Candidate Profile: Reggie Harris
Reggie Harris isn’t native to Cincinnati, but his life experiences make him well prepared to tackle many of the challenges that face our city. Reggie grew up in Englewood, one of Chicago’s south side neighborhoods that has suffered from white flight, significant population decline and high poverty rates for decades. Growing up on Chicago’s south side, community violence and the crack cocaine epidemic were things Reggie remembers vividly. “I saw a person shot and killed when I was six years old,” Reggie told me. He is the second City Council candidate that has virtually sat down with me and shared why he is uniquely qualified to lead our city during such a difficult time.
Despite growing up in a challenging neighborhood, Reggie came from a large and loving family that was always supportive. Reggie’s mother, aunts and uncles all attended college and education was always an emphasis in his home. Reggie graduated from Whitney Young High School, one of Chicago’s top performing public schools where he shares being an alumnus with the likes of Michelle Obama. Growing up, Reggie always had a love for dancing and began seriously studying professional ballet at the age of 13. He ended up becoming a professional ballet dancer and his career took him to various cities around the country that include Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle as well as Austin. After a ten year career, Reggie retired from ballet in 2009 and became a performing arts instructor at one of Chicago’s performing arts high schools. He worked full time while also working on his undergraduate degree. At the age of 31, he graduated with an undergraduate degree in Organizational Leadership. However, teaching in a public high school exposed Reggie to many students that were suffering from the effects of trauma. Reggie decided to immediately get his Masters of Social Work with the goal of helping people deal with trauma as well as wanting to train institutions on ways to become “trauma informed.” Reggie obtained his Masters of Social Work and eventually moved to Cincinnati in 2015 when his husband became a professor at Miami University. “My husband and I live in Northside and we really fell in love with Cincinnati,” Reggie told me.
Reggie and his husband, Aaron.
Despite only living in Cincinnati for six years, Reggie has accumulated a wide breadth of political experience during his time in the Queen City. “I wasn’t always moving towards politics, but I kept seeing the effects of generational poverty, housing insecurity and neighborhood violence and I wanted to do something about it,” Reggie said. His major political involvement includes serving on the board of the National Association of Social Workers interviewing political candidates for endorsements, working on Leo D’Cruz’s State Rep campaign in 2016 as well as volunteering heavily for Yvette Simpson’s mayoral campaign in 2017. He describes Yvette Simpson as a mentor and she was one of the first major endorsements he received upon launching his campaign.
If elected, the top three priorities Reggie will focus on include jobs, housing and growth. Reggie wants to focus on workforce development in Cincinnati, tackling the affordable housing crisis and becoming a coalition builder in order to spur growth in the city. In order to improve our city’s affordable housing crisis, Reggie wants to look specifically at reviewing and changing zoning laws. Furthermore, Reggie wants City Council members, the Mayor and the city administration to proactively plan for growing the city instead of just simply being reactive. Reggie describes himself as a collaborator and believes he has the skill set to work with everyone to improve our city government. Reggie told me he is disappointed in the recent scandals that have plagued City Hall and believes our city’s governing body has failed the citizens and lost their trust. “When trust is broken and there is no faith or hope for elected leaders to do the right thing, how do you move forward and navigate challenging times? We don’t have the trust we need from the citizens to make long term strategic planning. Corruption happens when things move too fast and there aren’t a lot of eyes on the legislation,” Reggie said. “We need increased transparency and to slow down the process,” Reggie told me.
I’ve personally known Reggie since 2018 and have always been impressed with his thoughtfulness, work ethic and what he’s been able to do in his career as a Social Worker. He is also a leader in the LGBTQ community and serves as the board chair for Equality Ohio, the state’s leading LGBTQ civil rights organizations. I’ve personally seen Reggie in action as we worked together within the Hamilton County Democratic Party and he’s always been level headed and respectful to others. Reggie’s ultimate ask to you as a voter is to consider candidates who are team players and collaborators. He wants voters to support candidates that can actually get work done in City Hall who don’t participate in the petty politics and political gamesmanship that has plagued our city government for a long time. Reggie is encouraged by the large field of candidates running for City Council because it shows that people want to be involved and engaged. “I’m not intimidated by the size of the field, I am heartened by it. I am excited there are so many women, people of color and LGBTQ candidates running,” Reggie said. You can learn more about Reggie at www.reggieforcincinnati.com.
This post is a part of Cincinnati Delusion’s Candidate Profiles for the upcoming 2021 November election in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. We here at Cincinnati Delusion believe it is important to highlight the perspectives of women, people of color as well as members of the LGBTIA+ community. You can read our previous candidate profiles below:
· Stacey Smith (Cincinnati City Council Candidate)