Buckeye Reporter

Ohio’s largest Christian public policy organization is spearheading a campaign to raise awareness about Nationwide Insurance Company’s “liberal political policies" that conflict with the conservative values of their customer base in rural Ohio—chief among them include Nationwide's sponsorship of the Columbus Pride Parade, drag queen story hours and the sexualization of children, according to the organization. 

Aaron Baer, President of the Center for Christian Virtue, told Buckeye Reporter that his organization's three day campaign will kick off Tuesday morning with the launch of their website, nationwidenotonyourside.com and the goal of educating Ohioans about Nationwide's advocacy work for the left, of which its customers might be unaware. 

“The big picture here is that over the last few months, a number of companies who sell themselves to conservative, Christian, rural and agricultural customers, but advocate politically for woke, pretty crazy leftist policies, have been exposed and have actually decided they’re going to get out of these cultural issues and just stick to servicing their clients and selling their products,” said Baer. 

Aaron Baer, President of the Center for Christian Virtue | Center for Christian Virtue

“Well, Nationwide Insurance, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of those businesses that has promoted itself for years as a sort of a farming company, a family-friendly company and things like that. But then in their political advocacy, especially in Columbus, Ohio, has been one of the most woke companies in the state and the nation. And so the Center for Christian Virtue, my organization, we’ve just said enough is enough and we want to make sure folks know, especially folks in the agricultural community, what Nationwide Insurance has been doing all over the state.”

Baer said that Nationwide “has supported legislation which would permit men to use women’s restrooms, sponsored the Columbus Pride Parade and given tens of thousands of dollars every year to organizations that host drag queen story hours and promote the sexualization of children.”

“While Nationwide Insurance seems to be more concerned about what the Human Rights Campaign says about them and what their rating with the Corporate Equality Index is, we think that farmers would be more concerned about how dangerous they’ve become [with this advocacy],” Baer said.

Baer explained that on Tuesday, his organization was beginning a “massive education campaign to Ohio’s farmers,” at the Farm Science Review, the largest farm convention in Ohio, over a three-day period from Tuesday to Thursday of this week.

According to Baer, tens of thousands of farmers will be attending the conference in London, Ohio, located in Madison County just west of Columbus, and his organization will line the route to the conference with signs saying, “Nationwide: Not On Your Side” and “Nationwide Has Gone Woke,” and activate a text messaging campaign and website to inform farmers about the company’s policies at nationwidenotonyourside.com.

“We’ll even be flying a plane banner over the Farm Science Review advocating to folks, ‘Hey, this is what Nationwide is doing,’ and we’re going to call on folks to call their broker and tell their broker that they don’t want to work with a company that’s pushing woke ideology and is more concerned with the Corporate Equality Index than they are with their customers,” Baer stated.

Baer told Buckeye Reporter that rollout and promotion of the advertising campaign, including an accompanying website, will kick off on Tuesday.

“A press release is going out at 8 a.m. and then we’re going to be doing a lot of social media blitzes telling folks to call their broker, or if they know folks who work at Nationwide, find out why they’re so concerned about the Corporate Equality Index and less concerned about what their customers actually think,” Baer said.

Baer said all the information pertinent to their campaign can be found on their website, and that the organization expected to generate a lot of mainstream media and social media buzz with its promotion and appearance at the Farm Science Review.