Emilia Sykes' No. 1 priority? 'Want this government to work for people in this area.'

When Rep. Emilia Sykes was minority leader of the Ohio House, she'd sit down each term with her Democratic freshman colleagues and ask them, "What does success look like for you?"

Inevitably, they'd share grand, but unrealistic, plans — things like, "I'm going to fix the school funding formula."

Sykes realized as a Democratic leader in a Republican-controlled state legislature that she had to choose her battles and find ways to help her constituents. She knew getting her bills passed would likely be an uphill battle.

An effective lawmaker finds ways to assist those they were elected to serve and to advocate for their community, even when gridlock makes it nearly impossible to get laws passed.

Sykes has taken this approach with her to Washington as she begins the second year of her first two-year term representing Ohio's 13th Congressional District, which covers half of Stark County. Rep Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, who will soon assume the presidency at Youngstown State University, covers the other half. (The two worked well together and Sykes, who belongs to the Problem Solvers Caucus along with Johnson, hopes that continues with Johnson's successor.)

During a recent meeting with the editorial boards of the Canton Repository and Akron Beacon Journal, Sykes shared how she has tried to navigate what she calls "one of the least effective Congresses in modern history" to benefit the region.

"We did not seek out a very broad package of legislative activity because, quite frankly, I just didn't think it was going to be very fruitful to do so," she said. "And I'm very glad that we made that decision, because you could spin your wheels pretty significantly trying to put together a lot of legislation for it to go nowhere."

Sykes serves on the House's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee — bodies that are important to the region, especially as the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority continues its push for a hydrogen hub and Akron seeks to capitalize off its polymer expertise.

When the Federal Railroad Administration announced last year that Ohio is in line for service expansion but Akron and Canton weren't part of the plans, Sykes took notice.

"No one even bothered to mention Akron-Canton in the conversation," she said. "It just never came up. And that is what I hear over and over. No one said it, no one said those two communities."

She then met with the Amtrak CEO to urge future expansions to include the region, citing such benefits as connecting travelers with the Akron-Canton Airport and workers in Central Ohio's growing job market with Greater Akron's more affordable housing stock. There's no word yet whether her request will go anywhere, but at least someone is speaking up for the region.

During her tenure, she brought back $100 million in federal dollars to the district. The Akron Metro RTA station, for example, received a $37 million grant to build a new facility. In Stark County, SARTA is getting another $4 million in federal funds to continue to be the leader in hydrogen-powered vehicles in the country.

As a legislator, Sykes can't write grants for constituents, but she has knowledge of what grants are available, and she can share advise on how to secure them.

There is still a lot work to be done — a fact Sykes readily acknowledges. Too many Akron-Canton residents still struggle to make ends meet or pay off students loans. Downtown Canton and Akron have many vacancies to fill in a post-COVID, work-from-home era. And local businesses need more workers.

What's Sykes' No. 1 priority for the remaining year of her freshman term?

"So it's pretty boring," she said. "I just want this government to work for people in this area."

In these times of uncivil discourse and ineffective division in federal politics, we'll take boring any day.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Rep. Emilia Sykes seeks to be effective within an ineffective Congress