Springfield assistant mayor running for Congress as a moderate despite previous alleged anti-ICE beliefs

Springfield Assistant Mayor Tracey Tackett hopes to replace U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and announced her congressional run as a politically moderate candidate, even though she was previously accused of opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Tackett, who was selected as assistant mayor this year after serving two years on the Springfield City Commission, needs to gather at least 5,000 valid signatures, 950 more than she would need if she ran either as a Democrat or Republican, before May 4. Tackett will be on the ballot in November if she gathers enough valid signatures.

“After talking to citizens and seeing the state numbers, more and more people are in the middle, and they feel like nobody is in the middle for them, that they can’t relate to a far right or a far left, and they want to be in the middle,” she told Springfield News-Sun. “They want people who represent them who have a middle mindset, middle class, that’s willing to negotiate and work across the aisle. We’re so polarized right now.”

Tackett also said that local governments are struggling while people at the federal and even state levels are taking all the money.

“It feels like we’re all left at the bottom kind of scraping for the resources when at the top they’re keeping more,” she said.

Tackett also brought up the fact that small towns in Ohio and the country, are dying, with people leaving, adding that she noticed people in her district are talking about the same kinds of problems.

“They’re talking about jails, they’re talking about healthcare, they’re talking about immigration, they’re talking about data centers. There has to be a top-down. If we all have the same problem in our community, the next level up is trickling down, from that’s affecting all of us. So this campaign’s about changing that,” she told the local newspaper.

Tackett told the news source that if elected, she plans to “support small businesses and working families; strengthen public safety and partnerships with the community; expand access to healthcare and support services; invest in economic growth in rural, suburban, and small city areas; provide resources to local governments; and bring accountability and common-sense leadership back to Congress.”

“I believe government should solve problems, not create more division,” Tackett said in the interview with the Springfield newspaper.

Despite her claims that she is a politically moderate person, Tackett was previously accused of being anti-ICE, allegedly going as far as using her work email to locate and stalk ICE agents via the StopICE app.

A Springfield city representative and Tackett did not respond to requests for comment from Ohio.News to confirm or deny the allegation.