Ohio GOP congressional candidate worked to elect anti-abortion peers to state office

Former Ohio state Sen. Kevin Coughlin (R), now a candidate for the state’s 13^th Congressional District, worked as a lobbyist after leaving the state legislature, where he exclusively conducted business with staunch anti-abortion politicians in 2022.

When Coughlin met his term limit in the Ohio Senate, he founded a consulting firm called Lexington Companies in 2010. According to candidate expenditures from 2022, Coughlin’s company worked solely with legislators and candidates who strongly oppose abortion, including state Sen. Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson), state Reps. Bill Roemer (R-Twinsburg), Thad Claggett (R-Newark) and former state Rep. Bob Young.

Each one of these candidates paid a total of $24,021.10 to Lexington Companies in the 2022 cycle. As legislators, the four candidates were all endorsed by the anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life and voted to block an Ohio constitutional amendment to protect reproductive freedom.

Roegner has had a particularly stringent record on abortion in the past, including sponsoring a six-week ban on the procedure and asserting that “life begins at conception” during a speech last October. In February, Roegner and Roemer also co-hosted a reception for Coughlin in Columbus, while the former contributed $250 to Coughlin’s campaign.

Young also donated to Coughlin’s cause, but he then resigned last October after a domestic violence incident that previous summer. He was arrested after allegedly striking his wife in front of his children and assaulting his brother-in-law.

Coughlin, who is a devout Christian and a self-proclaimed homophobe, is seeking to flip Ohio’s 13^th Congressional District for the Republican Party. Despite Coughlin’s firm anti-abortion stance, the 13^th District convincingly upheld reproductive freedom last November when the state voted to pass the Issue 1 ballot measure. He will face incumbent Rep. Emilia Sykes (D) in November in what is currently designated as a toss-up.