Michael Wager (born May 17, 1951) is an attorney for

Taft Stettinius & Hollister Taft Stettinius & Hollister, commonly known as "Taft", is an American, white-shoe law firm founded in Cincinnati, with offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Delaware, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Indianapoli ...

in Cleveland, Ohio, serving as the Chair of the firm's Business & Finance Group. Wager was the 2016 Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in Ohio's 14th District; he also ran in 2014.

Personal life and education

Wager earned his B.A. from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

in 1973 and his J.D. from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

School of Law in 1981, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Law and Politics. He also earned his MA from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1976. Wager has taught courses on urban policy and the U.S. judicial system at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

in the Department of Political Science.

Career

During the 1970s, Wager worked as a staff member for Representatives

Charles Vanik Charles Albert Vanik (April 7, 1913 – August 30, 2007) was a Democratic politician from Ohio. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1955 to 1981. Early life Vanik was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Stella (Kvasn ...

and

Mary Rose Oakar Mary Rose Oakar (born March 5, 1940) is an American Democratic politician and former member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio, serving from 1977 to 1993. She was the first Democratic woman elected to the United States Congr ...

of Ohio, as well as

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Lawton Chiles Lawton Mainor Chiles Jr. (April 3, 1930 – December 12, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 41st governor of Florida from 1991 until his death in 1998. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a United State ...

. More recently, Wager served as Senator

Sherrod Brown Sherrod Campbell Brown (; born November 9, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Ohio, a seat which he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Ohio's ...

's campaign finance chair. Wager is an attorney with

, where he specializes in corporate governance, strategic growth, and corporate compliance and FCPA investigations. Before joining Taft, Wager was a partner at

Squire Sanders Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with 42 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs. It is one of the 30 largest law firms in the ...

& Dempsey LLP. Wager has served on the boards of numerous organizations including Clean Ohio Council, Northeast Ohio Development Fund, Cuyahoga County Renewable Energy Task Force, the White House Business Council, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, West Side Ecumenical Ministry, the Gateway Economic Development Corporation of Greater Cleveland, the Quicken Loans Arena (formerly Gund Arena), Michael Anthony Holdings Inc., Reynard American Partners, L.P., American Speedy Printing Centers and Sembcorp Utilities (formerly Cascal N.V.). Wager served on the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority from 2002 to 2009, serving as chairman by the end of his tenure. Wager had supported an aggressive plan to redevelop the

Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River ( , or ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so mu ...

waterfront and related infrastructure investment, but was not reappointed by Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson.

2014 congressional candidacy

Michael Wager announced his candidacy for

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

Ohio's 14th congressional district The 14th congressional district of Ohio is in the far northeast corner of the state, bordering Lake Erie and Pennsylvania. It is currently represented in the United States House of Representatives by Dave Joyce. As defined in January 2013, it ...

in December 2012. The seat is currently held by Republican Congressman David Joyce who assumed office in 2013, and prevailed over State Representative Matt Lynch in the May 6, 2014 Republican primary by a final tally of 55% to 45%. On March 3, 2014, Wager, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, was designated as an Emerging Race in the "Red-to-Blue" program of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Wager lost the November 4th election in a three-way contest with the incumbent Republican David Joyce and Libertarian David Macko. 2014 was an election cycle of historically low turnout in Ohio and the 14th Congressional District, as the campaign of Democratic candidate for Governor, Ed FitzGerald, faltered and adversely affected other democratic candidates. The final vote tallies:

2016 congressional candidacy

On March 15, 2016, Wager won the Democratic primary election, defeating former Ashtabula County Common Pleas Judge, Alfred Mackey. The final vote tallies:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wager, Michael Living people 1951 births Ohio Democrats