The Case Against Kevin Coughlin

“Northeast Ohioans know Emilia Sykes serves their district with one mission in mind: delivering results for the community she calls home. Emilia has prioritized reaching across the aisle to get things done. Meanwhile, Kevin Coughlin has spent his career as a lobbyist and self-serving politician, supporting efforts to ban abortion, gut Social Security and Medicare, and repeal the Affordable Care Act. His out-of-touch agenda would threaten the fundamental freedoms Ohioans have fought hard to protect. Come November, voters will reject his extremism and reelect Emilia Sykes, who has long been a tireless advocate for Ohio’s working families,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene.  

To: Interested Parties
From: Aidan Johnson
Date: March 19, 2024
Subject: The Case Against Kevin Coughlin

Born in Akron, Emilia Sykes has dedicated her life to the community that raised her. In the state legislature, Emilia put aside party politics, reaching across the aisle to get things done. She fought for tax cuts for middle-class families, funding for high-speed internet, higher wages and safer working conditions for Ohio’s workers, and led efforts to secure more resources to keep local communities safe. She has continued that bipartisan approach in Washington, delivering real, meaningful investments for the district.

Emilia understands that families are worried and struggling to get by. That’s why, in Congress, she’s working to protect her community, bring manufacturing and good paying union jobs back to Northeast Ohio, and ensure everyone has access to affordable health care. During her first term, Emilia has already secured more than $115 million in federal grant funding for local governments and organizations.

Emilia is the only Ohioan on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In the wake of the train derailment in East Palestine, she introduced the bipartisan RAIL Act, to prevent future train derailments, keep communities safe, and hold railroad corporations accountable.

Since then, she has introduced the Lower Your Taxes Act to lower costs for Ohio workers and families and to grow the middle class by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC), while also paying for those expansions by making large corporations pay their fair share.

While Emilia has taken on corporate greed, protected Ohioans’ fundamental freedoms, and been a stalwart defender of the working class, Kevin Coughlin has spent his career trying to roll back women’s reproductive rights and as a shady lobbyist profiting off of his career in elected office. Coughlin is a serious threat to our seniors, workers, and women. He has a history of trying to end Medicare as we know it, hack up Social Security, and undermine workers’ rights. His out-of-touch agenda would increase costs for middle class families and gut the retirement programs millions of seniors rely on. Ohioans can’t afford him in Congress.

Coughlin Is Waging A War On Women’s Fundamental Freedoms

Kevin Coughlin has a long anti-abortion record. During the Republican primary he bragged that “I’ve either co-sponsored or voted for every allowable Roe v. Wade state restriction.” In addition to being endorsed by an extreme anti-abortion organization, he helped elect and is proudly backed by the author of Ohio’s six-week abortion ban that has no exceptions for rape or incest.

In the Statehouse, Coughlin co-sponsored and voted for legislation that opposed funding and health care coverage for abortions. Coughlin also voted to restrict access to medication abortion, including Mifepristone.

It’s clear Coughlin’s anti-abortion extremism is out-of-step with Northeast Ohio. Last November, voters overwhelmingly protected abortion access and reproductive rights with Issue 1 earning 62.2% of the vote district-wide.

For Ohio, Emilia Sykes is who stands in the way of politicians like Coughlin who are waging a war on women’s reproductive freedoms. Emilia is a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus, the Democratic Women’s Caucus, and Vice-Chair of the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus. She cosponsored legislation to protect abortion access and when Ohioans fought to codify reproductive rights in the state’s constitution, Emilia was on the frontline fighting for those freedoms.

Coughlin Would Gut Social Security & Medicare 

Coughlin, like the MAGA Republicans in Washington backing him, supports cutting Social Security and Medicare. Last month he proudly said that “there have to be entitlement reforms” and that we should cut the benefits millions of seniors and working class families rely on.

“Anyone with eyes and an honest heart can understand that when half of your budget is being spent on Medicaid and Social Security and it’s going to go broke very very quickly, which isn’t going to mean that they’re going to go away, but it’s going to mean that the benefits that people get are going to be cut […]” [Ohio Christian Alliance Candidate Forum, 2/7/24]

While in elected office, Coughlin voted for turning Medicare into a voucher program for anyone under the age of 55, calling the plan “encouraging.” At the time, his plan would cost nearly 160,000 Ohio seniors over $6,000 each for health care.

Coughlin also supported the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, which would “subject Social Security and Medicare to deep reductions,” and even backed Paul Ryan’s radical plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program — essentially stripping the guarantee for seniors to have affordable access to Medicare  — and open the door to privatizing Social Security.

Coughlin Would Rip Health Care Away From Almost 500,000 Ohioans

In addition to targeting the hard earned benefits of seniors and working class families, Coughlin supported repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would rip health care away from millions of Ohioans. It would also devastate the local economy which relies on health care systems as the largest employer in Summit County.

