Democrat Matt Kilboy of Deerfield, who’s never run for elected office, is challenging U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, a Republican seeking his sixth, two-year term in Congress.

The 14th Congressional District includes all of Trumbull, Ashtabula, Lake and Geauga counties and all but two communities in Portage County. Trumbull is the second-most populous county in the district behind Lake.

Congressional district boundaries were redrawn by the Ohio Redistricting Commission and are only in place for this election after the Ohio Supreme Court twice found maps unconstitutional. They will have to be redrawn for the 2024 election.

Joyce has represented a portion of Trumbull, as well as all or part of the other counties in the new 14th District, since he started serving as a congressman in January 2013.

The district favors Republicans 54.83 percent to 45.17 percent for Democrats based on partisan voting trends during the past decade, according to the redistricting commission.

Also, Joyce of Bainbridge raised about $2.4 million for this campaign compared to less than $88,000 for Kilboy as of Sept. 30.

Kilboy, a former Navy nurse who now owns a health care consulting firm, said running for a House of Representative seat “is a continuation of that service to my country and community.”

He said he chose the House because “I wanted to be able to impact as many people as possible.”

After his service in the Navy, Kilboy worked for various federal agencies in the Washington, D.C., area. While there, he saw the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol as well as the tear gassing of demonstrators.

“I wanted to do more for our country and that was running for office,” Kilboy said.

Joyce spent 24 years as the Geauga County prosecutor before he was elected to his seat in Congress.

Joyce said he is “known in D.C. as someone who gets things done,” and “a problem solver, somebody who’s known to sit and listen and work with both sides to come to conclusions and try to solve problems.”

That includes working to protect and preserve the Great Lakes, he said.

That work “has been beneficial to not just Lake Erie, but to Great Lakes as a whole,” Joyce said, adding that improving Lake Erie “will draw people back” to Ohio.

Joyce said his other top priorities are strengthening the economy and combating the opioid crisis.

“I’m proud to report that we have made significant progress on each of these items,” Joyce said.

Joyce said that being a member of the House Appropriations Committee helps him bring back federal earmarks to his congressional district to help grow the economy.

Joyce said he introduced two bills to improve cybersecurity resources for small businesses and to boost access to capital for rural businesses.

Joyce said, “We should declare war on” opioids and fentanyl “because it’s attacking our kids and killing so many kids and adults.”

Joyce said the penalties for bringing fentanyl into this country should be more severe.

“If you get caught with lethal doses of fentanyl, we have to change the way you’re punished because it’s not cannabis or coke or anything else,” he said. “It’s deadly. We need to go after it. It’s a war. It’s a war against our own people.”

Joyce said his Drug Free Communities Pandemic Relief Act, which was signed into law in March, will help reduce that impact by providing funding to local coalitions that work to reduce and prevent substance use disorder among younger people.

Kilboy said his top priorities are making improvements to public infrastructure, changing the health care system and improving education.

Kilboy said the federal government needs to focus on public infrastructure: bridges and roads, but also water and sewer lines.

“Our sewer, water systems are 50, 60, 70-plus years old and they’re beyond needing updating,” he said. There is also a great need for broadband internet access, particularly in rural areas, Kilboy said.

“It’s all tied into the economy of northeast Ohio,” he said. “If we don’t have infrastructure in place to allow businesses to grow then we’re going to suffer. Businesses need high-speed internet and water and sewer and all those other things.”

Kilboy also said the area needs to more investment in its public transit system.

Regarding health care, Kilboy said: “Fundamentally, we need to change how health care is provided in this country.”

Specifically, he said, “I want to see a health care system that focuses less on taking care of sick people and more on preventing people from getting sick. In part, that can be done by the way the government pays for health care. Right now, providers aren’t being incentivized to prevent people from getting sick.”

Kilboy said improving education is a priority for him, but when asked what the federal government can do to help, he said: “To be honest, with education, there’s not a whole lot we can do. Most of our education system is handled at the state and local level. From that head of space, I’m there to do whatever the Statehouse and the local leaders say (I) need to do. One thing we can do is better fund or fund pre-K. But generally speaking, that’s more of a local issue.”

Dave Joyce

Age: 65

Political party: Republican

Occupation: U.S. House member

Previous elected experience: U.S. House member first elected in 2012, former Geauga County prosecutor for 24 years

Goals: To strengthen the regional economy, protect and preserve the Great Lakes and combat the opioid crisis

Matt Kilboy

Age: 38

Political party: Democratic

Occupation: Founder and CEO of Kilboy Consulting Group LLC, a health care consulting firm

Previous elected experience: None

Goals: Make improvements to public infrastructure, change the health care system and improve education