Tracey Stewart voted a straight Democratic ticket when she cast her ballot Sunday, but it was her vote to give U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, a second term that drew support from other voters.
The white Cuyahoga Falls resident said she chose Sykes because she is a Black woman. The Black women who heard her reasoning outside the Summit County Board of Elections Early Voting Center laughed and cheered at her explanation.
Stewart’s reason for voting, she said, was “just changing history.”
Sykes is fighting Republican Kevin Coughlin, a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives and State Senate, to keep her seat. To succeed, she’ll have to win over more voters like Stewart in a district that doesn’t look like her. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 77% of the district is white and only 10.6% is Black.
In an interview with Signal Akron, Sykes said she knows how important it is to have “someone like me” in elected office — not just for young Black people “but for other people to say, ‘Someone like her can be in a position of influence, and we shouldn’t be afraid of this, and we shouldn’t be concerned because she has the skills and the intellect and the compassion to do this job. And we’ll support her in this world, and she will support us in return.’”
Ohio’s 13th District — which includes Summit County, northern Stark County and part of southwestern Portage County — is the battleground of one of the most competitive races in the country. Both candidates have been barnstorming the district to try to capture every vote.
Sykes comes from a prominent political family in Akron; her parents, Barbara and Vernon, have been elected to multiple offices over many decades. Barbara Sykes is currently a member of the Akron Board of Education, and Vernon Sykes is a state senator.
Her background in the district is one of the reasons Twinsburg resident Lillie Williams, who is Black, chose Sykes.
“She’s worked in this area for so long, and I’m gonna go with the hometown that I know of,” Williams said.
Coughlin garners support from small business owners
Coughlin, who ran the marketing firm Lexington Cos. after his last term in the Ohio Statehouse ended in 2010, has gained the support of small business owners and their advocates, like Chris Ferruso, the state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
Ferruso, who first met Coughlin when he was a staffer in the state Senate, endorsed Coughlin at an Oct. 23 event for the NFIB in Richfield. He said he hopes Coughlin, if elected, will push to make permanent a 20% tax deduction for small businesses that is due to end in 2025.
“He’s someone who knows the issues, who gets the issues,” Ferruso said. “This is the kind of individual we need in Congress making votes to decide the direction of our country, the tax policy, the regulatory policy.”
At the NFIB event, Coughln said he was drawn back to politics because of his concerns regarding “the direction of our country.” He added that Congress and the political class seem to be disconnected from people, “making that American dream harder and harder for people to reach.”
Cost of living is a concern for all constituents, candidates said
Coughlin, who also served as the clerk of Stow Municipal Court from 2013 to 2015, said anxiety about the cost of living has been a motivating factor for voters across the political spectrum. He said the dollar is not going as far as it used to and homeownership seems out of reach, particularly for young people.
The root of this problem is hyper spending at the federal level being met with the United States printing more money, Coughlin said in an interview with Signal Akron. He said the No. 1 task for Congress is to stop increasing annual deficits, adding to the national debt.
“You got to get control of that and bring that to an end,” Coughlin said. “That’s going to affect everybody in our district equally, as it does everybody else. You know, there’s not a District 13 magic wand that’s different from the rest of the country.”
The federal government also is not doing enough to address the housing crisis, he said at an Akron Press Club event in September. Coughlin said he would be in favor of more federal funding coming to state governments, so the problem could be dealt with locally through housing subsidies or assistance programs.
Sykes, who introduced the Lower Your Taxes Act in 2023, which would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, said residents in the district have similar needs when it comes to their quality of life.
“Folks want to be able to live in safe communities, to afford the basic necessities, maybe have enough money to go on vacation or buy some conveniences, and they want to be able to get the healthcare they need and to be respected and heard as an individual,” Sykes told Signal Akron.
Sykes is also a supporter of tax credits for home builders in order to incentivize the construction of affordable housing, particularly in downtown areas with vacant buildings.
“The No. 1 way in which people can build wealth in this country is through home buying, through home ownership,” Sykes said at her Akron Press Club event.
She said that if people are priced out of owning a home, “that means we’re losing out on resources for our schools, in our social service agencies, and then we’re just keeping transient communities and people aren’t able to build roots and grow their families here in these communities.”
