NEW: “There’s no way I can be a good member of Congress without taking in all perspectives” – How Rep. Emilia Sykes Keeps Winning in OH-13 [Roll Call]

And battletested, “resilient” Congresswoman Emilia Sykes consistently “has proven she can win a competitive district in a challenging environment” because she fights for her community and “tak[es] in all perspectives.”

Whether it’s pushing back against Medicaid cuts that will jeopardize Ohioans’ health care and risk jobs at Northeast Ohio’s hospital systems, fighting corrupt politicians to make the government work better for Ohioans, or working to get families’ costs down, Congresswoman Sykes puts Ohio first.

DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“Congresswoman Emilia Sykes works every day to deliver for her community and that’s why she’ll keep winning in battleground OH-13. Washington Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to defeat her – but they’ve failed, because Ohioans know she’s fighting to get costs down, protect their health care, and bring good jobs and opportunity to Northeast Ohio.”  

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• “Quite frankly, and quite literally, about half of the people … in this district voted for Donald Trump to be their president, and about half of them, almost down the line, voted for Vice President Harris,’’ Sykes said at the outset of the town hall, held last week at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 94 headquarters, three miles south of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “There’s no way I can be a good member of Congress without taking in all perspectives.”
• Kamala Harris carried this purple-hued Northeast Ohio seat by less than a tenth of a percentage point in November, according to calculations by The Downballot – the narrowest presidential margin of any congressional district in the nation. Sykes prevailed over her Republican opponent, former state legislator Kevin Coughlin, by 2 points.
• Sykes and Coughlin are bracing for a rematch next year, and the nationally-watched contest could determine control of the House.
•  The 13th District, which includes Akron and Canton as well the suburbs, exurbs and rural areas in between, sits at the convergence of the forces shaping the 2026 midterms: a deeply polarized electorate, the shift of blue-collar voters to the right, the impact of Trump’s sweeping tax and spending law and, most crucially, a Republican-led redistricting drive that could drastically reshape this battleground seat and help the GOP maintain its House majority.
• “Republicans right now are desperate to initiate gerrymandering, because they know if they don’t, they will almost assuredly lose control of the House,” said David B. Cohen, a professor of political science at The University of Akron, pointing to historic trends that show the president’s party traditionally losing seats in the midterms.
• Republicans “know they have a very unpopular bill,” [Sykes] said, referring to Trump’s domestic policy law, “and want to steal an election through unearned majorities.”
• Democrats, meanwhile, are racing to undercut the GOP’s messaging by emphasizing other aspects of the measure: cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs, the elimination of clean energy incentives and the continuation of tax breaks for the wealthy in addition to those that benefit the lower-income workers.
• “We can’t be consistently giving the billionaires tax breaks. What about blue-collar individuals?” said Democrat William V. Sherer II, the former president of the Ohio Ironworkers who was elected Canton’s mayor in 2023.  “A lot of members from labor did vote for Trump, but not all members of labor and not this member of labor.”
• One voter asked Sykes how Medicaid cuts would affect elderly people who have depleted their savings and are in need of skilled nursing care.
• “Medicaid is the largest payer of long-term care for our older adults, and we are preparing for people who are going to have to receive their parents, their grandparents, back into their homes, because they may be kicked out [of nursing homes],” Sykes said.
• National public opinion polls show Trump’s signature law remains unpopular, and the cuts to Medicaid are a chief factor.
• First elected in 2022, Sykes, a onetime minority leader in the Ohio House, is a top National Republican Congressional Committee target, but she’s so far proved resilient to GOP attacks over two election cycles.
• The daughter of two former state lawmakers, Sykes “doesn’t portray herself as a hardcore partisan,’’ said Cohen, the University of Akron political scientist. “That’s been one of the secrets to her success. … She really is more of an old-timey Democrat.”
• Sykes devoted part of her town hall talking about the influence of money in politics…
• “Sykes has proven she can win a competitive district in a challenging environment, but Republicans could make things even more difficult for her with some new lines,’’ CQ Roll Call elections analyst Nathan L. Gonzales of Inside Elections said.

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