This is the eleventh show in our series on the importance of voting with the great wisdom keeper, Congressman Tim Ryan (find him on Twitter and Facebook!).

Why is it important to vote?

Does our vote even matter?

What is democracy?

THESE SEGMENTS ARE MUCH SHORTER THAN OUR USUAL PROGRAMS… SO THEY ARE EASILY CONSUMED!

Tim Ryan is a relentless advocate for working families in Ohio’s 13th District. He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002 and was sworn in on January 7, 2003. Successfully reelected seven times, he is currently running for an eighth term.

Tim’s primary focus remains on the economy and quality-of-life in Northeast Ohio. He works closely with local officials and community leaders to advance local projects that enhance the economic competitiveness and help attract high-quality, high-paying jobs.

Tim is a dynamic leader in the House where he is known for challenging both parties to do more to rebuild the middle class. He is a champion of efforts to make college more affordable, revitalize America’s cities and improve the health and well-being of American families and children. Tim’s vision for a stronger economy and his work on these and other issues has garnered the attention of the national media. He is the author of A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit.

Congressman Ryan currently serves as a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee which controls the expenditure of money by the federal government.

Tim serves as co-chairman of the Congressional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus and a member of the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic. Through these bipartisan partnerships, Tim has introduced, cosponsored, and passed bipartisan legislation to combat the opioid crisis.

Ryan serves as co-chairman of the Congressional Manufacturing Caucus and remains a leader in the fight to strengthen America’s manufacturing base and reform U.S. trade policies. The House Manufacturing Caucus examines and promotes policies to help American manufacturers find trained, educated workers, continue to lead the world in developing new industrial technologies, operate on a level playing field with their foreign competitors, and obtain the capital they need to thrive. Ryan is the leading advocate in the House to impose sanctions on unfair Chinese currency manipulation.

Prior to being elected to Congress, Ryan served in the Ohio State Senate where he spearheaded efforts to establish a state-based earned income tax credit, to standardize community school data reporting, and bring college students into the debate over higher education funding.

Before his election to public office, Ryan served as President of the Trumbull County Young Democrats and as Chairman of the Earning by Learning program in Warren, Ohio. He began his career in politics as a congressional aide with the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995 and later served as an intern for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office. Ryan holds a law degree from the University Of New Hampshire School Of Law (formerly the Franklin Pierce Law Center), studied abroad as part of the Dickinson School of Law’s International Law Program in Florence, Italy, and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Born July 16, 1973 in Niles, Ohio, Tim Ryan currently resides in Howland with his wife Andrea and three children.