Who is running for the 6th Congressional seat to succeed Bill Johnson? Meet the candidates

Primary voters in the 6th Congressional District will choose a successor to Bill Johnson after the congressman stepped down in January.

The Republican primary candidates are state Sen. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, who represents Mahoning, Columbiana and Carroll counties; state Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus, R-Paris Township, who represents eastern and much of southern Stark County; and Rick Tsai, a chiropractor who lives in East Palestine in Columbiana County.

The Democratic primary candidates are Rylan Finzer, a former Perry Township resident and Bedford Heights resident who operates a business that sells medicinal marijuana products; and Michael Kripchak, a former Air Force officer who works at a restaurant and advises a government contractor on finding partners to help execute the contract. On Thursday, Finzer announced he was moving back to Perry Township and the district the following day.

Here's the twist: Voters will vote twice for the seat during the March 19 primary.

They will decide who will represent their party in a special election on June 11 to take office to succeed Johnson once that vote has been certified. And a second vote will decide who will represent the party in the general election on Nov. 5 for the two-year term starting in January.

Both sections of the ballot will have the same list of candidates.

Related: Stark County's Reggie Stoltzfus runs as candidate of principle for Congress

The conservative-leaning 6th District covers the southeastern half of Stark County and nearly all of Perry Township, northeastern Tuscarawas County and these nine counties: Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Harrison, Belmont, Monroe, Noble and Washington.

Meet candidate Reggie Stoltzfus: 'Our spending is way out of control.'

Stoltzfus, 43, a married father of four who grew up in the Hartville area, is the only Stark County resident in the race. The owner of Dutchcraft Truss served one term as a Paris Township trustee and has been a state representative since 2019.

He touts his bill passed into law through a 2021 state budget bill that requires parents to opt in for their children to get certain sex education instruction; and introducing legislation to limit state and local health departments' ability to shut down local businesses like in 2020 due to the pandemic. Similar language became law n 2021. And he introduced the "Save Women's Sports Act" in 2020 to prohibit people born as male to compete in women's sports. Many of the proposed restrictions became law in January through House Bill 68, which Rulli co-sponsored.

“We’re being invaded at the southern border. We’ve got to secure that," said Stoltzfus. "We’ve got to build the wall. We have to stop people from coming here illegally and secondly, our economy, our spending is way out of control. ... We have to stop raising the debt ceiling. We have to get inflation under control. ... We've got to stop catch and release."

Not only do they support "shutting down" the border, both Stoltzfus and Rulli would support a "Remain in Mexico" policy where those seeking asylum would have to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are pending.

Without proposing specific budget cuts and saying he would look at the budget line by line for cuts, Stoltzfus said he would never vote for an increase in the debt ceiling or a federal budget where expenses exceed revenue. And Stoltzfus said, without providing specifics, he would fight to bring jobs and industry into the district.

Meet candidate Michael Rulli: 'I want to put the Middle East out of business for energy.'

Rulli, 54, a married father of two and former board president of the Leetonia School District in Columbiana County, is the director of operations for the Rulli Brothers grocery business in Mahoning County.

Rulli, elected twice as a state senator since 2018, said his accomplishments include being a co-sponsor and advocate for legislation in 2022 that generally eliminated the requirement to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon; co-sponsoring legislation to bolster the natural gas industry; in 2020 overseeing the funding of school construction; helping create a state committee to promote public education about the Holocaust, which became law in 2020; being an advocate to prohibit local governments from requiring businesses to charge fees for the use of plastic bags, which became a permanent ban in 2021; and getting a bill passed in 2021 to relax fireworks restrictions, which Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed before signing a different fireworks bill.

Stoltzfus has criticized Rulli in 2019 and in 2021 for introducing legislation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. Stoltzfus claimed this would have allowed men to enter women's restrooms and women's domestic violence shelters.

Rulli called Stoltzfus's depiction of House Bill 11 "a complete lie," saying it was an anti-discrimination bill to attract business to Ohio that had the same provisions as that in federal law.

Stoltzfus also criticized Rulli's Senate Bill 307 in 2022 that would have provided grants and tax breaks to the electric vehicle industry.

“I’m for all energy whether it’s solar, wind, gas and oil as long as they’re not subsidized," said Stoltzfus. "If they can stand on their own two feet, I say they're great. But the government should not be subsidizing their industries."

