AKRON, Ohio — Rep. Emilia Sykes, a Democrat from Akron, has been reelected to a third term in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press, which called the race after polls closed Tuesday night. The AP tabulation gave Sykes 190,593 votes to 122,078 for Republican Carey Coleman and 5,104 for independent Sandeep Dixit, with 525 of 552 precincts — about 95 percent — reporting.
The Akron Beacon Journal reported that CNN and the Associated Press were projecting Sykes the winner shortly after polls closed at 7:30 p.m., and that by shortly after 11 p.m. she held about 60 percent of the vote, matching the AP tabulation. The district’s new boundaries include all of Summit County, a swath of northwestern Stark County and the Kent area in western Portage County, according to the Beacon Journal.
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Speaking at the Summit County Democrats’ watch party at the Knight Stage in Akron on election night, Sykes told the crowd, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal: “You don’t get a win like this without making sure people know that you are actually doing the work on behalf and for the people of the United States of America in Ohio’s 13th District.” In a statement issued after the call, reported by the Beacon Journal, she said: “I will continue to fight to bring down costs and keep more money in your pockets, address the corruption in Washington that is making politicians rich while Ohioans suffer, and overturn policies that are stripping healthcare and food benefits away from kids and the elderly.”
The 13th District was redrawn in 2025, and the new map favors Democrats by a 3 to 4 percent margin, according to the Akron Beacon Journal, which reported that the redraw prompted Republican Kevin Coughlin to withdraw and cleared the way for Coleman, a former WNIR-FM radio talk show host and television meteorologist, to secure the Republican nomination in the primary. Akron Mayor Shammas Malik told the Beacon Journal of Sykes: “She’s been a really strong representative here in Akron.”
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Sykes, first elected in 2022, returns to a House where Ohio’s delegation was reshaped by the 2025 map and by Tuesday’s results across the state, including Amy Acton’s election as governor and Sherrod Brown’s return to the U.S. Senate in the statewide races called the same night.
Results remain unofficial until the boards of elections in Summit, Stark and Portage counties complete their official canvasses later this month, a process that adds qualifying provisional and overseas ballots. Sykes’ third term begins when the new Congress convenes in January.
