Only one Stark County resident running for U.S. House

Two days after the Ohio Redistricting Commission approved a congressional district map that splits Stark County into two, the only candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from the county is attorney Madison Gesiotto Gilbert of Jackson Township.

Gilbert switched from seeking a challenge against U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, in Northwest Ohio to running in a district without an incumbent that includes the area where she graduated from Jackson High School in 2010.

She's among the seven Republicans who filed by the 4 p.m. Friday deadline to run in the new 13th District, which leans slightly Democratic and is comprised mostly by all of Summit County.

Assuming no nonpartisan candidates, the winner of that GOP primary scheduled for May 3 would face the winner of the Democratic primary, which is set to have at least two candidates who live in Summit County. They are State Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, the former Ohio House Minority Leader, and first-term Munroe Falls Councilman-at-Large John Impellizzeri.

More: Ohio Redistricting Commission passes new 4-year maps for legislative districts, Supreme Court to review

Gilbert, 29, a former Miss Ohio USA while she was a senior at Ohio State University, a conservative commentator and columnist, and a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump, is married to former Pittsburgh Steeler Marcus Gilbert. The Canton law firm Mills, Mills, Fiely & Lucas lists her as one of its attorneys. She could not be reached Friday evening for comment.

She announced her run for the 13th on Twitter Friday. "(Democratic U.S. House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, we're coming for you," she tweeted.

And she posted an apparent picture of herself filing her petition of candidacy at the Summit County Board of Elections.

Former State Rep. Christina Hagan of Marlboro Township, a Republican, announced Friday that she was not going to run for Congress in 2022. She opted not to run in the Democratic-leaning 13th District nor in an adjoining district with a Republican incumbent.

She had run unsuccessfully in the former 16th District in 2018 and former 13th District in 2020. It would have been her third attempt running in a district that she didn't originally live in. The U.S. Constitution does not require a congress member live in the district they represent.

Will map be final?

The candidate list could be upended if the Ohio Supreme Court doesn't accept the latest congressional redistricting map. In January, the court overturned a very different district map where Stark County would have been in one Republican-leaning district with U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Lakeville, on the ballot. A majority of justices ruled that the Ohio General Assembly should have approved a map that more closely matched the party preferences of Ohio voters overall in accordance with a new 2018 state constitutional amendment.

Under this second map, Republicans who controlled the commission to create a new 13th District tacked onto Summit County and a sliver of southwestern Portage County: Canton, Jackson Township, Plain Township, North Canton, Lake Township, Lawrence Township, Canal Fulton, Tuscarawas Township, Hartville, Hills and Dales and Meyers Lake.

Massillon is split between two districts.

Seeking to have the same population for each congressional district, Republican mapmakers attached the rest of Stark County, including nearly all of Perry Township, and Massillon Wards 2, 4 and part of 3 to a large eastern Ohio district to create a new Republican-leaning 6th District.

That district, with all of nine counties and parts of two, stretches south to Marietta and the Ohio River, more than 100 miles away. The district includes northeastern Tuscarawas County along with Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison, Noble, Monroe and Washington counties. The 6th District has a longtime Republican incumbent, Bill Johnson of Marietta.

'Gobbled up'

Some Stark County officials dislike that the county is again divided into different districts. The county has been in parts of three districts that took effect in the 2012 congressional election.

State Sen. Kirk Schuring, R-Jackson Township, lobbied for Stark County to be in one district.

"The order of the Supreme Court has caused the county to be split," he said.

Schuring argued that the court's justices misinterpreted the 2018 state constitutional amendment that he helped negotiate. The text didn't require that district maps match voters' party preferences statewide, Schuring said. The amendment directed state mapmakers to aspire to do so but didn't make that goal mandatory, he argued.

Stark County Commissioner Richard Regula said the county has more of a voice in Congress when all of it is represented by one congressman. His father, the late Ralph Regula, represented districts that included all or nearly all of Stark County for 36 years until 2008.

"It just frustrates me that they're again breaking Stark County up," said Regula. "Now what do we have in common with the whole district that goes clear to the Ohio River?"

Regula said the only advantage he could see is that the new 6th District would include the entire planned route of the eastward U.S. 30 expressway extension from Canton to state Route 11 that he and business owners have been seeking for at least eight years.

State Rep. Thomas West, D-Canton, said Thursday he hadn't yet analyzed the new map in depth. But he liked it better than the first map especially because Akron and Canton, which share the Akron-Canton Airport, would be together in the 13th District, which a Democrat has a decent chance to win.

West said he'll still push for a district map where Democrats stand a chance to win six or seven seats rather than just five.

Jackson Township Fiscal Officer Randy Gonzalez, a former Stark County Democratic chairman, said he hopes the Ohio Supreme Court rejects the second map, too.

"There will not be a congressperson from Stark County for many years ...," he wrote in a text message, objecting to many Stark County residents living across their streets from neighbors with a different congressman. "Yes, Stark County is getting gobbled up."

Bob Gibbs would no longer represent Stark

Gibbs, who's represented most of Stark County since 2013, under the newest map will not appear on ballots in Stark County. He lives in the new Republican-leaning 7th District without Stark County. His district includes a sliver of northwestern Holmes County where Gibbs lives, Wayne County, Medina County and much of suburban Cuyahoga County.

For re-election, Gibbs appears to have at least five Republican primary challengers. Among the challengers are former Trump aide Max Miller. He had originally sought to mount a primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Rocky River in the former 16th District because Gonzalez had voted to impeach Trump.

Gonzalez, who's represented northwestern Stark County since 2019, announced he would not seek re-election. With Ohio losing a congressional seat due to its population growth not keeping up with the national average, much of the territory of the former 16th District has gone to the 7th District.

Other candidates

The other Republican candidates in the new 13th District are:

• Dante Sabatucci of Cuyahoga Falls.

• Gregory M. Wheeler of Norton.

• Janet L. Folger Porter of Hinckley in Medina County, outside the district.

• Shay Hawkins of Broadview Heights in Cuyahoga County, outside the district.

• Santana F. King of North Royalton in Cuyahoga County, outside the district.

• Ryan Saylor of Stow.

It's possible other candidates filed in a county Board of Elections besides Summit County.

The Republican candidates in the new 6th District are:

• U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta.

• John Anderson of Enon.

• Michael S. Morgenstern of Poland.

• Gregory M. Zelenitz of Belmont.

The Democratic candidates for the 6th District are:

• Martin Alexander of Boardman.

• Eric S. Jones of Austintown.

• Louis G. Lyras of Campbell.

• Michael L. Kripchak of Youngstown.

• Shawna Roberts of Belmont.

Schuring said the Ohio Supreme Court has to approve the latest congressional and state legislative maps for the primary for state legislature and Congress to proceed on May 3 as scheduled.

"If they still decide to overrule (the map), then May 3 primary is in jeopardy, yes," he said.

Reach Robert at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @rwangREP.

Correction: It appears U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs has at least five Republican primary challengers to his re-election, according to the Cuyahoga and Summit county boards of election. A prior version of this article failed to include one challenger who filed candidacy paperwork at the Summit County Board of Elections with the four who filed in Cuyahoga County.

A prior version of this article misspelled the name of Gregory M. Zelenitz, a Republican candidate for congressman for the 6th District.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Several candidates file by deadline amid confusing redistricting