Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article used incorrect maps to describe the district’s boundaries. This version has been updated.
With two contested Statehouse races and one contested state Senate election, Akron-area residents have choices to make.
Rep. Jack Daniels, R-New Franklin, has held the House District 32 post for just six months. He was appointed this spring — and he wants to keep the job. To do so, he must beat Democrat Jim Colopy.
RACE: Ohio House District 32
CANDIDATES: Jack Daniels, Republican; and Jim Colopy, Democrat
House District 32, which represents parts of Wards 2, 6, 7, 9 and 10 in Akron as well as Clinton, Coventry Township, Green, Mogadore, Lakemore, New Franklin and Springfield Township, has seen recent turnover.
Incumbent Rep. Jack Daniels, R-New Franklin, has represented the district since April. That’s when he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of then-Rep. Bob Young, R-Green Township, who was convicted of hitting his wife. Young resigned last year.
Daniels, a New Franklin City Council member since 2022 and council president in 2024, is also the owner of Kandel Transport, which he has run for more than three decades. The 53-year-old Republican said he’s “steep in the learning curve” of his new role, where there has been a flurry of activity since the spring. He’s been appointed vice chair of the Ways and Means committee.
If he’s elected to a full term, Daniels said one of his goals will be to work on making Ohio’s tax system less complex. He said the state is too dependent on property taxes, something he called “really challenging” for people on fixed incomes. Daniels said he doesn’t yet have a proposal to change the system, but he’s taking time to understand it.
“It’s really a process, right now, of me absorbing and learning,” he said. “Any time you pull one string in taxation, there are numerous implications in several areas. It’s important not to make a bold statement.”
In addition to changes to tax law, Daniels said he wants to look at possible changes to the insurance industry. He said he believes in school choice but also believes “deeply” that public schools must be funded and that the state can strike a better balance. And he said that while he thinks legislative districts shouldn’t be “long and skinny,” he doesn’t think Issue 1 (gerrymandering) will solve the problem by creating compact districts.
After a crash course in the legislature, time on City Council, three years on the board of the Portage Lakes Career Center and decades of work experience, Daniels said he believes he’s the best choice for the role. Daniels said he is a lifelong Republican but described himself as an American and an Ohioan first.
“My job as a legislator is to come in with a wealth of experience, a wealth of history. If I walked in the door with the answer, that’s the opposite of striking a balance,” he said. “I’m in the right place at the right time, and I truly believe I’m the right candidate.”
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Jim Colopy, a former Green City Council member, may disagree.
The 43-year-old Democrat got his start in public service at a young age — he was elected to City Council at 23 and served for a decade. Colopy now works for Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro, where he’s an executive assistant for the Department of Law and Risk Management. He still lives in Green.
Whether it was his time in office or his day job, Colopy said the work has “always filled that sense of purpose” for him.
“I looked at the district as it had been redrawn and I really saw my community,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity for me to continue with public service.”
The City Council role was nonpartisan. If elected, Colopy said, he would intend to be consensus-minded. He said he sees a large part of the job as communicating with people about what’s going on in government and said he would plan to knock on doors regardless of whether he was on the ballot as a way to be a better liaison to the community.
“Frankly, those of us who are involved are the weirdos, paying attention to this every day,” he said.
Colopy said he’d like to ease the effects of property taxes on seniors, expand access to prekindergarten and other early education programs to help ease the expense of childcare, expand apprenticeship and other learning opportunities and hold quarterly town halls so he can be accessible to constituents. He also said it’s “really important” to pass Issue 1, on gerrymandering, in order to create a map that doesn’t incentivize candidates to move toward the fringes.
In his time on council, Colopy said he learned how important it is to communicate with residents, to explain to them what’s going on and how they’re affected by it. He also worked to acquire new parkland in the city and to update land use and development codes.
Colopy said he has a range of experience that would serve residents well.
“It’s truly about the issues at hand and solving problems,” he said. “Anything we do is going to have to be a compromise.”
