Carey Coleman won the Republican primary for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District on May 5 — National Teacher Day — and the newly minted GOP nominee is heading into the general election with on-camera comments telling teachers’ unions to “go to hell.”
Coleman, a former WNIR-FM talk radio host and former Cleveland-market television meteorologist, took 47.3% of the vote in a five-way primary, defeating Leetonia Mayor Kevin Siembida, businesswoman Margaret Briem, businessman Neil Patel and medical school graduate Sanjin Drakovac. He will face two-term incumbent Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Akron) in the Nov. 3 general election.
A recording from Coleman’s campaign launch event, reviewed by TiffinOhio.net, captured him saying he wanted “to make damn sure if I have any ability in Congress to enact policy to tell these, for one, national teachers unions to go to hell.” In the same remarks, he accused the unions of having “hijacked our education.”
91.7% of Ohio teachers are union members
If Coleman’s pledge is meant as a policy goal, it would put him at odds with the overwhelming majority of Ohio’s public school workforce. The most recent state-level figures from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Teacher and Principal Survey show 91.7% of Ohio public school teachers were members of a union or similar employee association in 2017-18 — among the highest rates in the country and well above the national figure of 69.4%.
Ohio’s two largest teachers’ unions are the Ohio Education Association, an affiliate of the National Education Association, and the Ohio Federation of Teachers, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers — the two “national teachers unions” Coleman singled out at his launch.
‘Fundamental changes’ and ‘shaming’ claims
In other recorded remarks during the campaign, Coleman claimed that public schools were “shaming” students who supported President Donald Trump, saying “kids are shamed or even hurt because of their political beliefs, and it’s always conservative beliefs that are being attacked.” He has also called for “fundamental changes” to schools without specifying which programs, staffing models, or funding structures he would target.
Coleman’s campaign website lists ensuring “parents have a strong voice in their children’s education” among his priorities but does not detail a specific education policy platform.
Backed by school-choice advocates
Coleman entered the general election with the unanimous backing of the Summit County Republican Party, which endorsed him on March 22. The county party and the broader Ohio GOP have aligned around an aggressive expansion of taxpayer-funded vouchers and charter schools — a position championed by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is now running for state auditor.
In a September 26, 2023 guest column titled “Radical teachers’ unions wrong. Kids should not be forced to attend failing schools,” LaRose wrote that “the movement toward school choice, charter schools, vouchers, and greater parental involvement must continue.”
A redrawn district
OH-13 was redrawn under Ohio’s 2025 congressional map to include all of Summit County, the northwestern portion of Stark County and the Kent area in Portage County. The redrawn district favors Democrats by an estimated 3 to 4 percentage points — a shift that prompted 2024 Republican nominee Kevin Coughlin to bow out of a rematch with Sykes.
Sykes, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, has used her two terms in Congress to focus on lowering household costs, expanding health care access and securing federal funding for the district. Her campaign manager, Cory Medina, said after the primary that she intends to continue that work in the general election.
