OH-Sen 2022: So you’re telling me there’s a chance

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Lmao he won't run for Senate and would probably lose the primary, but don't act like he doesn't have a better shot than any other Democrat at the general.

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Vance is an anti-globalist so he automatically is the best candidate. Mandel seems like a Cotton-type, strong on culture war stuff but at his heart, an establishment neocon who just wants tax cuts and more wars for Israel.

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I still think Vance will pull it off, but it might be wishful thinking.
Trump said he will endorse someone in this race and I have a strong feeling it'll be Timken.

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I actually think Mandel is seriously misreading the Republican electorate if he thinks this is the stuff he needs to go all in with excessive, performative, and hilariously unnatural-sounding/insincere pandering. It’s like he just read a transcript of Pat Buchanan's 1992 RNC speech and thought "yes, Pat Buchanan talked about culture wars, and culture wars are what propelled Trump to the presidency, so this is what my party's base wants to hear in the year 2022."

He’s just not very good at this, and I’m even less confident about him winning the R primary now. I mean, "Judeo-Christian values"? Seriously?

Vance is the most similar to Pat Buchanan ideologically, he even shouted out his book at one of the candidate forums.

Mandel's rhetoric seems too dumb to be taken from a Buchanan speech or anything like it. The more apparent inspiration seems to be Trump's tweets.

Pat was way to the right of Vance on economic issues. Buchanan accused HW of being too left wing on economics

Yeah, if he gets elected, Vance would probably be the most economically left GOP senator since Chafee.

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I still think Vance will pull it off, but it might be wishful thinking.
Trump said he will endorse someone in this race and I have a strong feeling it'll be Timken.

Honestly I think he'll endorse Mike Gibbons. I don't think he likes Mandel (probably sees him as a fraud with the pictures of him and Bill Kristol and John Kasich), and he probably likes Vance but is concerned about his loyalty and maybe thinks some of his economic views could scare off the base due to socialism fears.

Maybe Gibbons too, I think it'll be Timken though due to many of his close circle supporting her.
I think he's iffy on Vance because of the loyalty stuff. Vance isn't any more left than Masters or Kent and Trump endorsed (or will endorse) them.

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I still think Vance will pull it off, but it might be wishful thinking.
Trump said he will endorse someone in this race and I have a strong feeling it'll be Timken.

Not happening.

Mandel only loses the primary if at least one of the more serious candidates drops out, and even then, that might not be enough. Regardless, that seems highly unlikely at this point.

Mandel is not leading by that much in polling and most of the other candidates are catching up. I have no idea why you think he has a lock on the nomination.

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Something to consider is that Vance has spent very little of his $10,000,000+ warchest, and he's still in second place according to the only independent poll conducted.

Yeah, there's still a long way to go until the primary and it's a common mistake to spend all the money too early

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Vance is the future of the GOP. Economic populism and non-religious/non-preachy cultural conservatism. Vance is heavily underestimated.

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Graham Allen dropping out of his South Carolina House race the other day meant that Trump had decided on Russell Fry to receive his endorsement, so this probably means that Trump has picked someone in the field. Hopefully not Vance; Timken or Mandel would be fine. Hard to imagine that it would be Gibbons or Dolan.

I like Vance the best but I have a feeling it'll be Timken.

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?

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If Trump doesn't endorse for a while, who do you think Moreno dropping out will benefit the most?

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fixated-on-ohio-senate-candidate-josh-mandels-sex-life
Rumors are Trump doesn't want Mandel to win the nomination, as he thinks he's weird, hates his personality and thinks he has no charisma.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fixated-on-ohio-senate-candidate-josh-mandels-sex-life
Rumors are Trump doesn't want Mandel to win the nomination, as he thinks he's weird, hates his personality and thinks he has no charisma.

This reminds me when rumors came out that Trump found Kimberly Guilfoyle annoying and was upset she was helping the wrong candidate in a primary. I don’t know about Mandel’s sex life but he’s absolutely right, he is a charisma-free weirdo who doesn’t look attractive.

I guess it's now between Timken and Vance on who Trump endorses, and he'll probably endorse soon.

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I think I read something about Don Jr talking Trump out of a Timken endorsement.

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If the Ohio Republican Party eats each other up by now and May and there is still divisions, Tim Ryan better go on the offense and attack Republicans as fascists who want to give tax cuts to the rich and etc.

He should campaign in Southeast Ohio with Sen. Brown, try to win Meigs County.

He needs to rack up Brown 2006-Brown 2012-Brown 2018 numbers.

Yeah this is why Vance is the best candidate, he can effectively turn Ryan's populism on it's head.

