Freshman state Rep. Mike Loychik formally introduced a bill to rename Mosquito Lake State Park after former President Donald Trump.

The two-page bill calls for the state to spend $300,000 — $150,000 annually for the next two years — “to erect suitable markers” renaming the park.

Loychik, R-Bazetta, sent a March 12 note to fellow House members and their staff stating he was seeking co-sponsors for the bill and gave members until March 19 to contact his office.

“This legislation is meant to honor the commitment and dedication that our 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, bestowed upon the great people of Trumbull County,” Loychik said at the time in a prepared statement. “I witnessed the unprecedented and astounding support that President Trump received from constituents across the 63rd District and on Mosquito Lake State Park. This enthusiasm for our former president was also historic throughout the state of Ohio last November as he pushed for initiatives and policies that (were) well-received with my constituency and the state.”

Loychik introduced the bill Monday with six Republican co-sponsors.

That’s a low number of co-sponsors for a Republican bill in the GOP-controlled state House.

A bill introduced by Loychik and state Rep. Diane Grendell, R-Chesterland, to make Ohio a Second Amendment sanctuary state had 12 Republican co-sponsors.

A bill he introduced with state Rep. Cindy Abrams, R-Harrison, to require specific reporting of child abuse in military families had 61 co-sponsors, including Democrats, and another bill to provide federal COVID-19 relief funding for businesses he sponsored with state Rep. Mark Fraizer, R-Newark, had 59 co-sponsors, including Democrats. Both of those bills were unanimously approved by the House.

Also, a bill sponsored by two House Republicans to designate June 14 as President Donald J. Trump Day in the state had 11 co-sponsors, including Loychik.

Attempts to reach Loychik for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful. He hasn’t returned messages from this newspaper since he was elected in November.

State Rep. Michael J. O’Brien, D-Warren, who also represents part of Mosquito Lake State Park, opposes the proposal, saying changing the name “would create political turmoil.”

Jane Timken, a former state Republican Party chairwoman who Loychik has endorsed for the U.S. Senate, said: “In order to recognize the promises President Trump kept to the people of Ohio and Trumbull County, I fully support renaming our state park Donald J. Trump State Park.”

Mosquito Lake is one the largest lakes in the state, with than 7,000 acres of surface area. The surrounding park covers 2,483 acres.

Trump won Trumbull County in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He was the first Republican to win two consecutive presidential elections in the county since Herbert Hoover in 1928 and 1932. The county switched from being a Republican county to a Democratic one in 1936. Since then, Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 and Richard Nixon in 1972 were the only other Republican presidential candidates to win Trumbull.

Loychik beat Democrat Gil Blair of Weathersfield by 8.3 percent in the November election. It was the first time Loychik ran for elected office.