cut and dice neighborhoods due to race and power.” 

Sappington is the only Democratic candidate on the primary ballot for state auditor. He will face incumbent Auditor Keith Faber in the November general election. 

The primary election is currently scheduled for May 3.