Eastern Ohio voters are deciding who will fill a congressional seat left vacant for months

By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli faces Democrat Michael Kripchak in Tuesday’s special election for the U.S. House seat in Ohio’s 6th District. The seat has been vacant since longtime U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson resigned in January to become a university president. The 55-year-old Rulli is from Salem in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley, where he directs operations for his family’s 100-year-old chain of grocery stores. The 42-year-old Kripchak, of Youngstown, is a local restaurant worker and former U.S. Air Force research science and acquisitions officer, actor and start-up operator. Tuesday’s contest is taking place under a 2022 congressional map justices declared gerrymandered to favor Republicans.