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

[NewYorkExpress]

Josh Mandel calls on Mike DeWine to lift Ohio's COVID restrictions.

Josh Mandel, a Republican candidate for the Senate in Ohio, is waging an unadulterated campaign to pull his party further to the right, in part by trashing the state's Republican governor.

A day after governors in Mississippi and Texas lifted mask mandates and other guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Mandel on Wednesday called on Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to do the same.

"I think Mike DeWine is a squishy establishment politician who went along with the peer pressure and the groupthink of liberal media and other squishy governors around the country when he should have been a leader," Mandel, a former two-term state treasurer, said in an interview.

Mandel's remarks escalate his bid to position himself as the Republican most in sync with former President Donald Trump in the race to succeed GOP Sen. Rob Portman, who will not seek another term next year.

Mandel has amplified the lie that the election was stolen from Trump. He has relentlessly attacked an opponent, former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, for the nice things she said about a Republican House member who voted to impeach Trump. And since he appeared last week at the CPAC conference for conservative activists in Florida, Mandel has branded DeWine — whose career in Republican politics goes back to 1977, when Mandel was born — with words like "squishy" and "RINO," meaning Republican In Name Only.

In another sign that he wants to carve out his own far-right lane in a primary campaign that could soon be crowded with other pro-Trump conservatives, Mandel asserted Wednesday that masks are not effective against the coronavirus.

"There's no science or math that shows that it's been helpful," he said, overlooking data and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other experts that confirms that properly covering your mouth and nose helps prevent the spread of viral particles.

"No," Mandel replied when asked whether he would continue wearing a mask in public if DeWine lifts the mandate. "We need to stop the mask mandates immediately. And I will stop wearing a mask. I have the freedom to make decisions based on what's best for me and my family. And this has gone way overboard."

[NewYorkExpress]

Some old, once deleted tweets JD Vance tweets that were critical of President Trump have come out.

Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance said on Monday that he regrets posting since-deleted tweets critical of former President Trump.

“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016,” Vance told Fox News' Alicia Acuna during a Monday interview. “And I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016, because I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy. I think he was a good president, I think he made a lot of good decisions for people, and I think he took a lot of flak.”

“I think … the most important thing, is not what you said five years ago, but whether you’re willing to stand up and take the heat and take the hits for actually defending the interests of the American people,” Vance said.


Vance also says in the clip shared by Mediaite that he met with Trump recently at his Mar-a-Lago estate and calls him a “good president.”

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1410641486505558016

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1410643663609372674

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1410647434359881732

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1410752015098077184

[NewYorkExpress]

State Senator Matt Dolan is in.

There’s something new in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary: A candidate who’s not styling himself as an unshakeable ally of former President Donald Trump.

State Sen. Matt Dolan formally launched his campaign Monday, following a summer of exploratory activities that included a listening tour across the state.

“After meeting with Republicans, conservative activists and community leaders across Ohio in recent weeks, it’s clear that the focus of the race for U.S. Senate has yet to be about our people, our interests, and our beloved state,” Dolan said in a statement emailed by his campaign. “This changes today with the announcement of my candidacy for U.S. Senate.”

....

Dolan, a longtime state legislator whose family owns the Cleveland Indians, has at least one thing in common with his rivals: the potential to self-fund his campaign. But he enters the race as a relative moderate. Even though his announcement video, statement and home page for his website boast of his conservative credentials, Trump’s name or image is nowhere to be found. And the lead-up to Monday’s announcement included several overt efforts to distinguish Dolan from the other candidates.

Last May, a Dolan aide sniped at Mandel for appearing at a local GOP event headlined by Rep. Matt Gaetz. On the recent listening tour, Dolan emphasized his support for the Senate’s bipartisan, $1 trillion infrastructure bill — legislation that Trump and Dolan’s rivals say they oppose. The posture fits the pragmatic profile that Dolan hopes to project.

“What if Ohio’s next senator didn’t just talk big and loud but had a real record of conservative success?” a narrator asks in the opening of Dolan’s launch video.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute looks to boost young Latino leadership
Dolan, 56, is a familiar name in Greater Cleveland, both through his family’s ownership of Cleveland’s Major League Baseball franchise and his public service. The team, responding to complaints of racial insensitivity, will change its name to the Guardians next season.

“Few understand the threat of cancel culture more than me,” Dolan notes in the issues section of his website. Rights afforded by the Constitution, like freedom of speech and the right to due process, are under attack in our classrooms, town squares and sports stadiums. Liberals are weaponizing mob justice and cancel campaigns to silence and censor people and businesses — large and small.”

If it weren't for the fact Dolan doesn't appear to running as an open Trump loyalist like the others, I'd be inclined to say that he'd be one of the frontrunners in the Republican Primary.

His family owns the Guardians (the Major League Baseball team in Cleveland),and I'm pretty sure he has the money to self-fund in both the primary and the general election.

[NewYorkExpress]

Still very unlikely that Ryan wins, but at least he won't get completely blown out like Strickland did:
https://twitter.com/bridgetbhc/status/1545393779821232129?cxt=HHwWgoC-xY7dq_IqAA...

Ill gladly introduce you to this cycles' Amy McGrath.

Mitch McConnell, despite his horrific approval ratings, is running in a state that is far more Republican than Ohio.

[NewYorkExpress]

Still very unlikely that Ryan wins, but at least he won't get completely blown out like Strickland did:
https://twitter.com/bridgetbhc/status/1545393779821232129?cxt=HHwWgoC-xY7dq_IqAA...

Ill gladly introduce you to this cycles' Amy McGrath.

Mitch McConnell, despite his horrific approval ratings, is running in a state that is far more Republican than Ohio.

In some ways yes, in some ways no.

Ohio hasn't elected a democrat not named sherrod brown in this state since 2006. Kentucky has had a slew of statewide elected officials elected as democrat. Presidential Totals arent the be all end all

Didn't Obama win Ohio twice, or are we no longer counting him as a Democrat?

[NewYorkExpress]

in terms of actual campaign operations, Vance may actually be running the worst campaign of the cycle

https://twitter.com/JimSwiftDC/status/1550216465302839297

I don't know, Dr. Oz is giving him some stiff competition.