For the second straight election, Republican Mark Zetzer filed and then withdrew as a candidate for the 14th Congressional District seat, leaving U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce and Niki Frenchko, a former Trumbull County commissioner, in a one-on-one matchup for the GOP nomination.

As he said in 2024, Zetzer said he withdrew from the May 5 Republican primary to avoid dividing the opposition vote against Joyce, who is seeking his eighth two-year term in the U.S. House.

Zetzer said Frenchko “has more money and organization than I do. So rather than split the opposition vote, I want grassroots Republicans to focus on whoever has the best chance of replacing Joyce.”

Zetzer said unlike Joyce and Frenchko, he is “not a politician with money or connections. I’m a private-sector working man and family man who has borne the brunt of government overreach for most of my life. Despite working two and three jobs to support a family, my persistent loss of freedoms and purchasing power has driven me” into numerous elections.

When Zetzer announced in April 2025 that he was giving strong consideration to challenging Joyce, he said he was “living alone in a shack down by the river.”

Zetzer was among three Republicans to file against Joyce in the 2024 primary but withdrew, saying he wanted to let the two others challenge Joyce. Joyce got 76.7% of the vote in the Republican primary and then 63.4% in the general election.

Zetzer ran as a Republican in 2014 in the Cleveland-based 11th Congressional District. He received 20.5% of the vote, losing by 59% to Democrat Marcia Fudge. He also came in last place in 2013 in the Shaker Heights City Council election.

The Republican primary pits Joyce of Bainbridge, who had a $3,260,984.56 surplus in his campaign fund as of Dec. 31 and is endorsed by President Donald Trump, against Frenchko of Warren, a one-term Trumbull commissioner who lost the 2024 Republican primary in a reelection bid.

Three Democrats filed for that party’s primary for the congressional seat. They are Bill O’Neill of Chagrin Falls, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice and 11th District Court of Appeals judge who has twice lost general elections for the congressional seat; Carl Setzer of Moreland Hills, a restaurant owner; and Maria Jukic, a former Euclid City Council member who failed to qualify for the congressional district race as an independent in 2024 because of a lack of valid signatures.

The district favors Republicans 58.5% to 41.5% for Democrats based on partisan statewide voting results between 2016 to 2024, according to the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

Because of redistricting, a small portion of Mahoning County is being added to the 14th District with this election. The district includes all of Trumbull, Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties and most of Portage County.