It was standing room only at GOP Headquarters in Mahoning County Monday morning. The packed crowd was there to see Michael Rulli officially announce he was running for Ohio's 6th Congressional seat which is being vacated by Bill Johnson.

Johnson is resigning to take over as President at YSU.

Rulli says one of his top priorities is to reduce the high prices on goods through energy.

"I want to expand everything as far as natural gas and oil goes within my district," Rulli said. "We have the Utica Marcellus Shale. I know all the companies at Hillcorp and Encino, everyone that is playing in that field, we have to change the culture where we let them know it's ok to do business here."

Rulli is also a fan of the Utica Shale Academy to give students an opportunity to work in the oil and gas field in the future.

"We want to give our kids a future of what they can do," Rulli said. "As far as the bigger cities, we want to make sure we can keep the property tax low, we want people to keep the money that they work really hard for, it's all about the working man."

Rulli first got elected to the Ohio Senate talking about working across the aisle for the valley, but has since taken a much more partisan turn, tweeting ideas like aboloshing the IRS and opposing any restrictions on guns. So, which Rulli would show up in Congress?

"If you look at my record, I always favor the party line, that always comes first but if the opportunity arises and it's a quality product and it's a product that can be beneficial for all of America, we always could do that," Rulli said. "This is about America, all my constituents but of course my heart always goes with the Republican party."

We also asked Rulli his thoughts on the situation at YSU and if the University should have handled the search differently.

"I think so much time has gone by people forget about the extraordinary amount of opposition they had to Jim Tressel and Jim Tressel is the best thing to ever happen to Youngstown State ever, so I don't know if Bill is going to be able to live up to that level but I talked to him at least a dozen times, he's excited for the challenge and he is going to have my support."

It's still unclear if Governor Mike Dewine will need to hold a special primary election for this congressional seat. It all depends on the timing of when Johnson resigns from Congress.

Ohio's primary is scheduled for March 19, 2024.