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May 23rd Len’s Political Note #728 Emilia Sykes Ohio 13
2026 General Election
Akron is a city of 190,000 people. That is down 100,000 people from 1960 when it was the rubber capital of the world, the home of multiple tire manufacturers. Even in 1960, it was not big enough to be a Congressional District by itself. Now it is the center of the north/south rectangle which makes up Ohio 13. South of Solon and further south of the Cleveland suburb Shaker Heights, east of Medina, west of Revenna, and north of Navarre (such great international names for small midwestern towns), Ohio 13 is 75% white and 13% Black.
In 2022, State Rep Emilia Sykes, defeated Trump supporter Madison Gesiotto Gilbert by more than 15,000 votes, a 5.4% margin. Trumpish Republicans said the race was between a beauty queen and an ersatz beauty queen. Former state Senator Kevin Coughlin challenged her in 2024 and lost by less than 9,000 votes, a 2.2% margin. She trounced him in fund raising — $5.2 million to $1.5 million. She did well with outside spenders, too. Nine million dollars were spent on her behalf versus $7.5 million on behalf of Kevin Coughlin.
Emilia Sykes has been competitive all her life. What is memorable about her youthful experience as a dancer is how badly she wanted to succeed at it. Whether she had to turn to less athletic undertakings because she started too late, because of an injury, or because she was not talented enough, her family was deeply conscious of her desire.
As she grew up, Emilia Sykes tried to get out of Akron. Her parents were political fixtures there. For more than 40 years, either her father or her mother or both represented Akron in the state legislature. Emilia left for Tuskegee University, to be somewhere different. Not that she left the competitiveness behind. At Tuskegee, she competed to be Miss Tuskegee – and won. And then lost.
Her Miss Tuskegee crown was withdrawn when Tuskegee officials re-calculated the second-place finisher’s score, removing a penalty for an infraction. With her parents’ support, even encouragement, Emilia Sykes sued for financial damages, though they knew this was not a winnable law suit.
Emilia Sykes left Tuskegee and returned to Ohio. At Kent State where she got her BA Magna Cum Laude, she authored a study on women’s access to health care and an investigation of crisis pregnancy centers. After Kent State, she escaped Ohio and her political destiny once again.
This time Emilia Sykes went to Florida. At the University of Florida, she earned a Masters’ in Public Health and a JD. She was ready to practice family law with more expertise than most young lawyers.
Her family lured her back to Akron. Emilia Sykes could work on women’s issues at a women’s clinic, provide legal aid to the low-income women at the clinic, and find ways to help them escape poverty.
And then her term-limited father had to leave the Ohio House of Representatives. He ran for the state senate where he would be elected. Her mother, state director for the AARP, refused to run for office again.
Emilia Sykes was 27 years old and, in 2014, was positioned for the job. She won the Democratic primary for State Rep and defeated the Republican 72-28 in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. She won again in 2016 by roughly the same percentages after having no primary opposition.
By 2016, Emilia Sykes was Assistant Minority Leader of Ohio’s House of Representatives. She organized Democrats in support of a Republican who wanted to be Speaker and came out of the process as the Democratic Minority Leader.
Larry Householder, the Republican she supported, turned out to be a crook. He was convicted of receiving $61 million in bribes for supporting a billion-dollar bailout of a nuclear plant. Others convicted included the Republican Party Chair, Householder’s political strategist, and a lobbyist. In retrospect, the Ohio Dispatch was critical of the Democrats’ role in making Larry Householder Speaker, but never suggested Emilia Sykes or other Democrats were party to the corruption.
Emilia Sykes fought other battles. Time and again, she was searched by members of Capitol security. Her complaint pointed out that white male state representatives rarely experienced such searches. An internal House investigation cleared those in charge of security of bias, but the searches stopped.
Emilia Sykes had achievements in those battles. Far behind the rest of the country, she persuaded the Ohio legislature to become the 49th in the country to permit civil protection orders for victims of dating violence. She also led an effort to increase Ohio’s earned income credit from 10% to 30% of the federal earned income credit. In 2021, she successfully pressed the legislature to extend Ohio’s participation in the covid-related American rescue plan which funded schools, health care providers, child care providers, and law enforcement agencies. During the pandemic, she was a critic of Governor Mike DeWine, but a supporter of state Medical Director Amy Acton (now running for governor as a Democrat).
Emilia Sykes has been in the US House of Representatives long enough to have a record. She is a member of the centrist New Democrat Coalition and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. She demonstrates her intention to work with Republicans by being a member and vice-chair of the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus and a member of the Problem Solvers’ Caucus.
She has taken votes of importance. Emilia Sykes opposed a premature legislated end to the national emergency created by the pandemic and opposed removing vaccine mandates for health care workers. She worked with Democratic and Republican Ohio Representatives to pass a bill supporting grants to cities for additional police. She voted with Republicans in favor an amendment which would require the detention of immigrants who were charged with serious crimes.
Kevin Coughlin has already announced, has already begun raising money for 2026. He is still at a disadvantage. On March 31, 2025, he had $50,000 to Emilia Sykes $300,000.
