COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Mary Taylor grew up near Akron and says she learned her values from her parents and grandparents, but it was her father who she talks about most.
He was a polio survivor and spent time as a bricklayer. But when that became too much physically he transitioned to selling insurance.
Taylor says he taught her that you’ve got to be tough, and you’ve got to be willing to fight, and you’ve got to be willing to work hard.
But there are some things the life-long democrat let her decide for herself.
As an adult, Taylor would host Sunday dinner and her father would make it a point to talk politics around his staunch Republican daughter.
She says he would look for ways to upset her as the two would have a war of words in the kitchen; but it was all in good fun.
She misses him greatly. He died a few years ago.
And while he may have been a democrat he did instill in her non-partisan values; values she calls Ohio-values.
These are his legacy that she carries forward.
After becoming a CPA, Taylor got into politics. It was around the time she ran for State Auditor that she met John Kasich, before he was Governor, at one of his book signing events.
She asked him for advice on how to run for statewide office.
That conversation and the years that followed led to him eventually asking her to run as his Lt. Governor.
As State Auditor she says she could see the writing on the wall, the state was headed for disaster, a train wreck as she described it, so she accepted his invitation to see if she could be part of the solution.