Baxter Stapleton, 32, filmmaker and Centerville native, announces at Centerville High School he is entering the race against Mike Turner for US Congress in the Ohio 10th Congressional District. “Politics tends to divide us but purpose tends to unite us. My purpose is to serve everyone in our incredible district,” Baxter said.
Baxter is an international speaker, activist, and Webby and MTV Video Music Award winning filmmaker having worked with clients like Apple and Disney. He grew up in Centerville attending Centerville City Schools and was inducted into the Centerville Education Hall of Fame in 2007. He attended Cedarville University where he was elected Class President majoring in Political Science and studied under Mike DeWine before DeWine returned to elected office. While at Cedarville he attended leadership training at the Air Force Academy. He then transferred to Wright State majoring in Urban Affairs and NonProfit Management.
A turning point came in 2007 when Baxter won a Kids Voting essay contest to attend the Dayton Region Fly In sponsored by the Dayton Development Coalition. He traveled to Washington with a delegation of leaders from our area and had a greater understanding of how the federal government can better serve our region. “It was during the Fly In that the dream to serve our district in Washington began and I started preparing myself for this moment,” Baxter said. “Our world is rapidly changing and if we do not accelerate to transform then we will lose as a region,” Baxter shared. “We cannot renew our minds to solve the big problems we’re facing in a new way if we keep carrying with us a lot of old trash.”
One of Baxter’s dreams was to show his films on the big screen at the Neon Movie Theater in downtown Dayton. He realized that dream for his 30th birthday in 2018. Today he officially launched his campaign to realize his next dream representing the Miami Valley in Washington.
His official campaign kick off is Wed, August 11th: