An ER nurse and an auditor. From Youngstown.

Tess Kovach. (Demo image.)

At a glance

Office	U.S. Senate (OH)
Party	Democrat
Age	49
Home	Youngstown
Was	ER nurse, 12 yrs
Then	Union president
Then	Ohio House, 3 terms
Now	State Auditor
Family	Dave + 2 kids
Brand	Receipts

Tess Kovach has spent her whole life in the Mahoning Valley, and most of it taking care of other people.

She grew up in Youngstown, the daughter of a steelworker who lost his job when the mills shut down and a mother who cleaned offices after dark to keep the lights on. Tess put herself through nursing school on a Pell Grant and spent twelve years as an emergency-room nurse, where she learned to tell people the truth even when it was hard, and never to look away from someone who needed help.

When she watched her patients ration insulin and skip care they couldn't afford, she didn't just get angry. She got organized. She was elected president of her nurses' union, led a contract fight that made the evening news, and went on to serve three terms in the Ohio House, where she wrote the laws that forced hospitals to post their prices and took on the drug companies over the cost of prescriptions.

In 2022, Ohioans elected her State Auditor, the watchdog whose job is to follow the money. For four years she has done exactly that: exposing no-bid contracts, catching companies that overcharged taxpayers, and making powerful people show their receipts.

Now she is running for the United States Senate, because somebody in Washington ought to be on the side of the people who do the work. She still lives in the same county she grew up in, with her husband Dave, an IBEW electrician, and their two kids, who go to the public schools she has spent her career fighting for.

Tess Kovach isn't asking which party you're in. She's asking a simpler question: who's getting rich off your grocery bill, and who's actually going to do something about it?

"I spent twelve years telling families bad news in an ER. I'm not going to start sugarcoating it now."

Join Tess