Rulli said Stoltzfus was attacking saving 4,000 jobs at Lordstown Motors and attracting Foxconn to Trumbull County.

If elected, Rulli said, he would promote the energy industry in eastern Ohio and the construction of a plastic pellets plant in Belmont County. He would promote policies to encourage young people to work in trucking and trades. And "while we want to be cautious about the environment," he would oppose environmental regulations that scare away investors and "damage the grid."

"I want to put the Middle East out of business for energy,” he said. And with all the construction, "I would bet every single guy who can wield a hammer in Stark County will have more work than they know what to do with.”

Stoltzfus said he would vote for any federal abortion ban that protects more innocent lives.

Rulli said he's anti-abortion. But he's open to discussing exceptions to an abortion ban as a strict federal ban "would never see the light of day," and blamed the passage of Issue 1 last year due to legislators' refusal to consider exceptions.

Meet candidate Rick Tsai: 'I'm doing something because it has to be done.'

Tsai, 59, is a married chiropractor with a practice in western Pennsylvania who's lived in East Palestine for about 30 years. He's developed a following and appeared on Fox News for his insistence that the federal government ensure that Norfolk Southern completely clean up the chemicals dumped in local waters as a result of a train derailment last year.

He said he once voted as a Democrat, became disillusioned with politics due to the court decisions on the vote count in Florida in 2000 but then became enchanted with Donald Trump in the 2016 election. He said what he felt to be the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's insufficient response to the derailment further dented his trust in the federal government, which is one reason he chose to run for Congress as an "outsider."

Tsai said he wants to promote fracking in the area, and he would not rule out federal subsidies to energy companies. But he wants to require that drillers reveal the chemicals they use in the proces. And he wants to break up politicians being beholden to corporate campaign contributors.

He said he supports closing the border, deporting people who illegally entered the country, using financial leverage to pressure countries to accept deportees and revamping the system by which the U.S. vets those seeking asylum.

Tsai said he's anti-abortion. But he would allow it in cases of rape and incest until the unborn child has a heartbeat around six weeks of the pregnancy.

"I’m a man of action. I‘m like the Terminator. I don't stop when I’m on a mission," he said. "I don't need money. I don't need friends. I don't need fame. I’m doing something because it has to be done. There has to be new blood."

Meet candidate Rylan Finzer: He wants to make Ohio a 'powerhouse of clean energy.'

Finzer, 29, who attended McKinley High School and Stark State College, said he's running in support of a single-payer government-insured health care system run by doctors, not corporations. A former libertarian supporter of Ron Paul, he said his views changed because Medicaid paid for him at age 16 to get treatment, including surgery, for Crohn's disease.

"Medicaid saved my life," he said. "Being the ultra survivalist might sound cool but when you need help, it’s not that fun to be on your own."

He said if elected, he would work to bring high-paying jobs to eastern Ohio with the help of its "rich water resources" to make Ohio a "powerhouse of clean energy." He would seek to repeal the 2017 tax cuts on high-income earners. He would seek to eliminate the cap on Social Security taxes that benefits high-income earners to bolster Social Security. He would promote tourism in the Wayne National Forest near Marietta.

Finzer said he supports Issue 1, which struck down abortion bans. And he favors creating a "digital Ellis Island," by allowing people to apply for asylum online from abroad. He wants to secure the border using technology like "digital watch towers" and drones and instituting an "American Marshall plan" in Latin America so people will have less incentive to seek to migrate into the U.S.

Meet candidate Michael Kripchak: He wants to turn eastern Ohio into an 'innovation district.'

Kripchak, 42, said he served about three years in the Air Force as an officer. He said he tried breaking into the entertainment industry in Los Angeles for about six years and then got a master's degree from New York University in professional and interactive communications. His indoor location tagging startup couldn't survive the pandemic.

Today, his main job is working as a server at Homestead Kitchen and Cocktails in Columbiana. He also is an adviser for a government contractor.

He said he's running for Congress to fight what he believes to be the threat of Donald Trump turning the country toward authoritarianism.

If elected, Kripchak said, he would work with members of adjoining districts to turn eastern Ohio into an "innovation district." He said he supported the passage of Issue 1 invalidating state abortion bans. Kripchak wants to expand the country's capacity at the border to process asylum seekers.

He said he's the best candidate to go against the Republican nominee as "the GOP literally has no platform because they have no idea what Trump is going to say from day to day.”

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Meet the Ohio 6th Congressional District candidates in March primary