Race Outcome: Defeated

---

In a bit of redistricting chaos, two incumbents are battling it out for Ohio’s 16th District, Democrat Betty Sutton and Republican Jim Renacci.  Republicans drew the new district to favor the reelection of Renacci, but polls have remained neck and neck throughout the race.

Already a battleground in the presidential campaign and the site of a Senate battle fueled by Karl Rove, campaigns spent $18 million on TV ads in the Cleveland market by the end of June. Fighting to be heard in that climate isn’t easy for Sutton, but she reminds voters that she’s being attacked because the Republican super PACs know she can win.

“I’ve never seen a poll that shows me behind, and they’re getting worried,” Sutton told the Washington Post in September. “Their attacks are reflecting that they’re going to do everything they can to stop me.”

---

Progressive Credentials:

• Key House architect of the American Clean Energy and Security Act
• Sponsored the Protect Consumers Act of 2009, which calls for stricter action to protect consumers in the event of a product’s mandatory recall by the FDA
• Cosponsored the Let Wall Street Pay for Wall Street’s Bailout Act

Why We Like Her:  Betty Sutton fights to protect consumers from greedy insurance companies, to reform the credit card industry and to stand up to the big banks on Wall Street.

Candidate Quote:  “As a United States congresswoman, a state legislator in the Ohio House of Representatives, and as an attorney, I have always stood up for the rights of women and girls. Whether itʼs stronger anti-domestic violence laws, fairness in our health-care system, protecting reproductive rights or demanding fairness in the workplace and from corporations, I will always take on the right fight.”

Candidate Website: http://www.bettysuttonforcongress.com/

Sutton is the current U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 13th congressional district. She was born in Barberton, Ohio, to a library clerk and a World War II veteran. She attended Kent State University and then went on to receive her law degree from the University of Akron.

Before going to Congress, Betty served the people of northeast Ohio in the State Legislature, the Summit County Council, and the Barberton City Council. Sutton also represented first responders and other workers as a labor attorney in Northeast Ohio.

 

---