Background 

Zac Haines is a lifelong conservative and accomplished business leader with firsthand experience navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship, workforce development, and regulatory complexity. He believes strongly in a limited government that protects individual rights, adheres to the Constitution, strengthens the family unit, and preserves traditional values. His worldview is grounded in federalism—empowering state and local governments to innovate while ensuring policy decisions remain close to the people they affect. Haines emphasizes local accountability, personal responsibility, and the importance of allowing free markets to thrive without unnecessary government interference.  

Motivation to Run for Office 

For Zac, leadership is about the mission, not the position. He is running for the Ohio Senate to bring a bold, entrepreneurial mindset to state government at a time when Ohio faces demographic shifts, workforce pressures, and increased competition for talent and economic growth. From his service on the Miami University Board of Trustees, he has seen the impact of Ohio’s aging population and the coming K–12 enrollment cliff—clear indicators that the state must do more to attract families and young professionals. He believes Ohio needs courageous problem solvers who will work to improve education, lower taxes, unleash economic potential, and make the state a magnet for opportunity.  

Policy Positions 

Economic Freedom 

Zac believes government must remain limited, focused, and disciplined. His priorities include reducing government waste, avoiding federal dollars with burdensome strings attached, and ensuring every taxpayer dollar yields measurable return on investment. He advocates reviewing welfare programs to eliminate incentives that discourage work or family formation, cutting administrative overhead, reducing regulatory duplication, and protecting taxpayers from bloated pension systems or inefficient compliance requirements.  

He opposes corporate bailouts and government policies that create winners and losers in the private sector. Finally, Zac supports further reducing or eliminating the state income tax, capping property taxes and eliminating unnecessary local tax structures. 

Education Opportunity 

Haines champions a choice driven, student centered education system. He supports school choice, vouchers, the backpack bill, homeschooling, and strengthening public schools. His ideal system places students in courses based on mastery—not age—and accelerates advanced learners while ensuring struggling students achieve proficiency before moving on. For him, education is the civil rights issue of our time—central to lifting families from poverty to prosperity. 

Government Modernization 

Zac recognizes that Ohio’s nearly 4,000 political subdivisions create inefficiency, increase property taxes, and burden both residents and businesses. He supports policy reforms that encourage local consolidation, shared services, and streamlined administration. His approach prioritizes reducing duplication, improving coordination across jurisdictions, and modernizing services through technology to make government simpler, more efficient, and more responsive. 

Energy Abundance 

Zac strongly supports the free market energy reforms enacted through House Bill 15 of the 136th General Assembly and believes Ohio must maintain a competitive, consumer focusedenergy environment. He opposes attempts to roll back these reforms, raise utility costs, or impose new mandates on ratepayers.  

Haines advocates an “all of the above” strategy that unleashes Ohio’s natural resources while maintaining environmental stewardship. He supports streamlining permitting for pipelines, transmission lines, and power generation infrastructure to strengthen reliability, reduce costs, and encourage private sector investment—ensuring affordable, abundant and dependable energy for families and businesses alike.