Jullie Kelley, the lone Republican challenging U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli in the GOP primary for the latter’s congressional seat, has two victories over the incumbent’s campaign in the past few weeks.

But wins in front of the Stark County Board of Elections and the Ohio Supreme Court to remain on the ballot is unlikely to translate into success for Kelley during the May 5 Republican primary.

It’s understandable that Rulli of Salem, a congressman since winning a special June 2024 election for the 6th District seat, would want to avoid a Republican primary though realistically his campaign won’t spend much money fending off Kelley’s challenge as she doesn’t have the financial resources to compete.

On the flip side, Rulli’s district lines changed with a number of new voters who likely have never heard of him — and plenty of current voters who don’t know him as he’s served less than two years in Congress — so having a contested Republican primary might boost his name recognition.

Redistricting with this election took away part of Mahoning County from the 6th Congressional District as well as all of Monroe, Noble and Washington counties. It added more of Stark, making it the most-populous county in the district, as well as portions of Wayne and Holmes counties and all of Tuscarawas when the latter had only a portion in the district.

David C. Spencer, Rulli’s campaign manager, initially filed a Feb. 20 protest against Kelley’s candidacy with the Stark County Board of Elections.

The board certified Kelley of Monroe to the ballot Feb. 17, determining she had 50 valid signatures on nominating petitions. That is the minimum number of valid signatures needed to qualify for the Republican congressional primary.

Before certification, Stark board employees initially found only 49 valid signatures out of the 62 submitted by Kelley. But the board ruled a printed signature – rather than a cursive signed one, which is typically required – was valid and certified Kelley as a candidate.

Spencer, who runs an East Liverpool political consulting firm, filed the protest asking the board to reconsider the printed signature as well as disqualify a signature from a registered Democrat.

At a March 3 hearing, the Stark board agreed to remove the registered Democrat from Kelley’s count and declined to reconsider the printed signature.

That put Kelley at 49 valid signatures.

But Kelley, who received 9% of the vote and finished last in the 2023 election for a trustee seat in her township, came prepared for the hearing.

Kelley produced affidavits from two other people who printed their names attesting that they signed her petitions. Kelley walked into the hearing with 50 valid signatures, had one removed and still left with 51 accepted signatures.

Then Spencer quickly turned around and had an attorney file an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court.

The argument from Curt Hartman, Spencer’s attorney, was that the Stark board did not have the authority to reconsider those two additional printed signatures because those residents live in Carroll County and that county’s board of elections had previously determined the signatures to be invalid.

Hartman argued the Stark board “manifested a clear disregard of law and applicable legal principles, acting without authority of state law in reviewing and rehabilitating the genuineness of the two signatures which the Carroll County Board of Elections had previously declared to be invalid.”

Deborah Dawson, a Stark County assistant prosecutor representing the elections board, wrote that state law and Ohio secretary of state directives don’t require the board to rely upon Carroll County’s board’s “information in the ultimate determination of the validity of the candidacy” because it is the board in the 6th Congressional District’s most-populous county and makes the final decision.

In a 7-0 decision March 20, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Stark elections board that it had the authority to make the determination on the signatures in question.

The decision read: “The Stark County board correctly considered Kelley’s evidence that three signatures, including two signatures of electors from Carroll County, had been incorrectly invalidated. Spencer raises no issue with respect to the evidence Kelley presented establishing that these three signatures were valid. Because including those signatures resulted in Kelley’s qualifying for the primary election ballot, the Stark County board correctly denied Spencer’s protest.”

Articles about Kelley’s two victories ran in newspapers in Mahoning, Stark and Columbiana counties – the congressional district’s three most-populous counties.

Kelley told me the articles “helped me in so many ways” as “I am at the bottom of the fundraising pile.”

David Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.