This Ohio Democrat Is Running on Tax Cuts. Her Record Indicates Tax Hikes Are More Her Style.

Democrat Emilia Sykes wants voters to think she’s a consensus builder who worked with Republicans in the Ohio state House to cut taxes. In reality, she voted against bipartisan tax cut bills at least three times and helped hike the state’s gas tax once.

In Sykes’s latest televised ad for her House campaign in Ohio’s 13th district, she touts her success working “with both parties to raise pay … and cut taxes.” Sykes then cites a singular vote on a 2019 budget that lowered the state income tax.

But since entering office in 2015, Sykes has mostly opposed bipartisan tax cuts. A Washington Free Beacon review of legislative records found that Sykes voted against lowering the state’s income tax at least three times, with her most recent “No” vote cast in 2021.

Sykes also voted to hike the state’s gas and diesel tax in 2019. That bill, which passed despite bipartisan opposition, hiked the gas tax by over 38 percent and the diesel tax by over 71 percent.

Sykes is not alone in fudging her record. Democrats across the country facing tough elections in November are desperately trying to shed their party label and convince voters they will be nonpartisan lawmakers, rather than a rubber stamp for party leadership.

But that pitch is a hard sell for Sykes and other Ohio Democrats such as Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan, who represents the 13th district, particularly in a state that overwhelmingly supported former president Donald Trump in 2020. Despite holding higher-office ambitions in purple states, both candidates have spent much of their political careers voting as rank-and-file Democrats.

Sykes is considered a top recruit by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Sykes comes from a wealthy political family that once filed a lawsuit after she lost a beauty pageant. The Free Beacon reported on the lawsuit, which included claims from the Sykes family that the ordeal resulted in at least $75,000 in damages due to psychological distress.

Sykes did not respond to a request for comment.

Every tax cut bill Sykes opposed received bipartisan support. In 2015, she voted against legislation to reduce Ohio’s income

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