A lifelong Ohioan, Dave has dedicated his life to family and public service. After graduating with his Juris Doctorate from the University of Dayton, Dave worked as a public defender before being elected as Geauga County Prosecutor in 1988 – a position in which he served his community for nearly 25 years.In November of 2012, Dave was elected to represent the 14th Congressional District of Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives and is currently in his sixth term. He considers it a great honor to represent the people of Northeast Ohio and serve the communities where he was born and raised.

Since coming to Congress, Dave has established himself as a fierce advocate of the Great Lakes, successfully securing critical funding each year for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) to protect the environmental and economic health of the Great Lakes region.

As a former prosecutor, the safety and wellbeing of Ohio’s communities remain one of Dave’s top priorities. He co-founded the Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence in the 115th Congress and is the Vice Chair of the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus. With Ohio being one of the states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic, Dave fights to ensure that the federal funding Congress provides to combat addiction effectively supports the lifesaving work local communities carry out on the front lines of this crisis.

Dave serves on the influential House Committee on Appropriations, which is responsible for scrutinizing federal spending and determining how your tax dollars are spent. In this role, he works to restore fiscal responsibility, which he believes is needed to create a stronger, more prosperous nation for the next generation. In keeping with a tradition he established while serving as Geauga County Prosecutor, Dave has returned more than $1.5 million from his personal Congressional budget to the U.S. Treasury since 2013.

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor in Congress, Steve LaTourette, Dave is proud to put policy over politics and work across the aisle to find solutions to the challenges facing the lives and livelihoods of Northeast Ohio families.

In 2022, Dave was elected Chairman of the Republican Governance Group, a group of Republican lawmakers from across the country comprised of pragmatic members who are committed to productive and effective governance. Members carefully consider policy stances and aim to make a difference rather than pushing partisan noise.

In the first session of the 118th Congress, Dave was once again recognized as one of the most effective and bipartisan lawmakers in Washington by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Dave resides in Bainbridge Township, Ohio, with his wife (and fellow West Geauga High School graduate) Kelly. They have three children: Trenton, Keighle, and Bridey.