Candidates consider how to tackle policing
Akron residents Jayland Walker and Michael Jones were both killed in police-involved shootings, and their deaths continue to resonate in the community.
In June, Sykes introduced a bipartisan bill, endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, the Akron NAACP and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, that would require the Department of Justice to create “real-life, scenario-based training curriculum for law enforcement personnel.”
Sykes said that after the two police-involved deaths, the ask from her constituents was clear.
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“The community [as a] whole just said, ‘We know the police are a part of our community. We want to trust them. We want to work with them. But we also want them to know how to de-escalate situations so everyone can go home,’” Sykes told Signal Akron.
Coughlin said in an interview that Sykes has “a history of exploiting tragic situations in our community for her own political benefit and playing on the grief and the anger of a community and families for that.”
At the Akron Press Club event, Coughlin said the police “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?”
Later, in an interview, Coughlin said what officers need to be trained on are the skills they’ll use in tense situations.
“What they need and what they want are training on tactical [operations], dealing with the mental health community, dealing with addiction, you know, real on-the-ground, practical issues that will make their jobs better and make them perform their jobs better,” he said.
In Ohio, reproductive rights are still a topic of discussion
Despite Ohioans limiting abortion restrictions in a ballot measure passed last year, the topic of reproductive rights is still top of mind for a number of voters. It’s what led Richfield resident Mia Clark to vote for Sykes, she said.
“I’ve always been told that when you have to fight for a certain right, if you don’t elect and do it, it will be taken from you and you won’t get it back,” Clark said.
On Oct. 24, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas issued a permanent injunction on Ohio’s six-week abortion ban from taking effect. In a statement, Sykes said voters have been clear and this decision reaffirmed that.
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“Finally, Ohioans will have the freedom to decide when, if, and how to start a family,” she said in a statement. “Ohio’s women are no longer accepting second-class citizenship where politicians insert themselves into the most intimate decisions we make.”
Sykes has introduced and supported a number of bills targeted at protecting the right to reproductive health, including the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which seeks to ensure that people in active labor are given medical care in the emergency department.
Coughlin has made it clear that he’s “personally pro-life,” but when speaking with Signal Akron added that he opposes a national ban on abortion.
“I’m certainly not going to go to D.C. and overturn the will of voters,” he said. “I think that issue, wherever it goes, should be fought out at the state.”
Immigration is also a concern for Ohio residents
The country’s immigration policy continues to motivate voters, too. One Summit County voter who declined to give his last name, Skip W., said Tuesday at the Board of Elections’ Early Voting Center that it was a primary reason he was casting his ballot. He did not say who he was voting for.
“My sense is, if you don’t come here legally, you don’t belong,” he said. “There’s a reason they call it illegal.”
Coughlin said that he is in favor of legal immigration but that illegal immigration has put an “enormous burden” on the country’s housing, healthcare, social services and law enforcement resources.
His priorities in addressing the issue are securing the border, finishing the border wall and reinstating the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy, he said. In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled the Biden administration could end the policy, which required certain asylum seekers to return to Mexico to await their court dates.
Sykes said the blame for illegal immigration does not fall upon one administration, adding that creating a comprehensive immigration policy is not possible “as long as people want to continue to make this a political hot potato.”
“It requires both sides being at the table negotiating something that is reasonable and predictable and provides people with dignity as they are attempting to immigrate into this country or become citizens in the United States,” Sykes said at the Press Club.
Sykes’ residency challenged in voter-eligibility hearing
Policy issues haven’t been the only fault lines in the race. Coughlin has also questioned whether Sykes lives in the district; she insists that she does.
After a claim was made by a third party that she lives in Columbus with her husband, Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce, an Oct. 24 hearing was held to determine whether Sykes was eligible to vote in the district. The hearing ended in a tie vote, so the decision falls to Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose. Sykes has already cast her ballot.
“Nobody is challenging her right to run for office,” Coughlin said to Signal Akron, but he insisted Sykes lives her day-to-day life in Columbus with her husband and is “making her future there.”
After the hearing, Sykes released a statement, calling herself a “proud daughter of Akron.”
“Anyone who says otherwise is purposely spreading a deeply offensive lie for political purposes,” Sykes said.
