As J.D. Vance moves toward a 2022 Senate bid, top Ohio Republicans are raising doubts about the prospects of the bestselling author, whose memoir came to embody the white, working-class community that propelled Donald Trump to the presidency.

Vance, 36, has never sought political office. Ohio Republicans who have run that gauntlet are skeptical the polemicist and venture capitalist can take a punch and withstand the intense scrutiny that accompanies a Senate campaign. Veteran Republican strategists in the state also question whether GOP primary voters will buy Vance’s convenient conversion from Trump critic to “MAGA” cheerleader, without which his bid for the nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman is dead on arrival.