COLUMBUS, OHIO — Ten days out from election day, candidates in Ohio’s crowded and acrimonious Republican primary are readying their closing arguments to voters.
Much of the race has centered on the candidates jockeying for the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, which he granted to author J.D. Vance earlier this month. Since then, the other candidates in the field have largely pivoted their strategies for standing out to Republican primary voters.
MATT DOLAN TRIES TO RISE ABOVE THE FRAY IN RAUCOUS OHIO REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY
The Senate seat from Ohio is coming open due to the retirement after the November 2022 midterm elections of Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who has been in office for 12 years. In an increasingly GOP-leaning state, Republicans are favored to hold the Senate seat against the likely Democratic nominee, Rep. Tim Ryan. This makes the GOP primary crucial as Republicans nationally try to win the Senate majority in what’s now a 50-50 chamber, with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote giving Democrats the majority.
Vance’s chief GOP rivals include state Sen. Matt Dolan, the part-owner of the Cleveland Guardians Major League Baseball team, investment banker Mike Gibbons, former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, and former state Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken.
In the primary campaign’s closing days, Trump’s endorsement of Vance hangs heavily over the race. David Cohen, a professor of political science at The University of Akron, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that “normally endorsements don’t make much of a difference,” but Trump continues to have sway over the Republican base.
“You can see Rob Portman’s endorsement of chain Timken really didn’t move the needle at all. In fact, you know that may have actually backfired on her,” he said. “But a Donald Trump endorsement is different because he is still so beloved by so many people in the base.”
Whether that endorsement is enough to sway the race to Vance, who lagged in polling prior to the endorsement, remains to be seen.
“In a tight race, and especially a multicandidate race like we’re seeing on the Republican side of the Senate primary, you know, it very well could be the difference in the election,” Cohen said. “I would not be surprised at all if Vance were to get a bump out of this and even a bump of just a couple of points.”
Cohen said the race, which is tight, could go in several directions depending on revelations in the final days or the backlash from Trump’s endorsement of Vance, which some Republicans criticized.
Mandel, a vocal Trump supporter who has backed the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, has continued his overtures to Trump’s base. That includes campaigning with former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump in November 2020 pardoned Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat.
Some allies of Mandel, including the Club for Growth, continued to support him after Trump’s Vance endorsement. That led some in the former president’s campaign, including son Donald Trump Jr., to aim criticism at Mandel. Trump Jr. in a tweet called Mandel “the OPPOSITE of America First” and also pushed back in a statement on some Mandel allies who called for voters to boycott Trump’s rally with Vance.
Other candidates in the race largely accepted Trump’s endorsement while continuing to position themselves as closely aligned with his agenda.
“While I would have loved the endorsement, I continue to be in a strong position in this race because I have been an America First champion and fighter,” Gibbons said in a statement. “I will continue to fight for what I believe in, and I am confident Ohioans will vote for my authentic conservative message.”
Gibbons’s campaign is also planning an event Saturday in Delaware, the same town where a scheduled rally with Trump and his endorsed candidates, including Vance, will speak.
Timken said in a statement that she hopes to win Trump’s endorsement in the general election. Timken’s campaign has organized a “Mom on a Mission” tour, billing the candidate as a fighter for Ohio families.
Dolan is currently on a “No Nonsense” tour, casting himself as above the fray and the only candidate in the field with legislative experience. Dolan has been the most critical of Trump himself of the candidates in the field while embracing aspects of Trump’s agenda.
Dolan told the Washington Examiner on Friday that he believes a plurality of voters who are tired of the antics of the race will support him due to his conservative record in the state legislature.
Many of the self-identified Republican voters in the Columbus area the Washington Examiner spoke with on Friday remain undecided in the race, with several expressing frustration at the name-calling they said they have seen in television ads. A self-identified Dolan supporter said she was swayed by his positive television ads.
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A few of the voters who mentioned culture war issues like education as driving their vote said they would support Mandel. Another cited Vance’s approach to foreign policy as behind their support of that candidate.
