“This is not new territory for me to run in a toss-up seat. I’ve won seven toss-up elections and flipped seats twice,” said Kevin Coughlin, Republican candidate for Ohio’s 13th Congressional seat.
Coughlin spoke at an Akron Press Club event Tuesday, sharing his views on a variety of issues and the state of Congress. The former member of the Ohio House and Senate, who has been running a marketing company the last 14 years, is challenging incumbent Rep. Emilia Sykes. Sykes will speak at the Akron Press Club Oct. 17.
The last Republican elected to the District 13 seat was Charles Mosher in 1974. Despite the district’s recent history of electing Democratic candidates, Coughlin said he knows how to represent what he calls a “50-50 district.”
“It’s about not ignoring people. It’s about listening to people, even those who don’t agree with you,” Coughlin said. “It’s about delivering for people that you know are going to vote against you in the next election.”
After speaking to the audience at Quaker Station, Coughlin answered submitted questions moderated by Andrew Meyer, deputy editor for news at Ideastream Public Media.
The conversation has been edited lightly for clarity.
Do you support Issue 1?
“I’m against Issue 1. And I would point out that the current 13th congressional district was drawn by a redistricting commission that had my opponent and her father on the committee, so there’s no complaining from them, please, on the district. They didn’t draw well enough, but they certainly drew it for her.
I will say that the amendment, as it’s written and it’s being presented, is more trouble than it’s worth. It actually puts gerrymandering and mandates gerrymandering into the Ohio constitution. As I mentioned, the function, the primary value of drawing congressional districts should be compactness.
That’s blown out of the water on this because what you’re doing is you’re saying these have to be Republican districts, these have to be Democrat-leaning districts. And you’re going to go all over the map to try to achieve that. You’re going to dilute a lot of people’s power.”
Assuming that the House of Representatives still has a slim majority with the next Congress, what are you going to do to “reach across the aisle” to get things done?
“I think you look for opportunities to do that. And it means that there are certainly issues where you can’t come to an agreement on the big issues. But I think part of that is finding issues where you can come to an agreement and building relationships with people across the aisle where you can help move things forward.”
Why is immigration policy important to people in Ohio, even though the state does not have any international borders?
“Every state is a border state now. We’re seeing that every day. Just talk to law enforcement, on traffic stops, on calls. They’re getting more and more calls involving illegal immigrants here in Ohio, in our cities.
Number one: You gotta finish the wall. Although let’s define what the wall is. The wall is physical. The wall is technological. The wall is policy.
You’ve got to, as I mentioned earlier, redirect our border enforcement agents, as well as allow state and local agencies to enforce border law rather than ushering people in and being customer service representatives.
Number two: I think you do need to reinstate the wait in Mexico program for people who claim asylum. And if Mexico doesn’t want to play ball with that, then you contract with another Central American country to do that. You speed up the process. You put the resources in for hearing officers and otherwise, to make sure that the determination processes happen faster than they are right now.
Right now, they’re being given notices of dates three to seven years in advance, and then they’re being sent out into the interior of the United States to wait for that time period.
Those are, those are the immediate things.”
What is your position on reproductive rights and abortion? Did you support last year’s referendum in Ohio?
“I did not. I’m personally pro-life, of course, but this part of being a representative is also listening to the people that you represent. And the ground, of course, has changed in Ohio in a lot of ways. You know, Ohio’s voters last fall settled the issue. The operative question for anybody running for Congress is, ‘Will you vote for a national ban on abortion that would overturn the issue in Ohio’s constitution?’ And the answer is no, first of all, and the reason is because I don’t think it’s a federal issue. The court said it’s not a federal issue. I believe our sticky cultural issues are best resolved at the state level, and so I would not support a vote on a national ban.
But we can agree to disagree on issues but also respect the voters and understand that they have strong feelings about things. And I honestly believe that there’s an element of people who voted ‘yes’ on the issue last fall, who did it because they just want politicians to move a little bit beyond it and start focusing on the issues that matter, like the cost of living crisis, like immigration, like crime.”
What’s your opinion on the Portage County sheriff’s recent Facebook post encouraging people to write down the addresses of homeowners who have Kamala Harris signs in their yard?
“I don’t support doxing people or anything like that. I think Bruce was expressing some frustration, inartfully, that a lot of folks who are in favor of open borders, like my opponent or others, probably wouldn’t house folks in their own homes or let them squat on their properties.
