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State Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, faces Democrat John Barbo, Geneva City Council president and a longtime high school science teacher, in the 65th Ohio House District race.
The district includes Girard, Liberty, Hubbard, McDonald, Vienna as well as large sections of rural Trumbull County and much of Ashtabula County.
The district favors Republicans by about 15%, based on partisan statewide voting results during the past decade.
Barbo didn't enter the race until mid-June when he replaced Lorna J. Westlake of Austinburg, the Democratic nominee who had to withdraw because of her husband's medical condition.
Barbo said he was looking to run for the state House seat in 2028, but when Westlake pulled out of the race, he saw it as an opportunity to seek the office now as well as make sure Thomas didn't run unopposed.
No Democrat filed against Thomas in the November 2024 election. Thomas is serving his first term in the Ohio House.
Thomas, a former Ashtabula County auditor, serves as the House Republicans' point man on property tax reform and is vice chairman of the House's Ways and Means Committee.
Of the seven bills he sponsored that were signed into law in 2025, five of them dealt with property tax reform.
The five will save homeowners more than $3 billion over the next three years, changes how millage is counted for school districts and permits county budget commissions to control levy amounts.
But Thomas said more property tax reform is needed.
Thomas said: "I would like to build on our billions in savings and overhaul of the unvoted property tax revenue local governments receive by continuing to tackle the valuation process, appeals process, foreclosure process, CAUV (Current Agricultural Use Value) for farmers and more."
In addition to serving his second term on Geneva City Council, including about four as president, Barbo has spent the past 27 years as a science teacher at Geneva High School and is the science department chairman. He also coaches football and basketball at the high school.
If elected, Barbo wants to address property taxes as well as income taxes.
Barbo said: "Republicans have dominated state politics for decades, and their policies have forced school districts and municipalities to rely more and more on property taxes. Secondly, tax cuts that favor the rich have placed the burden on the average Ohioan. At one point, Ohio had nine income tax brackets. We now have one. This has resulted in billions of dollars of lost tax revenue for the state. We need to look at our entire tax structure and take the steps to make our entire tax structure more progressive and less regressive."
That leads to Barbo's position on public education funding.
Barbo said: "Across the state, school districts are struggling financially, with many of them making cuts to programs that are vital to the growth and well-being of their students. This is not a result of mismanagement by those districts. This is what happens when our state Legislature refuses to adequately fund our public schools."
Barbo said he would "fight to fully fund our public schools through the Fair School Funding Plan, a bipartisan formula that calculates the true cost of educating a student in a given school district. Fully funding this plan would prevent school districts from relying on property taxes to the extent that they do."
Thomas wants to lower government spending.
Thomas said: "To help with our tax issues, we must alter how the largest portion of Ohio government is structured - local government. Ohio has the (highest) number of taxing districts in the nation, which adds duplication and cost to taxpayers. I will continue the work done in this General Assembly to remove duplication of service and make our government more efficient."