At the
2004 Sheffield City Council election, Coppard was one of three Labour candidates who unsuccessfully contested
Graves Park. Coppard volunteered for the
Obama campaign for the
2012 US presidential election. He was director of the
remain campaign in
Yorkshire and the Humber, and
Lincolnshire for the
2016 European Union referendum. Coppard stood in
Sheffield Hallam at the
2015 general election, against then
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. He failed to defeat Clegg but achieved a swing of over 16% from the
Liberal Democrats to Labour. Coppard has stated that he chose not to contest the seat in
2019 due to
Labour antisemitism. In the
2022 South Yorkshire mayoral election, Coppard was selected as the Labour candidate. He won the election, getting a plurality of votes in the first round, at 43.1% and defeating the
Conservative candidate Clive Watkinson by a margin of 71.4% to 28.6% in the second round. Coppard told the
Yorkshire Post that he established the programme because he knew that 'one in nine babies that go home from hospital in Sheffield alone go home without a safe place to sleep' and they can 'end up sleeping in a bath or a box, a drawer, in a bouncy chair'. The scheme is delivered by the UK charity Baby Basics, who had already established the need and the format for addressing it. On 22 March 2024, under Coppard's leadership the
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority formally brought the
Supertram under public control. This move was welcomed by commentators, with Matthew Topham from Better Buses for South Yorkshire calling 'a day of celebration when our local transport will be run by and for the people it serves' and a Sheffield Councillor called it a 'brave decision' that deserves 'all of our support' in a column for the
Sheffield Telegraph.' Plans to bring the tram under SYMCA ownership had been set in motion by previous Mayor Dan Jarvis. == Personal life ==