Mahoning County Board of Elections employees Dante Lewis, left, a Republican, and Diane Raptis, a Democrat, remake ballots Monday at the elections board offices on Oak Hill Avenue in Youngstown. Ballots have to be remade by one Democrat and one Republican if they come to the board of elections ripped, torn, soiled or defaced and can’t be read by a scanner. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — Christina M. Hagan is the apparent winner of the Republican primary in the 13th Congressional District.

Hagan of Marlboro Township, Stark County, has a dominating lead in Mahoning, Trumbull and Summit counties — the three largest counties in the district.

She emerges as the nominee among a field of seven candidates vying for the nomination, according to unofficial results Tuesday.

Portage and a small part of Stark counties make up the rest of the district. Results for those two counties weren’t available by Tuesday’s press time.

“I’m absolutely excited about the victory and appreciative of everyone who cast a vote on our behalf,” Hagan said. “I’m overwhelmed. I had no idea it would be this significant of a margin.”

Ballots postmarked by Monday have to arrive at county boards of elections by May 8 to be part of the official count. The election results will be certified later in May.

“We knew that Christina was a top-notch candidate, and I think the voters spoke (Tuesday) overwhelmingly who they thought was best to beat Tim Ryan in the fall,” said Thomas McCabe, Mahoning County Republican Party chairman. “It is why I personally endorsed her as as well as three of the other four county chairmen did as well. Christina gives us our best shot in years to give Tim Ryan a long overdue retirement party.”

If the unofficial results hold up, Hagan will face U.S. Rep. Ryan, D-Howland, who is seeking his 10th two-year term in Congress in November.

She said she is eager to face Ryan, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, who Hagan strongly supports.

Also, Michael Fricke of Kent filed as a Libertarian.

Hagan captured 66.6 percent of the vote in Mahoning County – the home county of three other candidates. In second was Louis G. Lyras of Campbell with 15.8 percent followed by Robert J. Santos of Austintown with 11.85 percent. The four other candidates each received 2 percent or less of the vote.

In Trumbull County, Hagan had 67.2 percent of the vote to 12.1 percent for Santos and 10.5 percent for Lyras. Duane Hennen of Warren got 5.2 percent of the vote in his home county. The other candidates received 2 percent or less of the vote in Trumbull.

In Summit County, Hagan received 61.5 percent of the vote with Santos getting 11.9 percent and Lyras with 11.4 percent. None of the other candidates received more than 6.4 percent of the Summit vote.

The other Republicans in the race were Robert A. Morckel of Akron, Donald Truex of Rittman and Jason Mormando of Austintown. Mormando had suspended his campaign but never formally withdrew from the ballot.

Hagan and Lyras had been considered the top two contenders for the seat and were the only ones to raise at least $100,000 for the primary.

Lyras accepted his defeat saying, “It’s OK. Life goes on. There’s too many important things to do for our country. I wish her luck.”

Hagan, fund development manager for ICU Mobile, was the only candidate among the seven to hold elected office. She served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from March 2011 to December 2018 serving a portion of Stark County.

Hagan lost the 2018 Republican primary for the 16th Congressional District seat to Anthony Gonzalez.

She resides in the 7th District, but there is no law forbidding someone from outside a congressional district from holding that seat as long as they are an Ohio resident.

Lyras — founder and CEO of Corcon Inc., an industrial painting company based in Lowellville – ran a largely self-funded campaign. He loaned $109,000 to his campaign between August 2019 and this past March 31.

Hagan also benefited from the Ohio Freedom Fund, a Washington, D.C., outside special interest group that reported spending $75,000 as of March 31 on media buys and productions to help her campaign and criticize Lyras as a “sneaky liberal.”

The group reported receiving all of its money from a group called Invest in Ohio, based in Washington, D.C., and paid it to Medium Buying LLC of Columbus.

Lyras said he was disappointed by the “dark money” in the campaign.

“Do they understand what we want in our Valley?” he said. “Are they from our Valley? We don’t know who they are.”

dskolnick@tribtoday.com