Ohio Rep. Emilia Sykes announced yesterday that she will run for the open the 13th Congressional District, entering what will likely be one of Ohio’s most competitive congressional races. 

Her announcement has been expected since she stepped down from her as House minority leader about six weeks ago to “explore other career options”.

First elected to the Ohio General Assembly in 2014. Sykes comes from an Akron political family. Her father, Vernon Sykes, is a state senator and her mother, Barbara Sykes, served in the Ohio House and ran for state auditor in 2006. 

Sykes was elected as minority leader in 2019 after she helped deliver Democratic votes to elect former Rep. Larry Householder as House speaker. She later called for Householder's removal after he was charged with racketeering in the House Bill 6 scandal.

GOP mapmakers drew a new 13th Congressional District that includes Akron, Medina and parts of suburban Cleveland after U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez announced he wouldn't seek reelection in the current 16th Congressional District. The contours of the district are likely to change significantly after last week’s decision by the Ohio Supreme Court. The court ordered the state’s redistricting commission to redraw the districts to comply with the state constitution, and cited Summit County as one of three counties — Cuyahoga and Hamilton were the others — split up unnecessarily. 

Potential Republican opponents include Shay Hawkins, who previously worked for U.S. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, and Ohio congressman Jim Renacci, and Max Miller, a former Trump aide.

A Sykes victory, coupled with the re-election of incumbents Shontel Brown in Cleveland and Joyce Beatty in Columbus, would mean Ohio would have three African Americans — all black women — in Congress for the first time in the state’s history.

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