Carl Setzer Biography
Carl Setzer was born at Mayfield Heights Hospital and raised in Painesville, Ohio. His father was a journeyman tool-and-die maker, and his mother, a social worker trained at Case Western Reserve University, went on to open a nonprofit adoption agency focused on placing children with special needs. Growing up in Ohio, Carl witnessed the reality of hard work—long hours, little recognition, and no safety net if things went sideways.
Carl’s childhood was not tidy. His parents pulled him out of public school and placed him in a series of religious schools that emphasized obedience, ideology, and certainty over curiosity or compassion. By his early teens, Carl Setzer was fully immersed in the ultra-conservative church world—writing op-eds, picketing abortion clinics, and being groomed to become a political weapon for a movement that demanded loyalty and punished doubt.
At fourteen, he was taken out of school entirely and homeschooled under the direction of church leadership. He entered into a mentor-protégé relationship with a prominent conservative attorney and eventually moved into that household. What followed were years of psychological control, coercion, and isolation—disguised as discipline, faith, and character building. Carl lived under constant pressure to perform, obey, and disappear as an individual, gaining firsthand knowledge of unaccountable power operating behind closed doors.
What ultimately broke that hold wasn’t ideology—it was exposure to reality and the empathy of others.
Carl attended Faulkner University in Alabama, graduating with honors in 2004. While there, he began to question the rigid systems he’d been raised in, realizing how easily movements can turn cruel when they mistake certainty for truth. He spent time overseas working in soup kitchens and immigrant communities in Athens, Greece—alongside Albanian laborers, Armenian refugees, and Filipino and African contract workers. This experience permanently rewired his understanding of suffering, scale, and context.
Later, while studying under survivors of authoritarian regimes—including figures involved in the fall of Romanian communism—Carl learned what real oppression looks like and how hollow American culture wars can sound to people who’ve actually lived under state terror. With his journey, Carl Setzer is now positioned to make an impact in Ohio politics, running for office as part of his campaign, Setzer for Congress.
Growth
After college, Carl Setzer spent more than sixteen years living and working across Asia, primarily in China and Taiwan. He earned a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh, studied Mandarin at National Taiwan University, and built a career at the intersection of geopolitics, supply chains, and global business. His experiences in Asia have influenced his views on Ohio politics, particularly as he considers a run for office with his campaign, Setzer for Congress.
He helped grow an information-security firm from twenty employees to hundreds, advising major American companies and government agencies. Later, he and his wife, Liu Fang, built one of Asia’s largest craft beer operations—navigating corruption, regulatory chaos, private equity predation, and state surveillance along the way. He was interrogated by Chinese counterintelligence, survived government raids, and directly negotiated regulatory reforms in a communist system that pretends markets are free while crushing anyone who forgets who’s really in charge.
When the pandemic hit, American private equity partners used the crisis to strip the company, remove its founders, and walk away clean—leaving workers exposed and families wrecked. Carl was arrested during a return trip to China, held in a medical detention facility for over a month, and ultimately forced out of the country for good.
Today
In February 2021, Carl Setzer returned home to America with nothing but his family and a clear understanding of how power truly operates when no one is watching. Since his return to Ohio, Carl has dedicated himself to rebuilding the community through initiatives in workforce development, advanced manufacturing, supply chains, and small-business ecosystems. He has witnessed his wife rise to national prominence as a chef while also observing how extremist politics, which he once escaped, have begun to infiltrate mainstream Ohio politics.
Carl knows where that road ends. He has experienced movements that promise purity but deliver only cruelty. He has seen the consequences of unaccountable money, ideology, and power across various institutions—be it in churches, boardrooms, or governments.
Carl Setzer is not running for Congress to seek acceptance in Washington. He is running because he understands what happens when ordinary people lack someone willing to stand between them and systems designed to exploit them. This is why Setzer for Congress is committed to ensuring that the voices of the people are heard.
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You're here at the beginning of our journey, and we appreciate your interest in learning more about Carl and his campaign!