Representative Zachary T. Space

Zachary Thompson Space (born January 27, 1961) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 18th congressional district from January 3, 2007, to January 3, 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, Space represented a largely rural and Appalachian district in eastern and southern Ohio for two terms in the United States House of Representatives. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, spanning the later years of the George W. Bush administration and the first half of the Barack Obama administration, during which he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his constituents.

Space was born in Dover, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, on January 27, 1961. He is of Greek origin, with his family tracing its roots to the island of Icaria; his surname is an Anglicized alteration of his grandfather’s Greek name. His father, Socrates Space, was deeply involved in local Democratic politics and served a long tenure as chairman of the Tuscarawas County Democratic Party, helping shape his son’s early exposure to public service and partisan politics. Space grew up in Dover and graduated from Dover High School in 1979.

Following high school, Space attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he majored in political science and distinguished himself as a student-athlete. He earned All-American honors in football and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He then enrolled at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctor. In 1988 he married Mary Ellen Wade, who would later serve as a judge, further anchoring his professional and personal life in the legal community of eastern Ohio.

In 1986, Space entered private practice by forming a law firm with his father, Socrates, under the name Space & Space Company, LPA. The firm, based in Tuscarawas County, operated for nearly twenty years and focused primarily on consumer rights, reflecting Space’s interest in advocacy on behalf of ordinary citizens. He became a member of the Tuscarawas County and State of Ohio Bar Associations and, in addition to his private practice, worked as a public defender. He also served as Special Counsel to two Ohio Attorneys General, Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr. and Lee Fisher, providing legal services to the state. Beyond the law, Space became a managing member of several closely held companies that constructed and operated hotels in Tuscarawas County, and he later served on a variety of boards, including the Tuscarawas County Board of Elections, the Tuscarawas County Board of Intellectual Disabilities and Developmental Disabilities, the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations, the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation, CoalBlue, and the Rural Community Assistance Partnership. He also served on the steering committees of the Central Ohio Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Clean Fuels Ohio.

Space’s formal political career began at the local level. After the death of Dover Law Director Thomas Watson, he was appointed to fill the vacancy as the city’s law director. In that role he served as general counsel to the Dover city government and tried misdemeanor cases in the municipal court. He subsequently won election to the post in his own right, securing re-election in 2001 with 70 percent of the vote and running unopposed in 2003. His tenure as law director helped establish his reputation as a capable local official and positioned him for higher office within the Democratic Party in Ohio.

On May 2, 2006, Space won the Democratic primary for Ohio’s 18th congressional district, a seat then held by Republican Representative Bob Ney. In a contested primary, he defeated Democrats Jennifer Stewart, Joe Sulzer, and Ralph Applegate, receiving 39 percent of the vote to Stewart’s 25 percent, Sulzer’s 24 percent, and Applegate’s 11 percent. The general election campaign initially pitted Space against Ney, who complained that much of the primary had focused on attacks on him and vowed to bring the campaign “back to the issues.” A July 2006 poll commissioned by the Space campaign showed him leading Ney 46 percent to 35 percent, with 19 percent undecided. On August 7, 2006, Ney withdrew from the race amid mounting legal troubles related to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal; he later pleaded guilty on October 13, 2006. In a special primary, the Ohio Republican Party selected State Senator Joy Padgett as Ney’s replacement. Padgett’s campaign was hampered by questions surrounding a business bankruptcy involving her and her husband, as well as her association with Ney and broader scandals affecting the Ohio Republican Party. In the November 7, 2006, general election, Space defeated Padgett by a margin of 62.1 percent to 37.9 percent. His victory represented the largest margin of any Democrat winning a previously Republican-held House seat in the 2006 election cycle, surpassing even the widely noted win of Brad Ellsworth over John Hostettler in Indiana’s 8th district.

Space took office as a U.S. Representative on January 3, 2007, and served two terms until January 3, 2011. During his tenure in Congress, he was a member of the influential House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Within that committee, he served on the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on Health, giving him a role in shaping legislation on consumer issues, telecommunications, and health policy. He was also a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative and moderate House Democrats. Space was an advocate for embryonic stem cell research, a position he embraced after his son Nicholas was diagnosed with Type I diabetes at age six. His voting record reflected a blend of party loyalty and independence: he voted for the House version of the Affordable Care Act that included a public option but opposed the final Senate version that became law. He supported the Waxman–Markey “cap and trade” bill on climate and energy policy, voting to move it out of committee and for its passage in the House; in response, American Electric Power and the Environmental Defense Fund ran a commercial congratulating him for his vote.

