DELAWARE, OHIO — Former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance has been met with mixed reviews among even his most ardent supporters.
Trump introduced Vance at a Saturday rally to applause. Trump argued that although Vance “said some bad s*** about me” in the past, he is best situated to win November’s election, a key race for Republicans seeking to win a Senate majority. Trump said Vance is now an “America First warrior.”
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The endorsement sparked criticism from some Republicans in the state who asked Trump to reconsider his choice, arguing in a letter that Vance is a “political chameleon” who called Trump and his supporters “racist” in 2016. In his own remarks at the Saturday rally, Vance offered his full support to Trump, calling him “the best president of my lifetime.”
But in interviews at Trump’s rally Saturday in Ohio, many attendees who self-identified as Ohio voters and Trump supporters said they were still undecided in the upcoming primary or that they planned to support one of the other candidates, including Josh Mandel or Mike Gibbons.
Laurie Keiser told the Washington Examiner that she plans to vote for Mandel, and her support of Trump would not prompt her to choose Vance instead.
“I vote with my heart,” she said. “Not who somebody tells me to.”
Some attendees who said they planned to support Mandel cited his endorsement from Sen. Ted Cruz as an influence on their decision. Others appeared unconcerned that their choice was different from Trump’s.
“They’re pretty close politically,” Terry Miller said of Vance and Mandel. “He had to pick one.”
Still others said they would support Gibbons, with one arguing he is a “businessman, not a politician, like Trump.”
Marshall Spalding, who attended the rally in a Gibbons campaign t-shirt, told the Washington Examiner that he likes that Gibbons shares his Catholic faith and felt that a recent campaign event Gibbons held was met with enthusiasm from those around him.
Asked if Trump’s preference for Vance mattered in his decision-making on election day, Spalding said, “Donald Trump is far away.”
“Mike Gibbons is here, he’s real, I can talk to him,” Spalding said.
Vicki McKinney, another attendee who said she plans to support Gibbons, said, “I don’t have to worry about what he’ll do when he gets in there.”
But some attendees said they planned to support Vance, with some citing Trump’s endorsement as their reasoning, while others said they had decided to support him before Trump selected him.
Pam Gugle told the Washington Examiner she would support Vance because of his roots in rural Ohio.
“He’s not one of the swamp, he comes from hillbillyism,” Gugle said in reference to Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy.
For others, Trump’s endorsement swayed their support to Vance from other candidates.
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When asked by the Washington Examiner whom she plans to support in the primary, another attendee who did not provide her name replied, “Vance, because Trump said.”
