MEET JEFF GIVAN

I grew up in Texas. My dad worked in management at Sears, and the company moved us around the state. We lived in Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. We moved five times before I entered eighth grade. I was always the new kid.

That sounds hard, and sometimes it was. But it gave me something I've carried my whole life: I learned early that people everywhere are more alike than they are different, and that everyone deserves respect. That wasn't an idea I read in a book. I learned it by walking into rooms full of strangers and finding out they weren't strangers for long.

I went to the University of Houston, got my degree in Organizational Behavior Management, and went to work. Most of my career was in sales and management. In my mid-thirties I was transferred to Newport Beach and ended up in international sales for a manufacturing company. Eventually I found my way to the Palm Springs Air Museum, one of the largest World War II air museums in the country, with a collection of warbirds still being flown. I started as a volunteer and worked my way up to Staff Vice President, overseeing daily operations: 25 aircraft, a gift shop, a large event venue, 17 staff members, and more than 300 volunteers, most of them retired military officers. Running that museum taught me something about leadership I still believe: it's not about being in charge. It's about making sure everyone around you has what they need to do their best work.

I met Bill, my future husband, online. Our first meeting was on my 41st birthday. We knew right away we were a good match. We'd both been through tough stretches, and that drew us together instantly.

Bill had been in real estate his whole life. I got my license and we opened a brokerage in the Palm Springs area. We had a lot of fun and success doing that together. In 2006, Bill was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer. The doctors told me he wouldn't live six months. After chemo and radiation, he proved them wrong. The cancer came back, this time in his lungs. He had most of his left lung removed over several surgeries. Bill was a fighter, but the cancer returned to his bones. He passed away in 2016, at home.

I cared for Bill for the ten and a half years he fought cancer. I saw the healthcare system from the inside out. I had to fight the bureaucracy, fight to get treatments approved. We had some amazing care, but you shouldn't have to fight for it. I learned to be our advocate, but what about the people in our communities who don't have advocates? During all of this I started having orthopedic issues of my own. I know that struggle firsthand.

We left the position at the Air Museum in late December 2011. The economy in the Palm Springs area had been hit hard by the 2008 recession, so we made the decision to move to Lima in January 2012. Bill was born and raised here, and he had family here. We bought a house in the Elida area and started building our dream: a commercial aquaponic greenhouse. The greenhouse was completed but never opened commercially due to my health. Friends have used it, though, and it's brought joy and learning to adults and kids alike. My mother joined us in Lima. She passed away in 2015 from bone cancer.

In 2015, same-sex marriages were ratified. We were the second couple to be married in Lima. It meant everything to us. It felt like we were no longer second-class citizens. It also provided legal protections that matter in this world. Now people are trying to take that right away, and the LGBTQ+ community has fought too hard to let our rights be removed.

When Bill passed, I struggled. I had an alcohol problem that I addressed. I've been alcohol-free for seven-plus years now, and I've been involved in Lima-area recovery programs. Mental health is a big issue, and so much more needs to be done for people who want recovery. The opioid crisis is real.

After Bill died, I had a choice. I could leave Lima. I didn't have family here. Bill's family was here, but Bill was gone. I didn't want to go back to Texas, and the cost of living in California is insane. But I love it here. I liked it here when we'd visit before the move. And I'd started building a family of friends.

What really helped was getting my hands in the dirt. I'd always loved gardening, and after Bill passed I threw myself into finishing the greenhouse, a dream project I'd been thinking about for years. Friends helped me build it. It became the place where I could breathe again.

Over time, I started volunteering with community agriculture programs around Lima. Right now I'm collaborating with a startup called Growbriety. They've been using my greenhouse to fund a program that helps people in recovery by showing the connection between tending plants and tending yourself. Growth in one area carries into others. For several years before the pandemic, I volunteered at South Tech with the science teacher. We had outside gardens, a small indoor aquaponic system, hydroponics, worm bins, and an Ecology Club. I'm currently helping with the YWCA TOPS program, giving teenagers the knowledge to grow their own food, sustain themselves on their own land, and build entrepreneurial skills.

I'm also a founding member of the Lima Pride Alliance. We've put together four events in our first year, with more planned. Building LGBTQ+ community here matters to me, especially in times like these.

I'm a Unitarian Universalist. One thing I was taught is that in a country and a community made up of people from all over, we can live and work alongside each other even when we disagree about the big picture. Right now, I think it's more important than ever that we listen to and learn from everyone who lives here, so we can make the best decisions for all of us. Not just some of us.

I couldn't watch the current representative for District 78 run unopposed again. The current leadership in the State House is not listening to their constituents. They're creating and promoting policy that won't help our economy, won't strengthen our communities, and will actually destroy our public school system, in this district and across the state.

I'm not a politician. I've never run for anything. But I know this community. I've rebuilt my life here, and I've watched other people rebuild theirs. I know what it takes to show up, listen, and do the work. There's room for volunteers if you want to help figure this out with the team I'm building. We're going to figure this out together.

Moving around Texas taught me that people everywhere deserve respect. Bill taught me what it means to fight for someone you love. Lima taught me what it means to put down roots and give back. All of it brought me here. To this race, to this moment, to you.

I'm running because I believe District 78 deserves a representative who actually lives in your world. I'd be honored to earn your trust.