When Rep. Emilia Sykes arrived at the regional airport in Akron on a recent Thursday morning to meet with dozens of local elected officials, she was the only Black person in the room.
It wouldn’t be long before two others joined the audience, but it quickly became apparent that they were both related. Mrs. Sykes paused briefly in her speech to welcome her parents: Vernon Sykes, a state senator, and Barbara Sykes, who serves on the Akron School Board.
It’s the kind of chamber that Ms. Sykes, 38, a first-term Democrat, is familiar with as one of about a dozen black members of Congress representing a majority-white district. And as she fights to defend her seat in a year when control of the House hangs in the balance, it represents a crucial part of the coalition trying to hold together — a coalition that includes a strong Democratic base but also a sizable swath of independents and moderate Republicans who moved to help her win the seat in 2022.
Republicans, who hold a razor-thin majority and are working hard to maintain their grip on the House, have identified her as a top target for defeat in a district rated a “tossup” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Her GOP challenger, Kevin Coughlin, who is white, is a former state lawmaker well known in Akron politics.
For Ms. Sykes, beating back the challenge means reminding voters as clearly and as often as possible what she did to directly benefit them during her time in Congress. It also means avoiding the bitter partisanship that defines the presidential race and struggling to keep the focus off President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump, both of whom were viewed unfavorably by a majority of respondents in the latest New York Times/Siena poll.
“My focus is on making sure my constituents understand what I’ve done,” Ms. Sykes said in an interview. “And we can translate that work into votes.”
She brought the message during a recent tour of Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, which centers around Akron, extends to more rural communities north of Cuyahoga Falls and stretches to Canton, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At each stop, Ms. Sykes emphasized her role in securing nearly $15 million in federal funding for projects in the district through earmarks, listened to requests for future projects to be funded and laid out plans to seek more federal dollars during this year’s budget process.
Unlike her ultra-progressive colleagues of color, known as “the squad,” Ms. Sykes eschews the cable TV circuit and social media. She prioritizes interviews with local news organizations and has a well-established routine of organizing community events where she hopes attendees feel they have access to her and her team. She has tried to distance herself from both presidential candidates and resisted Republican efforts to tie her closely to Mr. Biden, who carried Ohio, a state Mr. Trump won by eight percentage points in both 2016 and 2020.
“Biden and Trump don’t live in the 13th District of Ohio. Those are not the people I need to engage with. I need to engage with the people in the district,” said Ms. Sykes, who repeatedly declined to discuss Mr. Biden’s record or policies or how Mr. Trump’s behavior and agenda might affect her re-election bid. “I truly believe that voter services is the best incumbent protection plan that there is, because that’s my job.”
(The interview came before Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance. Ms. Sykes did not respond to a request for comment afterward about whether the president should remain in the presidential race and whether it would have any impact on her race if he did.)
Her fate this year is also a test of whether black Democrats can maintain and expand their positions in Congress in districts that don’t look like them.
The 118th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in historyreflecting the nation’s growing diversity, both the House and Senate remain disproportionately white. And while a quarter of members identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American, Alaska Native or multiracial, the vast majority of those members represent gerrymandered districts with large swaths of minority voters.
Other black members of Congress facing competitive challenges in all-white districts this year include Reps. Don Davis of North Carolina, Jahana Hayes of Connecticut and Steven Horsford of Nevada — all of whom hold seats that Republicans see as key win opportunities. The national campaign arms of the House of Representatives for both Democrats and Republicans have poured millions of dollars into each of the races, underscoring how crucial they could be in determining control of Congress in November.
It’s the kind of challenge that Ms. Sykes has been grappling with for much of her political life, since succeeding her father as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives in 2015.
“Even my constituency wasn’t predominantly black. So I’ve never represented a majority black community,” Ms Sykes said. “But when I focus on the people in the work that they sent me to do, it’s served me well.”
Born in Akron, Ms. Sykes grew up in a politically active family. Her parents both served on the Akron City Council when she and her sister were young, and both went on to run for the Ohio state legislature. Of the three, the youngest Ms. Sykes and her parents held the same seat in the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2022.
The family dynasty gave Ms. Sykes an early political education, as she watched her parents go about their work, answering phone calls when voters called their homes and traveling with them around the state to events packed with residents of their district from a variety of backgrounds.
“Emilia traveled with us so much, and of course she was usually the only kid in the room,” the elder Ms. Sykes, the first black woman elected to the Akron City Council, said in an interview. “She listened, and when we left, she had questions. Ever since she was young, she has a way of interacting with people of all ages, all races, all religions. And she’s comfortable in those environments.”
In a community that was far less diverse then than it is today, with two black parents in public life, Mrs. Sykes learned how to weather attacks and ridicule.
Barbara Sykes recalls the time Emilia, then still in school, confronted a classmate who had insulted her mother about her appearance after seeing her on television.
“Emilia said to him, ‘My mother is on TV, where is your mother?’”
Now it is the younger Ms. Sykes who has found herself a target. An attack ad against her campaign by the National Republican Congressional Committee uses a dark filter that casts an ominous tone and deepens her skin color. The ad, which criticizes the congresswoman for supporting a reform of Ohio’s criminal code, attempts to portray her as weak on crime and a threat to the safety of voters in her district and beyond.
“It’s just something we have to deal with,” Ms. Sykes said. “We acknowledge it. We deal with it and move on.”
According to her father, Mrs. Sykes’s upbringing had prepared her to persevere despite such negativity.
“You know, race becomes one of the dominant factors and it’s often difficult to overcome that,” Mr Sykes said.
It’s not just about defense. Across the country, Democrats have also recruited Black candidates to challenge vulnerable Republicans in predominantly white areas. One such seat party organizers hope to pick up is Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District, where Janelle Bynum, a Black state legislator, is running to defeat Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer in another race Cook calls a “tossup.”
There, too, Ms. Bynum is grappling with concerns about her electability as a black woman in a competitive district.
“Oregon is not a particularly diverse place for African Americans,” said Ms. Bynum, who in 2017 became the first black woman elected to the state House of Representatives. “The history of our state is such that we were not welcome here.”
Despite everything, she decided to launch her campaign with an ad starring her husband and children, calling the decision a gamble.
“Seeing a black family on TV is not — it’s not normal,” she said, adding that she hoped voters would embrace it.
Ms. Sykes said she and candidates like her are working to convince both voters and their own party’s establishment that minority candidates, particularly those with legislative backgrounds and proven track records in their communities, are just as capable as their white counterparts, regardless of the demographics of the district they are running in.
“Black candidates can win anywhere if we are given the opportunity and we can compete on the same playing field,” Ms Sykes said. “We are used to working twice as hard to get the same results as some of our peers.”
