Thomas wins nomination for 65th Ohio House district
Mar. 19—Dave Thomas won the Republican nomination for the 65th House district on Tuesday night, and with it, became Representative-elect.
He and Laurie Magyar both sought the Republican nomination for the 65th District state representative seat.
Thomas said he was humbled and honored by the result.
"Really looking forward to serving our taxpayers in this new way," Thomas said.
No Democrat filed for election in the race, and Thomas said no independent had filed by the recent deadline.
"It's really awesome that I can then take the next many months and transition, and make more relationships, prepare ideas for policy, it's a really good thing for the district," he said.
Thomas is currently in his second term as Ashtabula County Auditor, and before taking office, he had experience in township finance and education.
Magyar is a nurse, with 30 years of experience. She has spent 20 years as an ER nurse.
Magyar was behind in early voting, with unofficial results from the Ohio Secretary of State's website showing Thomas leading 3,090 votes to 795 a bit before 9 p.m. on Tuesday night. By 9:45 p.m., the vote totals were at 8,651 to 3,404, in favor of Thomas.
The final, unofficial totals from the Secretary of State had Thomas winning, 10,029 votes to Magyar's 3,957.
The 65th District includes the majority of Ashtabula and Trumbull counties. In the 2022 redistricting, it grew to include the majority of Ashtabula County, and this year's new maps added even more of the county to the district.
Currently, only strip of land along the northern and western borders of the county are not in the 65th District.
Magyar said her priorities would be to preserve the rights of people, and focus on the economy, job growth and taxes locally.
Thomas said he would focus on fiscal issues, if elected. Those focuses would include relieving the burden of property taxes to seniors.
He said he also would like to focus on improving energy policies.
Thomas said he will leave the Auditor's Office in the best hands possible.
"I'm looking forward to that transition too," he said.
He said the process of selecting his replacement will start soon, and he will leave the Ashtabula County Auditor's Office when his term starts.
