David Arredondo, Oberlin Ad missions Director to Lorain County Republican Chairman

OFF THE CUFF

David Arredondo, Oberlin Admissions Director to Lorain County Republican Chairman

David Arredondo

Courtesy of David Arredondo David Arredondo is the executive chairman of the Lorain County Republican Party, and in September he was elected as the committeeperson for Senate District 13 in Columbus. He is a lifelong resident of Lorain and has served as vice chairman of the Republican Party as well as chairman of the Lorain Area Republican Central Committee. From 1988 to 2000, he worked in the Oberlin College Admissions Office in various leadership roles. He has also been elected a national convention delegate or alternate three times: Donald Trump, 2020; George Bush, 2004; and Democrat George McGovern, 1972. The Review sat down with Arredondo to discuss his journey from the Democratic Party of the 1970s to the Republican Party of today.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Walter Thomas-Patterson

Senior Staff Writer

Can you talk about how your identity was shaped during your earlier years?

I was born in 1950. My dad was a steel worker and an immigrant who left Mexico. My identity was certainly shaped by my Catholic religion and my dad’s socioeconomic status as a blue-collar worker. I went to Catholic school with people who were Hungarian, Polish, Italian, and so forth. It made a difference in my identity. I very much value other cultures, other languages. It gave me an international perspective from day one.

How did your work at Oberlin College, which began in the 1980s, impact your political ideology?

In 1988, I applied for a job here at Oberlin. I got hired in the Admissions Office, and I think part of my hiring was because I was Hispanic, and Oberlin didn’t have any on their staff, so they wanted to be diverse and all the good stuff. That is when I started seeing Oberlin is not Lorain. We have Democrats in Lorain, but you have left-wingers here at Oberlin. And by no means was there any comparison with today’s Oberlin to the Oberlin of 1988. I got exposed to political correctness, people who claim to be victims. I don’t relate to that because I was never a victim or discriminated against. Oberlin pushed me further to the right. Oberlin was also the place where I finally had the balls to go to the polls and say, “I want a Republican ballot,” in the 1990s.

The funny thing, though, is here in Oberlin we started to identify people who were conservatives. Back in the day, if you were gay, you would’ve “come out.” It was the so-called, “coming out of the closet.” Well, here at Oberlin, as Republicans, we were in the closet.

You have had quite the political evolution over the decades. Could you describe your initial involvement in politics and your experience with the McGovern campaign in 1972?

I grew up interested in politics. In 1965, as a teenager, I had my first experience knocking on doors for the Lorain City mayoral campaign. My friend’s father was running for mayor of Lorain.

In my senior year of college at Miami University of Ohio in 1972, my advisor, who was my political science professor, asked me, “How’d you like to be a convention delegate? You’re a student, and you’re a Mexican.” On our convention ticket, we also had a Black woman and another woman. There were six of us.

And, son of a gun, we carried our congressional district and McGovern won the nomination. And in 1972, I went to the Democratic convention in Miami Beach. It was one hell of an experience.

I understand that later in the 1970s, your political beliefs began to change. Could you describe some of the converging sociopolitical factors that sparked your transformation?

You’ve heard the saying, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.” Well, the Democratic Party did leave me.

In the late 1970s, when I was working in a program for high school dropouts, a light bulb finally came on, and I realized the Republican values are the ones that I was born and raised with in the ’50s. This program I worked on came out of the Great Society, where they were giving money out to people for training and other types of things. I looked at all of this and said, “No that’s not right.”

By 1979, the U.S. was in a state almost like this past year. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, you were seeing high inflation. It was also shameful to lose Vietnam. It really affected the national psyche. Carter was letting Third World countries push us around. They took the embassy in Iraq. I was pissed. I like to say the last Democrat I voted for was George McGovern in 1972.

Also, in 1979, this guy, a Mexican-American businessman came along — Ben Fernandez. He had humble beginnings, born in a railway boxcar like Lincoln was born in a log cabin — son of Mexican immigrants. He rose to become an investment banker or something like that, and he made millions.

Ben Fernandez ran against Reagan in the 1980 Republican primary. He turned out to be a hell of a candidate — he was a great speaker and the women loved him. I knew him personally. He even came to Lorain, and my friend got all the Hispanic police officers to act as security — I can still see it to this day.

What specifically about Fernandez’ platform resonated with you?

When I looked at myself with people like Ben Fernandez — his platform was before Trump — he was talking about America first. “We are America. These are our values. We believe in our family.” And he was preaching to Hispanics. He says thatHispanics are more like Republicans because we value our religion. We value our family. We value our country. We love these things.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I still would like to believe if we stop the divisiveness, name-calling, the demonization of people — that they’re racist or sexist or homophobes — we stop there being so much division. Because at that point, when we say those things, we’ve cut everything off.

Oberlin College Updates

Between Nov. 8 – Nov. 23, the College’s internal testing documented two positive COVID-19 cases among students. Between Nov. 8 – Nov. 28, the College was notified of zero new COVID-19 cases from outside testing.

Earlier this week, the College announced they would begin reporting hospitalization data as another metric to monitor the spread and severity of COVID-19. There are no hospitalizations as of Dec. 2.

“If [vaccines] stop being effective, and people end up in the hospital, new protocols will have to be enforced,” wrote the ObieSafe team in a Dec. 1 Campus Digest email. “That is why the hospitalization numbers from campus are far more important than case totals or positivity rates, although that data is useful as well.”

As of Nov. 1, 98.8 percent of students, 96.6 percent of faculty, and 90.5 percent of staff have been fully vaccinated. The CDC is recommending that all those 18 and older who are six months past their original vaccine series of Moderna or Pfizer or two months past their Johnson & Johnson vaccine should receive a booster shot as soon as possible. Students who received their booster shot can reupload their vaccine card to the Student Health Portal, and faculty and staff can upload their card via the form on Oberview.

COVID-19 Update

Ella Moxley News Editor Lorain County Updates

Lorain County’s COVID-19 caseload has been decreasing over the last month. From Nov. 2 – Dec. 2, the county reported 5,017 positive cases and 254 hospitalizations.

Northeast Ohio is currently experiencing some of the largest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state, according to Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff. However, Oberlin’s zip code has some of the lowest numbers, with two cases per 1,000 people compared to just over four cases per 1,000 people in the county.

As of yesterday, 61.89 percent of Lorain County residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 57.21 percent have been fully vaccinated.

Ohio Updates

After experiencing a decline in COVID-19 cases, Ohio is once again seeing a spike in cases. Between Nov. 2 – Dec. 2, the state of Ohio recorded 147,913 new cases and 5,563 hospitalizations. Numbers have now risen to near-peak levels from earlier this fall. Vanderhoff predicts that cases will continue to rise, as holiday travel and gatherings contribute to the spread. Ohio is also experiencing the largest number of hospitalizations since January of this year.

Last week, South Africa announced the discovery of a new COVID-19 variant called the Omicron variant. Little is known about the severity and transmission rate of this new variant, but as of Thursday, eight cases have been identified in the United States: one case each in California, Colorado, and Minnesota; and five cases in New York.

Ohio public health officials assured the public in a press conference yesterday that they are monitoring cases for the Omicron variant, and have not seen any evidence that the vaccine has failed to provide protection from the variant.

Currently, 58.02 percent of Ohioans have received their first dose of a vaccine and 53.04 percent of residents have completed the series.