TODAY IS the filing deadline for candidates seeking to succeed Bill Johnson in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Filing Tuesday were state Sen. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, and state Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus, R-Paris Township.

Rulli started serving his second four-year term in the Ohio Senate this year. Rulli is also director of operations for his family-owned Rulli Bros. Markets in Boardman and Austintown.

Stoltzfus, first elected to the Ohio House in 2018, is a former Paris Township trustee and owns Dutchcraft Tress & Component in his hometown.

Rick Tsai, an East Palestine Republican, filed Monday and Rylan Z. Finzer, a Bedford Heights Democrat, was the first candidate to file on Dec. 12.

Tsai, a chiropractor, gained some national attention for speaking out against Norfolk Southern, the railroad company that had a massive derailment on Feb. 3 in his hometown. He’s never run for public office before.

Finzer lives in Cuyahoga County, which is outside the district, but congressional candidates only need to live in the state in order to run.

Finzer used to live 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. Finzer owns Finzer’s Finest, a marijuana dispensary in Bedford Heights.

The congressional seat will be vacant for several months between the time of the Republican Johnson’s resignation and when a special election would be held to fill his unexpired term.

The 6th District had an 18% advantage for Republicans based on voting trends in partisan statewide elections. Because of that, Democrats aren’t focused on this election.

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. Mahoning, Columbiana and Stark in the upper part of the district are the population centers.

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.