In the days before the primary, Republican U.S. Senate candidates and their affiliated Super PAC’s are scorching the earth with television ads attacking each other. In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown talk about how an endorsement from the biggest name in Republican politics might impact the race.
Forgive and forget
Former President Trump is saying all is forgiven between him and JD Vance, his pick in the heated Republican Race for Senate in Ohio.
Though Vance said some offensive things about Trump in the past, this endorsement is offensive to many Ohio republicans. Vance’s heavy pro-Trump competitors are not happy as are many other GOP activists around Ohio.
Nearly three dozen Trump supporters and convention delegates signed an open letter to Trump saying he betrayed them and called Vance a "never-Trumper" who has not developed relationships with Ohio's MAGA movement.
A new poll out by FOX news has JD Vance pulling ahead at 23%. Josh Mandel is at 18%, Mike Gibbons at 13%, Matt Dolan at 11%, and Jane Timken at 6%. Still, 25% of Ohio Republican voters remain undecided.
Vance is up 12 points in a month and more than $5 million in new donations have poured into a pro-Vance super PAC—just weeks earlier, it had spent nearly all of its available funds.
Meanwhile, Josh Mandel has scored endorsements from Sen. Ted Cruz and former Trump Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Governor’s race
Most establishment Democrats seem to think Nan Whaley is going to win the Democratic primary.
John Cranley is campaigning hard and this has been a good race for Democrats. Both candidates have raised their profiles in a good way and will be back if they don’t win this time.
In the GOP race, the key thing to watch is whether Mike DeWine clears 50%. Jim Renacci and Joe Blystone really have not been able to cut into DeWine’s lead. They clearly split the anti-DeWine vote.
Snollygoster of the week
Ron Hood is running for governor of Ohio... at least he says he is. He’s a former state rep. He announced on February 1 that he was running with Candice Keller, also a former state rep. They call themselves "Forever Trumpers” who promise to Make Ohio Right Again.
And that’s about it. It took Ron Hood six weeks to update his Ron Hood for Congress website to Ron Hood for Governor. And his Facebook page still says he’s running for Congress.
Send questions and comments to snollygoster@wosu.org.
