Who’s running for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District?
Nine people have filed to run in the race for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, which under the latest political redrawing includes all of Summit, northwestern Stark and a sliver of southwest Portage counties.
They include the former Ohio House Democratic leader and the former co-chair of the national Women for Trump advisory board. There are seven Republicans and two Democrats who filed by Friday’s deadline.
But it’s still not known if the current lines of the district will remain in place, as the Ohio Supreme Court still has to decide whether the lines violate anti-gerrymandering language in the Ohio Constitution.
The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the first map passed by GOP lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. The court pointed to splits in Summit, Cuyahoga and Hamilton counties, in particular, as problems.
The rejected map had Summit County split between the 13th district — which included solidly Democratic Akron, Medina County and southern and western portions of Cuyahoga County — and the 7th district, which included the eastern and southern edges of Summit County, along with Stark, Wayne, Ashland and the northern part of Holmes County.
The new map creates a more Democratic-friendly district than the first map with 51 percent of voters leaning Democratic and 47 percent Republican.
One of the big names to originally announce his candidacy was Max Miller, a White House aide to former President Donald Trump, also endorsed by Trump. But Miller has now filed to run in the new 7th district, which includes Medina County, Wayne County, southern and western Cuyahoga County and a northwest sliver of Holmes County.
If the map remains in place, Miller would face incumbent Republican Bob Gibbs, who has filed for reelection in the 7th district, in the primary.
Who’s running for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District?
The leading Democrat in the race is State Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, who in December stepped down as House Democratic leader after three years before announcing her bid for the seat.
Sykes, who holds a law degree and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Florida, represents Ohio’s 34th House District. She was elected minority leader by her fellow Democrats in 2019.
Sykes was first elected to her Akron district in 2014 and became the first Black female lawmaker under the age of 30 to serve in the legislature. Her mother, Barbara Sykes, served in the Ohio House and ran for state auditor, and her father, Vernon Sykes, is a state senator.
But another Trump associate has also jumped into the race: Republican Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, a Canton attorney, former Miss Ohio USA and former co-chair of the national Women for Trump advisory board. She planned to challenge Marcy Kaptur in the 9th Congressional District but is now running in the 13th.
Raised in Massillon and now living in Jackson Township, Gilbert’s website states she’s a conservative political commentator and columnist for The Washington Times who’s appeared on Fox News, Newsmax, CNN and MSNBC.
She graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in political science, and from the Moritz College of Law at OSU in 2017.
According to her website, Gilbert’s roles in the Trump campaign have included national surrogate for the Trump campaign, adviser to the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, regional press secretary and spokesperson on the Presidential Inaugural Committee, ambassador for the America First Policy Institute and 2020 Trump campaign advisory board member.
She’s married to retired NFL player Marcus Gilbert, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals.
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Other candidates in the race include:
- The lone other Democrat is John Impellizzeri, a current Munroe Falls City Council at-large member who was elected in 2021. He previously served on the city’s park board. According to his page on the city website, Impellizzeri, raised in Syracuse, New York, earned a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Akron and is a senior IT testing coordinator for the University Hospitals network.
- Republican Janet Folger Porter, of Hinckley Township, is an anti-abortion activist who is the founder and president of Faith2Action. On her website, she calls herself the “architect of the pro-life Heartbeat Bill[s]” throughout the country. The bills ban abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is before many women know they’re pregnant. Porter is the former national director of the Center for Reclaiming America and former legislative former of Ohio Right to Life. She received an honorary doctorate degree in Christian humanitarian service from South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary and graduated from Cleveland State University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in communication.
- Republican Shay Hawkins, of Broadview Heights, was raised in Cleveland’s suburbs and earned an undergraduate degree in economics from Ohio State University, an MBA from Columbia Business School and his law degree from the Moritz College of Law at OSU. He was the lead policy adviser for U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, and has worked with the U.S. Department of the Treasury “to develop regulations for Opportunity Zones.” His website also says he’s taught law and economics at the college level. According to his website, he served as a Senate tax counsel and helped create opportunity zones “designed to ensure that private investment is directed to economically distressed communities across the country.”
- Republican Santana King, of North Royalton, was raised in Cleveland and currently works as a government consultant and staff writer for a small foreign affairs journal, according to his website. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in government and international relations. King describes himself as a “pragmatic moderate Republican” who says he’s “an alternative for the minorities and all persons who align with Republican values and positions but have vote[d] differently because of their negative perception of the GOP.”
- Republican Dante Sabatucci, of Cuyahoga Falls, graduated from Jackson High School in 1986, joined the Ohio National Guard in 1987 and graduated from the University of Akron in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in finance, according to his website. He’s worked in technology and communications since 1994 and in 2002 started a company with his father. In 2010, he started a baseball academy and was inducted into the Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021. Sabatucci’s website says he is a “free market capitalist and a conservative” who is pro- “freedom of religion, medical freedom, fiscal discipline, First and Second Amendment, life, border security, election integrity, term limits, limited federal government, states’ rights [and] Trump.”
- Republican Ryan Saylor, of Stow, works for Summa Health as a project manager and earned a master’s degree in business administration from Kent State University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Akron, according to his LinkedIn page.
- Republican Greg Wheeler, of Copley Township, is an attorney and accountant who said he previously worked in real estate, entertainment and the aviation industry. According to his website, he had a startup featured on the TV show “Shark Tank” and is a licensed pilot who also served as a bike patrol volunteer for Summit Metro Parks.
Could the lines for Ohio’s congressional districts change again?
Ohio Republicans approved the new 4-year congressional map this week despite pleas from Democrats to work toward a bipartisan solution.
Now, the Ohio Supreme Court must decide whether the lines violate anti-gerrymandering language in the Ohio Constitution, approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018. Without maps, Ohioans can’t vote on statehouse and congressional races in the May 3 primary.
The new map would help the GOP hold onto at least 10 of 15 seats — and win as many as 13 in a solid Republican year.
Republicans currently comprise 12 of 16 members of Ohio’s congressional delegation, but Ohio will lose a seat because its population grew at a slower rate than the nation’s over the past decade.
The Ohio Supreme Court is also reviewing state House and Senate maps passed last week to see if they abide by anti-gerrymandering language approved by Ohio voters in 2015.
Unlike in the case of state House and Senate maps, the Ohio Constitution has no explicit prohibition on the court drawing a congressional map or appointing a special master to do so.
The fate of the May primary also remains unclear. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Ohio election officials have warned state lawmakers that it’s going to be…
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