WEST CHESTER, Ohio — The stakes are high, even if attention and interest are low.

Voters in six western Ohio counties will decide the successor in Congress to former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner in a special election Tuesday. Boehner’s decision to step down last year left a rare open seat in Ohio, where districts are incumbent-friendly and, in this case, one held by the incumbent nearly 25 years.

The March primary was a highly competitive campaign in which 15 Republicans ran dual races for nomination in the GOP-dominated district for the June 7 election to complete Boehner’s term and for the Nov. 8 election to the next Congress. Warren Davidson, an Army veteran and businessman, won both Republican nominations with about 32 percent of the vote in each.

The numbers are all in his favor, in what should be a safe Republican seat in a state where all 16 incumbents won re-election in 2014.

The Miami County resident, who had not previously won an election, ran as a conservative non-politician and topped two incumbent state legislators. He got boosts from the backing of Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and the conservative advocacy groups Club for Growth and FreedomWorks.

Davidson and low-key Democrat Corey Foister, 26, a childhood cancer survivor who says he can do something about issues facing the nation’s youth such as the high cost of education, offered contrasts during a forum at Miami University.

Davidson spoke out strongly against abortion and new restrictions on gun ownership. Foister said he’s “pro-choice” and that more needs to be done to keep guns from criminals.

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