Native Central Ohioan and 12th Congressional District candidate Tim Kane, R-Dublin, said, “I’m coming home.”
Kane said he thinks he is the only candidate that attended kindergarten through high school in Central Ohio.
“I don’t think any of these other serious candidates graduated from high school here,” Kane said. “I always wanted to come back. Part of it was convincing my wife about how awesome Ohio is.”
After graduating from Westland High School in Galloway, Kane attended the United States Air Force Academy, earning a degree in economics.
Kane served as an intelligence officer in the USAF. While stationed in Korea, he was a combat interrogator working with the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
Kane pursued a Ph.D. in economics, served on the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, was director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation, and an economist at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. He has also publish several books on economics.
Kane said with his degree and experience in economics, he’s been offered jobs that would have tripled his salary, but turned them all down.
“I’ve never done it,” he said. “It’s service. I’m attracted to service. It’s the thing that drew me from Columbus in the first place to the Air Force Academy and to serving overseas.”
Kane classifies himself as a think-tank economist who has written books advocating for conservative ideas.
“I’m going to make the case for conservative principles,” he said. If he is elected to Congress, “I’ll be able to do it from a more powerful place, fighting the good fight. I love the opportunity to try and shape the future of our country and the future of the Republican party.”
Kane married a Japanese native, giving their four children the opportunity to be part of and embrace two cultures.
Kane said when his first child was born, while in the Air Force, he was handed a form with a series of boxes with a nationality next to each. He said he was told to check one, but he didn’t want to check just one because their child was of two cultures and not just one.
“They tried to put them in these boxes and groups, and they do that with the tax code, too,” he said. “We need to radically transform the tax code. If you make money that’s below the poverty line, that’s fine, you pay nothing. But every dollar made above the poverty line, whether it’s one dollar or million, we should all pay the exact same rate on the money we earn over the poverty line.”
Kane said he wants to grow the economy, especially helping entrepreneurs, as the key to fight poverty.
“The dignity of work has just been taking a hit in this country,” he said. “I think the government works against the culture on this issue. We need to try and restore the idea.”
Kane said he supports having a balanced budget amendment to secure liberty from the creeping up of federal power, debt and taxes.
“My case is, spending today is a tax on my kids in the future,” he said. “I won’t rest until I get a single-rate tax code.”
Kane is pro-life, 2nd Amendment, free trade, and a proponent of a strong U.S. military. He’s endorsed by George P. Schultz, former President Reagan’s secretary of state, and a WWII veteran.
“I think America is a good country,” he said.
