Dear Senator Portman,

I know you probably won't respond to this, like you haven't literally every other time I've reached out to you. I've actually only ever heard of one time you responded to a constituent, and she didn't have great things to say about your response. From what I gathered, it probably would have been about the same if you had just ghosted her like you do literally every other time.

Back in October last year, when you and your Republican buddies were thinking about getting rid of the ACA, commonly called Obamacare, I called you. I was very concerned that Ohioans with pre-existing conditions, like me, were going to lose our health insurance. I got your voicemail.

You said that you — or more likely your staff — would get back to me if I left a message, so I did. I waited for your response for days, but it never came.

That's okay though. That attack on American health insurance failed anyway, so I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I figured that you had gotten a lot of calls from concerned Ohioans and you and your staff were busy responding to those, so I gave you the benefit of the doubt for never getting in contact with me.

Then the FCC decided to get rid of net neutrality. Like over 90% of Americans, I was definitely not for this. We wanted our representatives in Congress to save our Internet. It was literally something that almost all Americans agreed on. It was really a nonpartisan issue.

I, like so many Americans, decided to do my civic duty and contact both of my senators and my representative. So, I wrote to Senator Brown, Representative Latta, and you. I even did it through all of your official websites, so there was no way you guys would ignore me.

Both Senator Brown and Representative Latta got back to me promptly. They both acknowledged my email to them — or at least, a member of their staff did. The only one who hadn't gotten back to me was you. To this day, I'm still waiting for your response.

Twice last year I contacted you. And twice, you ghosted me. All I ever wanted was you or one of your staff members to at least have the decency to send me an automatic, generalized response that you send to all of your constituents who contact you. But you couldn't even do that.

Still, I do believe in giving people second chances and I believe it is my civic duty to contact you. So, on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 3, 2018, I contacted you yet again to tell you why I wanted you to vote “No" on Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation.

I wrote both you and Senator Brown a lengthy email about why I felt Judge Kavanaugh was unfit to serve on our Supreme Court and shape our policies for decades. Not only do I believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, but I also believe that Judge Kavanaugh's behavior during his testimony was reprehensible and very unbecoming of a Supreme Court Justice.

Senator Brown sent me an email literally the next day. Even though it was just probably what he was sending to all of his constituents who reached out to him about Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation, I still appreciate that he did so. You, however, still haven't contacted me back.

I really wasn't expecting you to based on my previous experiences contacting you. Besides, there's nothing we can do about it now thanks to you and your buddies. After all, Judge Kavanaugh is unfortunately now a Supreme Court Justice and I know your vote helped put him there. Also, from what I heard from my friend who did receive an email for you about the same thing, you just ignored her concerns and said you'd vote for him anyway.

Senator Portman, forgive me if this is out of line, but you do realize you serve ALL Ohioans, right? Not just the ones whose views you agree with, but also Ohioans like me, who you may not see eye-to-eye with. And you definitely weren't elected to represent President Trump or Mitch McConnell or the top 1% or big cooperations or any of your Republican buddies in Congress.

Ohioans are the people who elected you. You are paid with our tax dollars to represent us and our best interests, even if that means not voting along party lines and acknowledging those whose view you don't agree with.

I understand that as a senator, you represent the whole State of Ohio and are very busy, but that is absolutely no excuse to ignore your constituents. It is our civic duty to tell you our opinions on how you should vote. What you should be doing is listening to every single constituent who reaches out and basing your votes off of what the majority of them say to you, even if it's just your staff doing that for you. And you and your staff should be responding to us when we do reach out.

I know that you aren't up for re-election until 2022, and trust me when I say that I will remember how you have ignored your constituents when I'm filling out my ballot. 2022 seems like that's the distant future, but less than four years really isn't that long of a time, and being ghosted like that is something that's hard to forget.

One vote may not seem like it makes that much of a difference, but it's one less vote for you. I don't care how many spam ads about what “great" things you do for Ohio your campaign sends to my address or what attack ads you start running in March of 2022 (because this is Ohio and they start those early). Nothing will change my mind.

This really isn't about politics. Personally, even though I am more liberal in my political views, I believe political parties are worthless. I believe elected officials should do what's best for their constituents, regardless of political party.

Had you not ignored my concerns not once, but three times, I maybe would have voted for you in 2022, depending how I felt about the policies you support and whether they're good for Ohio or not.

But because you don't seem to care about your constituents and doing what's best for us, and only seem to care about only what's best for the Republican Party, I won't be voting for you when you're up for re-election no matter what policies you support.

First impressions matter, Rob. And the first impression you've left with me isn't a great one.

Sincerely,

A concerned Ohioan