Morgan Harper has begun her Bitcoin learning trajectory. The 38-year-old Senate Candidate for Ohio is researching opportunities that the decentralized monetary network can bring to her constituents, namely a push for the decentralization of power — which she believes is overdue.
“One of the greatest problems in our society is too much power centralized in too few hands, which produces anticompetitive effects that entrench incumbents and prevent innovation,” Harper told Bitcoin Magazine. “It shifts power to a select few, large cities and a few dominant players within each market and away from people in states such as Ohio.”
The progressive democrat entered[1] the U.S. Senate race in August, seeking the seat held by Rob Portman, a Republican senator who announced[2] in January that he wouldn’t seek reelection for a third term in 2022. Harper is up against Tim Ryan, a longtime democratic congressman who has served 10 terms and leads in name recognition and campaign funding.
Harper[3] was born to a teenage mother and lived in a foster home for almost a year before being adopted and raised by a public school teacher. She graduated from Stanford Law School and served as a senior policy advisor at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In a November 9 thread[4] on Twitter, Harper explained that she first heard about Bitcoin during her time at the CFPB. Her curiosity has since increased, and the candidate has begun realizing Bitcoin’s potential as a tool for individual financial empowerment.
“I'm intrigued by the concept of decentralized networks, where we can have the benefits of network effects without concentrating power in the hands of a few people or corporations,” Harper said, adding that so far she has “mostly focused on Bitcoin and its