Kevin Coughlin graduated, with a BA and an MBA from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Elected student body president, he got himself in trouble when he refused to appoint a gay alliance undergraduate official to a student body senate position. “I’m homophobic, I admit it…” he explained when challenged about his decision. Subsequently, as if he were preparing to be a Republican politician,in a written response he quibbled with the quote, acknowledged he said something, but explained he “said it in jest.” He was not reelected student body president. Three years after completing his degrees, he was elected as a state rep. He served for four years and was elected a state senator.
Observers were eventually persuaded to keep mum, but not initially. A reporter, asking about a man who he watched enter an apartment, stay for a while, and then leave, spoke to a young woman in the apartment who acknowledged: “Yeah, that’s Kevin Coughlin. He’s banging my roommate.” (James Renner I have nothing to hide)
That’s not the worst of it. If campaign money spent on hotel rooms and consulting contracts were for the purpose of sustaining an affair, he could have had quite a lot of trouble. Probably not now, though. These are stories from twenty years ago.
Time does not make Kevin Coughlin less of an anti-abortion, anti-gay candidate for office. Term-limited in 2010, he considered a run for governor that year, but withdrew. Instead, he founded the Lexington Companies, which works in what he calls marketing and public affairs (lobbying would be another appropriate term). The name of his business, the Lexington Companies, evokes his good feelings toward Lexington, Kentucky and horse racing. He is a member of the Voluntary Organization called the Kentucky Colonels.
The Lexington Companies appears to have one statewide organization as a client – Dental Auxiliaries. Kevin Coughlin took out time to run for and win election as Clerk of the Stow Municipal Court, but for only one two-year term, His victory was over the opposition of the local Republican and Democratic parties and required a court case to put him on the ballot. He won that case unanimously on appeal.
Kevin Coughlin’s run in 2024 against Emilia Sykes was his first try at elected office since 2013. He came close, despite his disadvantages. Help her fend him off again – or someone else if there is a Republican primary. She has had an acceptable financial start in the first quarter. Remember. She needed to raise more than $5 million dollars to win in 2024. DONATE.
Other Congressional candidates with narrow wins reported on so far:
California 13 Former Assemblyman Adam Gray flipped this seat with a 187 vote win. DONATE. His likely Republican opponent is Javier Lopez, mayor of the small city of Ceres. So far, Adam Gray has raised $400,000 and Lopez has not yet announced. See Len’s Political Note #716
California 45 Attorney Derek Tran flipped this seat with a 653 vote win. DONATE. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be, though some are urging Michelle Steel to run to get her seat back. She closed the first quarter with nearly a million dollars on hand, double what Derek Tran had. See Len’s Political Note #717
Maine 02 Incumbent Jared Golden retained his seat with a 2,706 win. Former Governor Paul LePage, a kind of pre-Trump Trump-like figure has announced his candidacy. LePage does not have first quarter fund raising to report while Jared Golden reported about $450,000 available on March 31. DONATE. Jared Golden is facing a man with a following, especially in this Congressional district which Trump carried and earned an electoral college vote. See Len’s Political Note #719
Ohio 09 Incumbent Marcy Kaptur retained her seat with a 2,832 vote win. We do not yet know who her Republican opponent will be, though some think her 2024 opponent Derek Merrin will run again. Marcy Kaptur raised a modest $250,000+ in the first quarter, but had $600,000 available on March 31 to begin the campaign. DONATE to Marcy Kaptur. See Len’s Political Note #718
Texas 34 Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez retained his seat with a 5,237 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be. Vicente Gonzalez is getting himself ready. He has more than $500,000 cash available. Help him stay ahead. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #720
North Carolina 01 Incumbent Don Davis retained his seat with a 6,307 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be though multi-millionaire Sandy Roberson is a possibility. Don Davis had a little more than $500,000 available on March 31. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #721
California 27. Space travel advocate and corporate and governmental leader George Whitesides flipped a Republican seat with a margin of 7,990 votes. We do not yet know who his opponent will be and early money could discourage strong opponents. He is a formidable fundraiser himself and entered the second quarter of fund raising for 2026 with approximately $850,000. Join up. DONATE. Help increase his resources. See Len’s Political Note #726
New York 19 Josh Riley, an attorney on behalf of Democratic causes, returned home to run for Congress. He lost by 4,495 votes in 2022, but flipped the seat by 8,357 votes in 2024. We do not know who his opponent will be. Josh Riley raised $750,000 in the first quarter of the campaign and, on March 31, began the campaign with nearly $700,000. He needs more. In order to win in 2024, he outspent the incumbent $9.5 million to $5.5 million. Outside spending was more even — $16 million on behalf of Josh Riley, $15 million on behalf of his opponent. DONATE to Josh Riley. See Len’s Political Note #727
GIVE OF YOURSELF AS WELL.
Join peaceful demonstrations. I hope you found a place to march on May 1. Create your own demonstration. Do you collect social security? Consider organizing a demonstration in front of your local social security office (f there still is one). Tell them you want social security to remain as crucial to your life as it is now. Call your Senators and Congress Members. Remind them that social security is a necessity.
