Timing isn’t everything in politics, but it sure plays a huge factor.

Look at Devon Stanley, a Liberty trustee, Girard Municipal Court prosecutor and Trumbull County deputy clerk of courts, who also has a private law practice.

Already having four jobs, though he isn’t currently serving as Girard’s prosecutor, Stanley is running in Tuesday’s Republican Party primary for common pleas court judge. If he gets elected, Stanley would give up his current jobs to be a judge.

Hanging over his head for months is an Oct. 23 incident in which he allegedly assaulted his wife. The case was referred to a Trumbull County grand jury to consider an indictment.

It took longer than usual, but an indictment charging Stanley with second-degree assault was handed up April 23, more than two weeks after the start of early voting and 12 days before the May 5 primary election date.

Shortly after Stanley’s indictment, Trumbull Republican Chairwoman Julia Shutt sent me a statement saying the party, under her leadership, was asking him to withdraw from the primary.

Shutt said, “The Republican Party stands for accountability and the highest ethical standards. We ask Mr. Stanley to withdraw his candidacy for common pleas judge to ensure that our party’s values are upheld. A Republican primary is no place to litigate one’s guilt or innocence.”

Stanley said he won’t resign.

Stanley told reporter Brandon Cantwell, “As an innocent person, my faith remains firmly rooted in the word of God,” and said the indictment’s “timing speaks for itself.”

The race for the judicial seat currently held by Judge Cynthia Westcott has been a most peculiar one.

First, Westcott, elected five times as a judge after winning the Democratic Party’s nomination, made a stunning decision to file for her seat as a Republican.

Westcott said she switched to the Republican Party because it “is where I feel comfortable. I was born and raised as a Republican and only switched in 1992 when my husband (now divorced) ran for office. That was my only connection” to the Democratic Party.

In addition to Stanley and Westcott, Mary Ellen Ditchey, Westcott’s magistrate, filed for the Republican primary. A magistrate filing against the sitting judge, her boss, is practically unheard of, with talk almost immediately about Westcott not long for the election.

With Democrats expecting Westcott to remain loyal to her political party, they were caught off guard by her switch and were unable to find a candidate in time as she filed so close to the deadline.

Then a few weeks later, Westcott withdrew from the race for “personal reasons. It’s just a good time for me to retire. I just don’t think it’s anyone’s business” why she decided not to run again.

With the chaos in the Republican primary and no Democrat in the race, Chris Becker, Trumbull County’s first assistant prosecutor, filed Tuesday as an independent for the judicial seat.

Becker lost a different common pleas court seat in 2024 by 1.34% as the Democratic nominee to Sarah Thomas Kovoor, the Republican nominee.

Becker said he was waiting for county Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, his boss, to retire in 2028 when this opportunity came along. Becker said he had strong interest in running for judge, but Westcott gave mixed signals about her candidacy.

Despite being a longtime Democrat, Becker said, “Running as an independent is the fair way to go because judges shouldn’t play politics.”

Trumbull Democrats have told me they support Becker’s candidacy.

While party affiliation won’t appear on the ballot for this race, Trumbull has gone from a reliable Democratic county since the New Deal to one that has elected only Republicans in contested races on the 2022 and 2024 ballots.

National politics played a role in that change, with Joe Biden, the Democratic president during the 2022 election, not having many fans in Trumbull County, and then the return of Republican Donald Trump to the 2024 ticket, which helped several county Republican candidates win that year. With a number of close races in 2024, there is no doubt that county Republican candidates greatly benefited from having Trump at the top of the ballot.

That won’t be the case this year.

With gas prices soaring and dissatisfaction with Trump growing, Democrats have an opportunity to prove they can win again in Trumbull County.

We will see how that turns out during the November general election.

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