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YOUNGSTOWN -- The five candidates -- three Republicans and two Democrats -- who filed for the 6th Congressional District's full two-year term, starting in January 2025, turned in nominating petitions to run in the special primary to fill the position sooner.
The congressional seat is being vacated Sunday by Republican Bill Johnson, who's served for 13 years. Johnson will become Youngstown State University president the day after his U.S. House resignation takes effect.
Gov. Mike DeWine gave those wanting to run for the unexpired term, which goes through the end of December, until Friday to submit petitions to the Mahoning County Board of Elections for a special March 19 primary.
March 19 is also the same date as the regular primary for the full two-year term that starts next year so voters in the 11-county congressional district will see the same candidates twice on the ballot as long as they are certified for the special election.
The elections board in Mahoning, the 6th District's most-populous county, will meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday to certify the validity of the nominating petitions for the five candidates who filed for the special primary. The board previously certified all of the candidates for the regular primary, but that was for different sets of nominating petitions.
The Republicans who filed by Friday's deadline are state Sen. Michael Rulli of Salem, state Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus of Paris Township and Rick Tsai of East Palestine.
The Democrats are Michael L. Kripchak of Youngstown and Rylan Z. Finzer of Bedford Heights.
Rulli is serving his second four-year term, representing Mahoning, Columbiana and Carroll counties, which are all in the 6th Congressional District. Mahoning is the congressional district's most-populous county with Columbiana as the third most-populous.
Stoltzfus is serving his third two-year term in the Ohio House, and represents a portion of Stark, the district's second most-populous county.
Tsai, a first-time candidate, is a chiropractor who's gained some national attention for speaking out against Norfolk Southern, the railroad company that had a massive derailment Feb. 3, 2023, in his hometown.
Finzer owns Finzer's Finest, a marijuana dispensary in Bedford Heights. He lives outside the congressional district. Congressional candidates only need to live in Ohio to run.
Finzer used to reside in Perry Township in Stark County and finished a distant last in a three-person race in 2019 for trustee in that township, receiving 10.6% of the vote.
Kripchak filed for the congressional seat in the 2022 Democratic primary, but wasn't permitted on the ballot because of errors with his nominating petitions.
Johnson's official final day as a congressman is Sunday though the U.S. House last met Thursday.
In his Thursday's farewell speech on the House floor, Johnson said: "I have so loved this work. It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve the good people of eastern and southeastern Ohio."
He added: "It took a unique offer for me to leave the 'People's House.'"
Those wanting to run as independents for both the unexpired term and the full two-year term have until March 18 to file nominating petitions.
The special general election is June 11. With certification of the results usually taking a couple of weeks, the 6th District will be without a representative for about five months.
DeWine said he wanted to have the seat empty for as short a period of time as possible -- in coordination with Secretary of State Frank LaRose -- so he scheduled the general election for June 11, an atypical date for an election in Ohio.
Also, DeWine said, he wanted to avoid the cost of two special elections.
The district has an 18% advantage for Republicans based on voting trends in partisan statewide elections over the past decade. The seat is considered a safe one for Republicans.
The 6th Congressional District includes all of Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison, Monroe, Noble and Washington counties and portions of Stark and Tuscarawas counties.
In the 2022 election, 30.4% of the votes came from Mahoning, the district's most-populous county, with 16.3% from Stark and 12.6% from Columbiana.
With Johnson's resignation, the Republican majority over Democrats in the U.S. House is down to 219-213.