photo by: Jennifer Compston-Strough

Michael L. Kripchak, a Democrat running for Ohio’s 6th Congressional seat in 2026, speaks to a crowd of about 50 members of the Belmont County Democrat Party on Monday evening at Undo’s West in St. Clairsville.

Belmont County Democrats heard from a man Monday evening who is challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Rulli in the 2026 general election.

Michael L. Kripchak of Youngstown already faced Rulli, R-Ohio, in two runs for Ohio’s 6th Congressional District seat — once in a special June 2024 election to complete the term of former congressman Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and again that fall for a full two-year term. Rulli, of Salem, won the June election 54.6% to 45.4% — a much closer result than was expected in a district where Republicans have an 18% advantage. The margin was wider in November, when Rulli captured 66% of the vote to Kripchak’s 34%.

On Monday, Kripchak told a crowd of about 50 Democrats at Undo’s West that truth, trust and hope are what their party needs.

Kripchak said “people are starting to wake up” and realize that authoritarians work to keep people poor and desperate, so that they remain angry and divided. He said that is “all part of the plan” by the Republicans who are in power.

Kripchak refers to himself not as a “Democrat” but rather as a “Rust Belt Democrat,” who wants to be “Ohio focused.” He said his priorities are the children, farmers, manufacturers and union of the Buckeye State.

He urged those present to “be truth tellers” and to “speak truth to power,” noting that it is “time to stop being quiet” and to speak out for what is right. He pointed to recent Supreme Court rulings and to the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” budget act as real points of concern.

“Now, if you guys haven’t studied authoritarianism, I want to explain a few things,” he said. “Authoritarians do two things to destroy society: One, they destroy community. How do you do that? You send unmarked people in unmarked cars, masked, snatching people off the street. … And the second is this, you destroy trust in any sense of truth that exists.”

Kripchak pointed to contradictions in the Republican platform, including claiming to be the party of “law and order” and then granting pardons to the Jan. 6, 2020, rioters at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., who were convicted of crimes.

“And I know it doesn’t make sense to us, but the incongruity is the point,” he added. “When you say one thing and then you do another, and then you use your propaganda networks to convince people that this is what you meant all along, the whole point is so that people have to look to the ‘dear leader’ to figure out what’s right. And it keeps people hopping from one foot to the next, and so they don’t even want to believe in anything anymore. …

“That’s why we have to be the truthbringers. … The fight continues. … But we have to be there to give people hope.”

Kripchak criticized Rulli, saying he has failed to fulfill his promise to spend much of his time here in the 6th District. He said instead of actually caring about his constituents and fighting for them, “all he’s been doing is getting on his knees” for Trump.

Kripchak is an Air Force Academy graduate who spent three years as an acquisitions officer and research assistant with the Air Force.

The 6th Congressional District includes all of Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison, Monroe, Noble and Washington counties and portions of Stark and Tuscarawas counties.