Editor's note: Signal Akron will cover the Akron Press Club event featuring Coleman's opponent, Emilia Sykes, on Oct. 15.
Carey Coleman, the Republican candidate seeking to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes in District 13, wants to see the Akron-Canton area thrive.
The longtime radio host and meteorologist wants to increase the number of routes at the Akron-Canton Airport, supports the end of E-Check requirements in Northeast Ohio and recognized a need for federal guardrails on artificial intelligence during an event hosted by the Akron Press Club on Tuesday.
“I am not a puppet of a party,” he said, looking at the handful of attendees gathered in the East End’s wood-paneled community room. “I am doing this because I want to serve. I want to be a voice of the 13th District.”
Ohio’s 13th District includes parts of Portage and Stark counties as well as all of Summit County, including Akron and Canton. The seat has been held by a Democrat since the mid-1970s.
Coleman is a newcomer to politics, something that sets him apart from Sykes, who is seeking a third term in Washington, D.C., and previously served in the Ohio Statehouse, he said during Tuesday’s event.
He finds he has little in common with the sitting representative, he said, and felt it was time voters gave someone like him a shot in the nation’s capital.
“She is a politician, first and foremost,” Coleman said of his opponent, later adding criticism of Sykes’ party-line voting record and a physical and ideological disconnect from Akron voters.
The Akron Press Club will host Sykes in a similar forum on Oct. 15. (Editor’s note: Signal Akron will provide coverage of that event as well.)
Regional issues drive Coleman’s focus
In his opening statements, Coleman focused on regional issues like the airport and restoring work to the Rubber City — including a pitch to include polymers in asphalt to make roadways survive more freeze-thaw cycles. To spur that investment, which would cost more than traditional asphalt mix, he pointed to potential federal incentives for highway construction or resurfacing to address a “quality-of-life issue.”
“I am willing to look at issues and try to fix them in a nonpartisan way,” he said. “In a way that makes sense and that comes to bring jobs right here.”
If elected, Coleman pledged to work with the Downtown Akron Development Corp. and other groups to garner input and ideas on what their communities need.
Coleman also touched on tariffs and acknowledged impacts they can have to both bring jobs back from overseas and harm commerce with neighboring countries like Canada and Mexico.
“We have to be very careful, and I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all,” he said. “I would like to take a look at that much more specifically, but I do know that there are some people in this community that are suffering because of it.”
Candidate touches on immigration, benefit programs
Coleman addressed rising gas, grocery and goods prices that have affected Akron-area residents but have been brought on by the continuing conflict in Iran. He said he hoped to see an end to the war sooner rather than later, but he also pointed to immigration as a reason for rising consumer costs, claiming millions of new consumers are competing for the same goods and services and thus driving up inflation.
(A working paper by the International Monetary Fund disputes Coleman’s assertions.)
Later in the afternoon, he vaguely answered a question about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by calling it a dangerous job involving sanctuary cities where he said undocumented or illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes are allegedly put out on the streets, creating a “very dangerous situation for the public and for ICE.”
“I want ICE to conduct themselves in the — let’s put it this way — nicest way possible to do the job,” he said. “But when you go up in their ears and you’re blowing whistles, you’re coming at them with cars and projectiles and bullets and everything else, you’re asking them to do almost the impossible job.”
Asked how he would support constituents reliant on Medicaid and supplemental food benefits amid changes to the programs — and how local communities often bear the brunt of the shifting costs — Coleman pledged to not support a disruptive and destructive government shutdown as a “party favor.”
“I’m here to support the needs of the community, and we will take a look at everything to see how we can give them a helping hand,” he said. “It’s easy to say I don’t want these entitlement programs to be a lifestyle, … but it’s not completely easy to change now, and I would certainly want people and their needs and ability to live life, ability to eat. I will look at that first.”
Data centers, AI pose need for safeguards
Data centers and artificial intelligence — and their accompanying outcry and energy costs — were brought up by attendees.
Seven data centers operate in Summit County: five in Akron, one in North Canton and one in Fairlawn. Some municipalities have placed a moratorium on the facilities, including a six-month measure passed in Hudson in July. Ravenna, in Portage County, passed a yearlong stoppage in April.
Asked his feelings on a federal moratorium, Coleman said he was not in favor of stopping all data centers but does support local communities’ right to make their own decisions.
He wants to bring growth to the congressional district, and he recognized that many industries — not just data centers — require a large amount of electricity. If elected, he said, he would be willing to introduce legislation to limit utility rates near existing or proposed centers.
Touching on artificial intelligence, he recognized the need for safeguards on a complex issue.
“It seems like science fiction is really more science fact these days,” he said. “We hear more and more about AI agents that are taking action on their own, basically going rogue — do we need guardrails on AI at the federal level? Yeah.”
Those guardrails cannot curtail a competitive edge, he said, but he recognized the questions surrounding privacy in AI-enhanced surveillance and other constitutional issues.
District remains an uphill battle for Republican candidate
Coleman pledged to work for constituents, be they Democrat, Republican or Independent — but understood his campaign as a first-time candidate in a “safely Democrat district” was not an easy one. He has no congressional record, and said Republican and other conservative voters hold their leaders to a “pretty high standard.”
That high standard can lead those voters to stay home, he said, but said if every registered voter in the district showed up on Election Day, he would win in a landslide.
“The problem is, who is going to show up?” he said.
Early voting is available at the Summit County Board of Elections through Sunday, Nov. 1. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