In the 2008 election cycle, Space was re-elected to a second term, defeating Republican Fred Dailey, a former director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, by a margin of 59.9 percent to 40.1 percent. His second term coincided with the onset of the global financial crisis and the early years of the Obama administration, during which he continued to participate in debates over energy, health care, and economic recovery. In the 2010 midterm elections, Space faced Republican State Senator Bob Gibbs and Constitution Party candidate Lindsey Sutton. Gibbs criticized Space’s support for policies such as cap and trade and sought to link him to the broader financial meltdown, arguing that such measures would be harmful to a district with a substantial coal-mining workforce. In the November 2010 election, Gibbs defeated Space, receiving 53.9 percent of the vote to Space’s 40.5 percent, ending Space’s service in Congress after two terms.

After leaving Congress in January 2011, Space returned to the private sector and became active in government relations and public policy advocacy. He joined Vorys Advisors LLC, a subsidiary of the Columbus-based law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, as a principal, working as a lobbyist and consultant. Building on his experience in energy, health, and rural development issues, he continued to engage with policymakers and stakeholders across Ohio. In 2019 he became president of Sunday Creek Horizons, a lobbying and advocacy firm he helped found that is based in Athens, Ohio. Described by its own materials as “a mission-driven advocacy, strategic communications, and business development firm focused on improving the lives of Appalachian Ohioans,” Sunday Creek Horizons serves clients in eastern and southern Ohio. Space’s partners in the firm are Will Drabold and Zachary Reizes.

Space re-entered electoral politics in 2017 when he announced his candidacy for Ohio Auditor of State. He formally launched his campaign in August 2017 with events in Martins Ferry, Zanesville, Columbus, and Lima. His campaign emphasized using the auditor’s office to restore confidence in Ohio’s democratic processes, pledging to expose pay-to-play practices in state government, reduce the influence of money in politics, and combat partisan gerrymandering. In November 2017 he undertook an “Ohio River Tour to Restore,” holding eleven campaign events over three days in Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia, Meigs, Athens, Monroe, Belmont, and Jefferson counties along the Ohio River. In February 2018, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, an anti-gerrymandering organization, named his race for state auditor a National Priority Target. During the campaign, Space called on politicians who had received contributions from the founders of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) to donate those funds back to local public schools. In May 2018, his Republican opponent, State Senator Keith Faber, returned more than $36,000 in ECOT-related contributions and claimed he had “helped shut ECOT down,” a statement PolitiFact Ohio rated “Mostly False.” Space proposed creating a specialized unit within the auditor’s office to investigate the full extent of for-profit charter school abuses in Ohio, a plan Faber criticized as unnecessary given existing auditing responsibilities. In August 2018, Space announced his “Working Families First” plan to examine the impact of NAFTA-era free trade policies on Ohio workers and communities, unveiling the initiative at United Steelworkers halls in Youngstown and Martins Ferry.

The 2018 auditor’s race grew increasingly contentious. In September 2018, The Columbus Dispatch criticized a campaign website launched by Faber that contained false claims about Space and included a doctored image of Space’s father altered to appear as if Space were shaking hands with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Space publicly denounced the doctored photograph and used it as an example of misleading campaign tactics. Later that fall, the Associated Press reported that Faber had incurred penalties for failing to pay nearly $5,500 in property taxes on time on multiple properties over several years, which Space argued undercut Faber’s credibility as a prospective state auditor. Space received endorsements from major Ohio newspapers, including The Columbus Dispatch, the Akron Beacon Journal, and, in mid-October, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which cited concerns about Faber’s partisanship. In the November 2018 general election, Space was narrowly defeated by Faber by a margin of less than 3.5 percent. Despite the loss, he led the Democratic statewide ticket, running ahead of the four other Democratic candidates and outperforming them by between 5 and 10 percentage points across Appalachian Ohio counties, significantly strengthening Democratic performance in that region.

In addition to his legal, political, and business activities, Space has remained engaged in civic and community life. He has served on boards and advisory bodies related to elections administration, services for individuals with developmental disabilities, nonprofit organizations, environmental and energy policy, and rural community assistance. His advocacy for embryonic stem cell research has been closely tied to his family’s experience with juvenile diabetes, and he has been active with the Central Ohio Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. A member of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Massillon, Ohio, Space maintains close ties to his Greek American heritage and to the communities of eastern and southern Ohio that have formed the core of his legal practice, political base, and later advocacy work.