Beyond the Yard Signs: Ohio Representative Candidates

Piece by Adelaide Baran

Creating American legislation is one of the most important jobs in the government, which is why electing the right people is so important. Our legislature is a bicameral one, which means it matters both who we elect to the Senate, but also who we elect to the House of Representatives. Ohio has 15 congressional districts, and from each of those districts comes a Representative. This number, 15, is decided by the population of Ohio. Western Reserve Academy is located in the 13th congressional district of Ohio. It hasn’t always been this way, but with the recent redistricting, WRA has fallen under this sector. Our current Representative in the US House of Representatives is Emilia Sykes, who is seeking reelection this year.

Emilia Sykes’s platform is a traditional Democratic one. One of her major focuses is on the economy, and specifically jobs and labor unions. Sykes’s campaign website filed her work with the congressional Labor Caucus as well as her advocacy for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2023 under the job support category. She has also made it a key part of her platform to fight rising costs and make living more affordable for Ohioans and everyday Americans. She supports raising the federal minimum wage as well as tax credits, both of which could potentially make living more affordable for Americans. She has also done work to bring more money to capital ventures, especially in the tech realm. 

She also brings a focus to healthcare in her campaign. Sykes outlines her goals on her campaign website. Those goals include lowering prices of drugs, improving long-term care plans, and advocating for mental healthcare. She also has a special focus on seniors and supporting them with government services such as Medicare. Sykes is also very pro-choice and may try to appeal to female voters with her advocacy for abortion rights, birth control, or fertility treatments. 

The challenger in this race is a Republican by the name of Kevin Coughlin. He has served as a politician previously and has experience running a business. His campaign focuses on security, immigration, and the economy. He also emphasizes his goal to work for the people and especially workers in Ohio.

On security, Coughlin supports a tough-on-crime approach, and his campaign lays out a goal to keep law-abiding citizens safe and secure by working with police to increase community safety. He also plans to combat drug and human trafficking, as well as homelessness and addiction. On immigration, Coughlin’s website confirms his goals to close loopholes in the immigration system. He aims to limit illegal border crossings, as he sees cross-border drug and human trafficking to be a problem of great importance.

On the economy, his major goal is to “cut reckless spending.” He aims to pass budgets that help Ohioans make money and he wants to cut inflation. He is a supporter of low taxes, as well as lower corporate taxes. Coughlin says that this allows Ohioans and Americans to use their money to grow wealth in the ways that they like.

There are two candidates, both who disagree on many things, but the focus on the economy is clear. This leads to the question: is the economy the most important thing for Ohio voters?

See Also: our whole interview with Kevin Coughlin about his positions in the election.