Democratic dominance in Ohio’s 63rd House District has seemingly come to an end.

Republican Mike Loychik appears to have outrun Democratic incumbent Gil Blair for a two-year term in Columbus, achieving 54 percent of the vote to Blair’s 46 percent, according to returns from the Trumbull County Board of Elections.

Loychik declined to comment after earlier returns were released, saying he wanted to continue monitoring the results before doing so. He did not return a phone call later Tuesday night.

Said Blair, “I want to congratulate Mike Loychik. He did work hard in this race. He campaigned hard. I am obviously disappointed in the results … but I can’t take anything away from him.”

The results are incomplete and uncertified. Ballots postmarked by Monday that arrive at county boards of elections by Nov. 13 and provisional ballots still need to be counted. The election results must be certified by Nov. 18.

Blair, 50, a former prosecutor at Warren Municipal Court and Weathersfield trustee, was asking voters for a full two-year term as state representative. He was appointed to the seat in May 2019 when former state Rep. Glenn Holmes left for a job on the Ohio Parole Board.

Loychik, 31, of Cortland, has owned and operated Atlantic Pressure Washing Solutions LLC in Niles since 2016. Before that he served several years in the U.S. Air Force in Arizona and in England in the facilities and maintenance fields.

In information he returned to this newspaper, Loychik briefly listed his three priorities: school safety, infrastructure improvements, and police, firefighter and first responder funding and training.

The 63rd District consists of all of or parts of Bazetta, Brookfield, Cortland, Girard, Fowler, Hartford, Vernon, Hubbard city, Hubbard Township, Liberty, Lordstown, McDonald, Newton Falls, Newton Township, Niles, Vienna and Weathersfield.

The base pay for a state representative is $63,007 per year.

rselak@tribtoday.com