Coughlin was such a strong supporter of the Paul Ryan plan — which called for repealing and defunding the ACA — that he introduced a bill to prevent the program from taking effect in Ohio. To make matters worse, he co-sponsored a bill that blocked health care coverage of abortions with almost no exceptions under the ACA.

Coughlin Was A Shady Lobbyist And Self-Serving Politician 

When he wasn’t attacking Ohioans’ access to critical programs and health care, Coughlin used his time in elected office as a stepping stone in order to become a lobbyist. One month after leaving the State Senate, he started lobbying for the very same industries that benefited from the legislation he helped enact. Some of the bills he lobbied for would protect landlords over tenants, exempt landlords from Ohio Civil Rights Law provisions, and cost Ohio over $1 million in Housing and Urban Development funding.

Coughlin’s campaigns have also been riddled with ethics investigations and accusations of impropriety. When he ran for Stow Municipal Court Clerk, he faced calls for an ethics investigation after he illegally awarded a contract to a “longtime friend” and partner at his firm. He also faced allegations of creating a new courthouse position for a campaign supporter who hardly did any work at the job.

Furthermore, security card records indicated that Coughlin was not present for 44% of all business days as Stow Municipal Court Clerk, including a 135-day stretch when Coughlin did not use the security card at all. When people started asking questions, Coughlin ordered the deletion of public records and broke with Stow’s public record request policy after his opponents sought access to the former employees’ emails.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

MSNBC: Dems move to protect abortion access in Ohio [MSNBC, 8/4/23]

Canton Repository: Emilia Sykes’ No. 1 priority? ‘Want this government to work for people in this area.’ [Canton Repository, 1/12/24]

An effective lawmaker finds ways to assist those they were elected to serve and to advocate for their community, even when gridlock makes it nearly impossible to get laws passed. Sykes has taken this approach with her to Washington […]

What’s Sykes’ No. 1 priority for the remaining year of her freshman term? “So it’s pretty boring,” she said. “I just want this government to work for people in this area.” In these times of uncivil discourse and ineffective division in federal politics, we’ll take boring any day.

WKYC: Northeast Ohio awarded $42 million for public transit: See where the money is going [WKYC, 6/23/23]

Canton Repository: U.S. EPA, Sykes highlight federal money helping Canton water project [Canton Repository, 2/8/24]

WKYC: Growing STEM: Rep. Emilia Sykes launches Girls in S.T.E.A.M. initiative [WKYC, 10/11/23]

National Journal: Ohio 13: GOP Challenger Touts Antiabortion Votes [National Journal, 2/8/24]

Former state Sen. Kevin Coughlin (R) said at an Ohio Christian Alliance forum that he “co-sponsored or voted for every Roe v. Wade state restriction” while in the Ohio Legislature.

[…] taking a stiffer approach on abortion rights in the primary is not uncommon. But this type of comment won’t play well in the general election, especially based on the recent election result combined with Sykes being a household name in the district.

Heartland Signal: Ohio anti-abortion candidate is running in a district that overwhelmingly upheld reproductive rights [Heartland Signal, 2/13/24]

Coughlin entered the race in October and has since collected endorsements from several prominent Ohio Republican entities like Rep. Jim Jordan (R), the Summit County Republican Party and Ohio Right to Life.

In 2019, Roegner sponsored Senate Bill 23, which put a stringent six-week abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest into Ohio law. The ban went into effect after the United States Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022,  after which Roegner doubled down on her opposition to rape and incest exceptions.

Ohio Capital Journal: How are GOP candidates campaigning on abortion in a post-Issue 1 Ohio? [Ohio Capital Journal, 2/14/24]

PATH TO VICTORY

In 2022, Emilia Sykes won one of the most competitive congressional races in the country, a district President Biden only won by 2.8 points. For her reelection, Emilia has built up a sizable fundraising advantage over Kevin Coughlin who was embroiled in an, ugly, competitive, and expensive Republican primary. Emilia has three big advantages in this race: an undeniably effective bipartisan brand, a strong record of securing hundreds of millions of dollars for the district, and an extreme anti-abortion opponent.

Coughlin’s continued attacks on women’s reproductive freedoms will be a major problem in the general election, and the Issue 1 results explain why. In November, “yes” won the Issue 1 election with 62.2% of the vote district-wide. Even in OH-13’s portion of Stark County, which is less Democratic-leaning than the county as a whole, “yes” won with 54.9% of the vote. An anti-abortion extremist who brags that they’ve “either co-sponsored or voted for every allowable Roe v. Wade state restriction” will have a hard time convincing pro-choice voters that they aren’t a fundamental threat to women’s reproductive rights.