But what he was criticizing my opponent on earlier was one of these bills that magically appeared before the election that dealt with training for law enforcement for de-escalation training. That’s what it was.
The police have plenty of de-escalation training. They have de-escalation training coming out of their ears. It’s really hard to de-escalate a situation when you show up and the bad guys have guns and are shooting.
I don’t know what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to get on your knees and meditate with them? I don’t really understand what that means. But I think that he was critical of her on that, and I certainly agree with his views on that, and maybe it gives me an opportunity to talk a little bit about the bigger issue of trust with the community.
And I know that she’s been a driving part of the force behind a citizens oversight commission of police. You know, the idea of citizen oversight of police is not a bad idea in general, and the goal is to engender trust. But I think that there are elements of how it’s being done here in Akron, and how they’ve envisioned it, how she’s envisioned it, that I think, number one, isn’t working.”
Do you believe Joe Biden was lawfully elected president in 2020?
“Yeah. Yeah. There are some things that happened in other states that I wish hadn’t happened, I think should be banned from happening, as far as how they count votes and how they conduct their elections. But there’s nothing that I have seen that would have reversed the election results nationally.
Every time I get that question, I take it as an opportunity. And I think it’s important for anybody in elected office in Ohio and running for office in Ohio to make sure Ohioans understand you can feel good about your elections in Ohio. We have a good system here. A very tight election system here. I don’t think you have to worry about fraud. I don’t think you have to worry about abuse.”
Housing is a top priority for people in Akron and Northeast Ohio. What are some of the specific ideas you would pursue to ensure safe and affordable housing is available?
“Location, location, location matters. And I think that one of the worst things the federal government does is it doesn’t do housing very well. I know very few people who live in federal housing and say, ‘This is great. This is the place I want to call home.’ And you should want to live in the place that you call home, right?
I would be in favor of block granting money down to state governments to work with locals to address this problem. But the reason I say that is simply because every market is different, and when the federal government gets involved in housing issues, whether it’s through subsidies or whether it’s through assistance programs or whatever, you are skewing the market, and you’re actually ending up making things less affordable.”
Are there federal measures that you would support that could help to address the overwhelming instances of gun violence in our communities?
“So the Second Amendment is the only one in the Bill of Rights that says it shall not be abridged, and I’m a strong proponent of it.
I think that there are other ways to solve these problems, and each of those cases that you mentioned and all the others, there are specific facts on the ground in each one of these cases. Clearly, that was a mental health issue in the Taco Bell [shooting]. With the mass shooting here, whether or not it was gang violence, it was clearly, you know, people-angry-at-each-other violence…
With a lot of local governments, a lot of state governments, obviously federal, they haven’t gotten it right. And for whatever reason, there’s not been an investment on figuring this issue out. Transitional housing for folks that need it, that are in that situation, and the mental health services and addiction.
Now there’s also, there’s also folks who don’t want to be treated, don’t want to get better. And, you know, I hate to say this, for some people, prison is probably the place to be. For some people, a public institution is probably the place to be. And we need to consider, you know, expanding that. But I think it’s a societal issue. I think it’s a mental health issue. I think it’s an addiction issue.
I do not see in places where you have robust gun control that violence has gone down. If anything, criminals still have access to guns. I think there’s an element of preventative crime that I mentioned earlier in our big cities. There’s something to be said for dialog between police and community. Not from top down and not because an oversight committee is watching you in case something goes wrong, so that some bloviating politician can call for your head if you have to use force.
No, it’s because you want to proactively improve the community and improve safety. The fact is, in most of our big cities, and the same is true in Akron and Canton, most of the crimes are being committed by a small group of young men. The police need to know who they are. They need to know what they’re angry about. They need to know what they’re arguing about and who. They’re focusing in on their social media posts. They’re talking in the community. They’re engaging people.
They’re also, hopefully, if you’re doing it right — and I’m not sure it’s happening here to the extent that it is in other cities — if you’re doing it right, you’re working with nonprofit organizations and community groups. They’re giving pathways to a job and training and others to these folks to give them a way out of gang affiliation. Gangs exist, of course, because of a lack of trust with police, and they don’t think that police will come in and solve their problems. They attach to a group that can protect them, that stakes that out with extreme violence.”
