CLEVELAND – The soon-to-be-opened Senate seat in Ohio has rushed to embrace Donald Trump among the top Republicans interested in the post, in a state that has won the former president twice.
Jane Timken, who recently resigned as chairwoman of the state party to prepare for a campaign, announced her candidacy on Thursday by presenting herself as a “conservative disruptor” who has helped moderate allies of the former Trump governor of Ohio, John Kasich, to wipe out.
“I’m running for the Senate of the United States to stand up for you, just like when I stood next to President Trump and supported his America First agenda,” Timken said in her launch video.
Following GOP Sen Rob Portman’s announcement that he does not want to be re-elected, Timken joins a Republican field that already includes Josh Mandel, the former treasurer who took part in the race last week with a vow that he too ‘would fight for President Trump’s America First agenda. ”
In an interview with NBC News’ Cleveland subsidiary, WKYC, Mandel also reflected Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from the former president – an unfounded allegation accepted by Trump’s rioters last month stormed the Capitol where Mandel wants to work. .
At least six other Republicans are considering running in 2022. The list includes sitting members of Congress and several businessmen who can fund their campaigns themselves or have access to wealthy donors, including JD Vance, the venture capitalist. known for his best-selling memoirs, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Trump gave no indication that he would weigh the race, but he suggested he work as a private citizen to influence the outcomes of certain primary elections.
“Right now you’re looking at Timken and Mandel competing for the Trump job,” said Michael Hartley, a Republican strategist in Ohio who worked on Kasich’s campaigns. ‘You’ll probably have one or two self-financiers who can compete for Trump supporters as well. It then provides a possible opportunity for a traditional conservative from the congressional ranks who does not get a quote, to make a turn. One thing I do know, it’s going to be incredibly expensive. ”
It is speculated that one such possibility Rep. Steve Stivers is, according to Republicans who spoke to NBC News this week. Stivers, a major general in the Ohio Army National Guard, represents the suburbs of Columbus and has a national donor database, thanks to a previous term run by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“As a general, Steve Stivers would tell you that one of the biggest mistakes a general can make is fighting the last fight,” said Joe King, a Republican consultant in Ohio near Stivers. So the key here is: how do we build on what we have done and take it forward? These are the kind of thoughts that went into his process. People should be praised for being a loyal soldier, but there is something to be said for someone who knows how to lead an army. ‘
But at the moment, the early days – Mandel and Timken are the first two declared candidates of one of the parties – are filled with promises of allegiance to Trump. The dynamics are instructive about a state that has deviated sharply from traditional Kasich conservatism, which now seems moderate compared to Trumpism.
Timken, 54, is part of a family from Ohio with deep roots in industry and Republican politics in the state. Her husband, Tim, was until 2019 the president and CEO of TimkenSteel, which operated from a long-standing manufacturing company that also bears the family name. The couple hosted a fundraiser for Trump in August 2016, at a time when many important Ohio Republicans were doing little to help the then-Republican presidential candidate in honor of Kasich, who dropped his own White House bid in May.
During her launch on Thursday, Timken emphasized how four years ago she was Trump’s hand-picked choice to oust the Kasich ally who was chairman of the Republican Party of Ohio. She was linked in the White House and Republican National Committee via Bob Paduchik, who managed Trump’s 2016 victory in Ohio and is now a leading candidate to succeed her as chair of the state party. Her new campaign website features one photo of her next to a radiant Trump giving thumbs up, and another with her arm around Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, who has been named as a potential Senate candidate in North Carolina.
Mandel, 43, is a Marine Corps veteran who served two terms as treasurer and lost a 2012 attempt to oust Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. He was prepared for a second chance with Brown in 2018, but dropped out, citing the health of his then-wife. Since then, Mandel has invested more than $ 4 million in unused campaign funds – an amount that, along with his worldwide recognition, makes him a forerunner, but also other Ohio Republicans who want him to do so with other campaigns in the sweeping years.
Despite being very close to the former president, Trump was not one of the candidates’ first choices in 2016. In his announcement, Mandel’s team stressed that he was the first nationwide official to support Trump in 2016 and noted that ‘Josh gave himself and his campaign team after Trump’s campaign. ”
But Mandel supported Florida Senator Marco Rubio in the primary election that year, a move that was also tantamount to the Kasich enterprise’s obstacle while the then governor elected him president. Timken, meanwhile, admitted that he supported Kasich early in the 2016 campaign.
Hours after Timken’s announcement Thursday, Mandel tweeted an old photo of her embracing Kasich, indicating how he would act aggressively to position her as insufficiently loyal to the Trump case.
After a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, and before Portman announced his resignation, a reporter at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland noted that Timken had put a distance between her and Trump. And Mandel and his advisers took particular note of how Timken treated her own congressman, Representative Anthony Gonzalez, who was one of only ten Republicans in the House who voted to accuse Trump. Timken told The Plain Dealer earlier this month that she did not know “whether I would have voted as he did”, while also praising Gonzalez as a “very effective legislator”.
Only later, on the day Timken resigned from the state party in anticipation of the announcement of her bid in the Senate, did she say tweet that she does not agree with Gonzalez’s decision.
“Josh Mandel is the only shameless Trump candidate in this race,” Scott Guthrie, Mandel’s campaign manager, said in an email statement Thursday morning. “While other candidates said they ‘did not know’ how they would vote on President Trump’s accusation, Josh Mandel strongly and vocally opposed the sham and unconstitutional accusation. ‘
When Trump first beat Ohio by 8 points in Ohio, in 2016, Portman crossed with more than 20 to a second term. Corry Bliss, who ran the campaign for Portman, signed on as Timken’s general consultant.
“There is only one candidate in this race who has been endorsed by President Trump before, and that is Jane Timken,” Bliss said Thursday, referring to the 2017 state presidential election.
“Obviously she will have the honor of having President Trump’s support in this race,” he added, though he did not want to say whether the two had talked about the possibility.
Aside from Stivers and Vance, other Republicans who are believed to weigh a Republican Senate offer include representatives Bill Johnson and Mike Turner, businessman Bernie Moreno in Cleveland and Michael Gibbons, an investment banker unknown to voters outside political donor circles. three years ago and fared relatively strongly in the 2018 Senate election. Gibbons strengthened his interest in the 2022 race this week by appealing to the state party, which is piled with Timken allies, to remain neutral in the by-elections.
On the Democratic side, rep. Ryan Ryan and dr. Amy Acton, the former director of the Ohio Department of Health who appeared as a major presence on local television during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. .
Bryan Williams, the interim chairman of the state party, questioned this week about the earlier attempts of Republican hopefuls to show unwavering loyalty to Trump, and doubts about Mandel’s sincerity.
“While Mandel’s rhetoric recently took on a Trumpian tone, he was a Marco Rubio supporter, and during the Trump administration he was not an outspoken Trump supporter,” Williams said. He added that he was not permanently seeking the chairmanship and was not planning. to make a personal endorsement in primary school. “But that’s exactly who I think Josh is trying to exercise now.”
Nick Everhart, a Republican media consultant in Ohio, is not sure the Trump factor will help or hurt any candidate deeply unless the former president himself becomes directly involved in the race.
“Being Trump has almost become like a pro-gun, pro-life,” he said. ‘This is just another GOP primary litmus test needed to survive. Unless Trump comes in and immediately endorses someone, the chances of the pro-Trump angle being a distinction for all these people will be very slim. This is not going to be the thing that creates separation unless someone has gone out of his way in the past to make him bad. Then you have something an opponent can use. ‘