Redistricting poses challenge for candidates vying to replace Tim Ryan
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Based on declining population numbers, Ohio will lose a congressional district in the upcoming 2022 election.
It could be Tim Ryan's 13th district which includes Mahoning, Trumbull and parts of Portage, Summit and Stark Counties. If it doesn't go, the district could just geographically change after they all get redrawn this Summer.
Former State Senator Joe Schiavoni says that presents a problem for potential candidates looking to replace Ryan, who is now running for U.S. Senate.
"I think that is why you are going to see a lot of hemhawing from candidates on both the democrat and republican side for good reason because they are going to say, well I don't know what district I would be running for," Schiavoni said. "If you ask me if I want to run for Congress, ok, but I don't really know if I live in the district, are they going to cut me out the district. Those are the questions a lot of candidates will ask but I think it's going to be a strange time because you can't really wait. You have to raise so much money, you have to work incredibly hard on working across that district, you got to make the contacts in Washington whether you are a republican or democrat, figure out what the primary is going to look like and so it's just going to be a strange open seat with not really knowing what the lines are."
Schiavoni said he's had a lot of calls in the last couple days asking him to run for Congress and says he is honored that people would trust him to do a good job in Washington for people of the Valley but says now isn't the right time.
"For me right now, I don't care what the district looks like. Right now I am a full-time husband and dad and run a law practice and I'm a part-time judge and for those reasons I would basically have to drop all that and I don't want to do that right now," Schiavoni said. "My dad just retired from the law firm and I'm running the law firm. I go to court a day or day and a half a week depending on the schedule, that is what the voters in the Valley voted me in last year. With my family, I know how it is to be gone every second of every day, race home to try to say goodnight to them and then hurry up to make breakfast just so you can spend twenty minutes with them and then be gone and you can't just kind of sort of run for Congress or you will surely lose and it's just not something for me is the right move right now."
So far no one has officially announced they are running in the 13th district congressional race for 2022.
