COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the first time in a decade, there will be a new face leading the 15th Congressional District in Ohio.
On Tuesday, voters will choose self-proclaimed political outsider Republican Mike Carey and Democrat Allison Russo.
Former Republican Congressman Steve Stivers represented the district until he resigned in March of this year.
The district is a massive 12 county area that stretches from Franklin County to the rural areas of Morgan, Perry, Vinton, Athens and beyond.
President Joe Biden endorsed Russo on Monday while former president Donald Trump gave announced his support for Carey during the primary.
10TV attempted to speak with both candidates but only Russo responded despite multiple attempts to reach the Carey campaign.
Russo says when it comes to the top priorities of rural Ohio it comes down two major issues.
“Broadband services and affordable and reliable internet and making sure they have access to clean water,” she said.
So how do these candidates separate themselves from the other? Let's start with money.
Russo received most of her campaign money from four political action committees: American Workers Federal PAC, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Elect Democratic Women and 314 Action Fund. Each group gave $5,000.
Carey received most of his campaign funds from three political action committees: SEAL PAC, Citizen United and the Ohio Coal Association where Carey serves as chairman. All of those PAC's donated $5,000 to his campaign.
The battle between the two candidates became heated when Russo ran a TV ad tying Carey to the HB 6 bribery scandal. In a statement from the Ohio Republican Party it called the ad, “an illegal attack ad.”
“I stand behind the facts in that advertisement and frankly my opponent has avoided coming in front of the camera an answering tough questions about his involvement about that issue,” she said.
On the issue of Afghanistan, Carey says Biden failed our troops by pulling out of the country.
Russo says pulling out of Afghanistan was the right move although she is critical of why we were there.
Carey is a former military veteran and Russo's husband served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Carey says he supports a federal infrastructure bill, just not the one Biden wants passed telling the Columbus Dispatch, "it's the largest tax and spend bill in history." Russo supports it.
“Those are real investments for Ohio, those are jobs and those are things we need moving into the future,” she said.
You can read more about the Russo campaign here and the Carey campaign here.
Early voting ended Monday afternoon. The Franklin County Board of Elections says they’re anticipating there was a 4% turnout ahead of election day.
The Board of Elections says about 15,500 people cast a ballot early and in person, plus they’ve received more than 18,000 ballots in the mail.
Due to this election happening on an off-year, they’re looking to past elections to guesstimate the turnout.
“In 2017 we had a turnout of around 23%,” said Aaron Sellers, Franklin County Board of Election.