COLUMBUS, Ohio — For candidates running in the state’s primary elections, this isn’t winter, it’s campaign season.

What You Need To Know

  • District 83 includes Hancock, Hardin and the northern portion of Logan Counties.

  • State Rep. Jon Cross is running for his fourth and final term in the Ohio House and is a supporter of House Speaker Jason Stephens; Cross is assistant majority leader of the Ohio House and said that gives the district a "seat at the table"

  • Ty Mathews is an Ohio National Guard Infantry Officer; "I bring to the table a high degree of integrity, ethics and leadership from my military experience”

Across Ohio, some Republican incumbents in the Statehouse are facing challenges from other members of their party in the upcoming March 19 primaries.

In Ohio House District 83, voters will decide between three-term State Rep. Jon Cross and Ty Mathews.

Cross is assistant majority leader of the Ohio House and a supporter of current Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens.

Mathews said Stephens won the speakership through political maneuvering and said he wants to use ethics to help move the party forward.

“I think we’ve lost the art of coming to the table,” said Mathews, an Ohio National Guard Infantry Officer. “I’m not even saying ‘compromise,’ I’m just saying working together, hearing the other side out.”

“Experience matters, leadership matters, expertise matters,” Cross said. “That’s what I think I bring to the voters in the 83rd District is, you know, politically being their conservative champion.”

Ohio’s primary elections will take place Tuesday, March 19.

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