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AKRON - The first political casualty of Ohio’s new congressional map drawn to favor Republicans is a Republican who thought he had better odds of winning a Democratic-held seat under the old map. Republican Kevin Coughlin announced Sunday that he’s dropping out of the race for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, citing unfavorable changes made to the district by the Ohio Redistricting Commission that shifted it from a tossup to a Democratic-leaning seat. Coughlin, a former GOP Ohio legislator from Bath Township who came close to defeating incumbent Akron Democrat Emilia Sykes in last year’s election, said the redistricting changes eliminated his path to victory. “Unfortunately, the Ohio Redistricting Commission has made OH-13 significantly worse, moving it from a tossup to a D+4 district,” Coughlin wrote in a Sunday afternoon social media post. “Having been through a tough 2024 campaign I know how this story ends and what this means in terms of fundraising and national support. I do not see a path to victory and I cannot ask our supporters to continue to invest their time and treasure into this race.” The 13th District includes all of Summit County, and parts of Stark and Portage counties. The decision comes just five months after Coughlin announced he would seek a rematch against Sykes, and follows the commission’s passage last week of a new congressional redistricting plan that makes Sykes’ seat more favorable to Democrats. Under the new map, which will be in effect from the 2026 midterm elections until 2031, the 13th Congressional District moves from a near 50-50 tossup to a slightly Democrat leaning district. The commission passed the plan unanimously on a bipartisan vote after Democratic and Republican legislative leaders reached a last-minute deal to avoid a more aggressively gerrymandered Republican map. The new map makes the Cincinnati-area congressional seat held by Democrat Greg Landsman significantly more Republican, and pads the GOP edge in the northwest Ohio congressional district held Toledo Democrat Marcy Kaptur. State legislatures nationwide are redrawing congressional maps in an unusual mid-decade redistricting push ahead of next year’s elections, with President Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to enhance GOP prospects for maintaining control of the House. Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina have already passed new Republican-friendly maps, while California and Virginia Democrats are pursuing counter-moves to boost their own party’s chances. Ohio’s redistricting represented a reversal of fortune for Coughlin, who had positioned himself as a strong contender for the seat. After winning a three-way GOP primary last year, he captured 48.9 percent of the vote against Sykes in November - one of the closest congressional races in the country. The race attracted significant financial investment, with Sykes spending around $5.2 million and Coughlin spending close to $1.5 million, according to OpenSecrets. Outside groups poured in even more, spending over $7 million to support Coughlin and oppose Sykes, and more than $9 million to support Sykes and oppose Coughlin. The National Republican Congressional Committee had placed the district on its target list of seats to flip in 2026, and Coughlin said his campaign had earned endorsements from every member of the Ohio Republican congressional delegation and cleared the upcoming primary field. A Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson reacted to Coughlin’s withdrawal with a social media post that said Ohioans had already rejected Coughlin and claimed Sykes “would have wiped the floor with him again.” A statement from Sykes said she looks “forward to running for re-election in Ohio’s 13th District to continue fighting for our values in Washington.” Coughlin’s post said that Ohio’s redistricting deal could hurt Republican efforts to maintain their House majority during the final two years of the Trump presidency. “The outcome of 2026 will determine the fate of the Trump presidency,” he wrote. “The next Congress will either impeach and investigate, or make some of the Trump agenda permanent. A small group of people have dealt a serious setback to keeping the Republican majority in the House.” The redistricting plan was the result of negotiations between Republican and Democratic legislative leaders aimed at preventing GOP lawmakers from unilaterally passing a more Republican-friendly map in November. Democrats had threatened to organize a statewide voter referendum to block such a map, but party leaders worried about the challenges of collecting nearly 250,000 valid signatures during a 90-day winter period. Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, a Cincinnati Democrat who helped negotiate the map, acknowledged it was not the fair map Ohio voters deserve but said it was necessary to prevent Republicans from passing an even more aggressively gerrymandered plan that could have cost Democrats three congressional seats. Coughlin served in Ohio’s legislature from 1996 to 2011 and was subsequently elected Stow Municipal Court clerk. He currently runs a small business that provides strategic counsel and expertise in management, communications and public policy to businesses and nonprofits. “I’m sorry I won’t have a chance to fight for your American Dream in Congress,” Coughlin’s statement concluded.
