Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Joe Schiavoni, a former state senator, said he will run for Mahoning County Court judge in the November 2020 election.

The seat is nonpartisan; there is no primary. But county Democratic Party Chairwoman Joyce Kale-Pesta said Schiavoni will be part of the party’s backed general election ticket.

Schiavoni served in the state Senate for 10 years, leaving in 2018 because of Ohio’s term-limits law.

The filing deadline for the judicial position is Aug. 5.

J.P. Morgan will run next year to retain the seat. He was appointed in March by Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican, to succeed Judge David D’Apolito, a Democrat who stepped down to take a seat on the 7th District Court of Appeals.

Morgan ran in the November 2018 election for a different county court judicial seat and finished fourth out of six candidates.

The winner of the November 2020 election will serve the remainder of D’Apolito’s unexpired term, which ends Dec. 31, 2022.

The seat will be on the ballot again in 2022.