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I heavily, heavily suggest anyone interested in this race to read this in-depth thread about the OH Sen candidates on the GOP side. It provides a good look into what the candidates may attack each other on when the primary goes into full swing.
https://twitter.com/monadansich/status/1494898045099597826

It only covers Timken and Gibbons so far (Vance and Mandel will be covered tomorrow). So far, it talks about how Gibbons has a similar anti-Trump history as Vance does (coupled with a history of pro-abortion and socially liberal comments) and the rest of the Republican Party doesn't like him. And it also talks about Timken's really sketchy and corrupt past that caused severe financial mismanagement of the Ohio GOP. Timken also has a history of working with a company that worked with China a lot (like McCormick) that she still has stock in.

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Good thread on how bad Mandel is as a candidate, his history of corruption and flip-flopping/never-Trumpism:
https://twitter.com/monadansich/status/1496028700827172868

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Trump has met with Vance and Mandel recently, while he's deciding on who to endorse. Timken and Gibbons notably didn't meet with Trump, and Dolan not meeting is obvious of course.

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Trump has met with Vance and Mandel recently, while he's deciding on who to endorse. Timken and Gibbons notably didn't meet with Trump, and Dolan not meeting is obvious of course.

Out of these two, the one who needs it most is Vance. Some people are skeptical of his anti-Trump history around 2016. A Trump endorsement would give him lots more trust immediately.

Yeah. Voters probably like his ideas more, but his opponents are spending millions of dollars in ads trying to paint him as a never-Trumper (despite Gibbons and Timken ALSO being never-Trumpers back in 2016 and Mandel calling on Trump to drop out after Access Hollywood) and GOP voters will not vote for someone they believe as disloyal to Trump. A Trump endorsement will get rid of that concern.
Since Trump has said publicly before he WILL endorse in this race (and he would have to pretty soon to make an impact), I'm interested in seeing who will get it.

Something I've noticed is the very strange liberal media obsession with praising Jane Timken. All the news sites which usually endlessly criticize Trump have lately been making articles praising Jane Timken, calling her a "pro-Trump candidate" without any criticism, talking up her endorsements and praising how she's bringing "diversity" to the GOP by means of being a woman. She's still polling in 5th/6th, the same articles calling Vance a failure for polling in the early teens are playing up Timken who is polling at 6%. It reminds me of how establishment liberal outlets were all over Buttigieg and Klobuchar in 2019 when they were polling at 4%. Something's up with that.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-president-donald-trumps-having-a-blast-watching-ohio-senate-candidates-try-to-kiss-his-ass?source=articles&via=rss

More updates on Trump's thoughts on the candidates (still unsure about whether to endorse yet).

Apparently the meeting with Mandel in February was unplanned. Dave McIntosh brought Mandel with him to a Trump meeting without Trump knowing and it annoyed him. So clearly Trump doesn't like Mandel at all, I thought the fact that Trump met with him meant he didn't hate him, but I now think its certain Trump hates his guts.

Trump likes watching Vance on FOX and thinks he looks attractive.

Trump thinks Gibbons is boring and barely knows who he is.

So far Trump probably won't endorse anyone soon. If he does it'll probably be close to the primary, especially if there's a clear Trumpy frontrunner.

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Apparently Trump plans to endorse in the OH-SEN primary.

If he does it'll either be Vance or Gibbons, honestly leaning more towards the former at this point. He clearly doesn't like any of the other candidates.

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Does anyone else find it weird how the media is blatantly propping up Timken's failing campaign at any chance they can get? She's gotten an insane amount of positive media coverage from even liberal media outlets.

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If he endorses anyone it will be Vance

I didn't think so at first but I'm starting to think so. Trump has only negative things to say about everyone else but has praised Vance (although he has raised concern about his poll numbers).

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The one person Trump definitely will not endorse in Vance. At this point, his prior sins of bashing the fearless leader are irredeemable in the eyes of the GOP primary electorate. It would not be unprecedented for Trump to endorse somebody who previously bad-mouthed him, but Vance is on track to place 4th.

Vance is the only one in the race Trump has praised. Multiple articles have come out saying Trump likes him, likes watching him on FOX, talks with him regularly and thinks he's handsome. He's concerned about his polling, but he hates Timken and Mandel and thinks Gibbons is boring.
And even if Vance is polling 4th, why are people claiming Trump could endorse Timken then if she's polling 5th?
Not to mention there are a TON of undecideds in this race and the primary is likely being postponed, so there's time. Vance isn't polling that much behind Mandel anyway, he's in 3rd, but a close 3rd.

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https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1504955509094371339

Lmao Mandel trying to look threatening and "alpha" with the way he looks and his voice just looks pathetic.