Donald Trump again demonstrated his unprecedented influence in the Republican Party when his designated candidate, JD Vance, won the Republican primary for the Senate in Ohio, following in the footsteps of the former president.
Vance, an author, defeated perennial conservative candidate Josh Mandel, who was leading in the polls before Trump’s endorsement. In third place, with more than 20 percent of the vote, was Matt Dolan, a state legislator, who was running as a non-Trumpist. The establishment candidate, former party chairwoman Jane Timken, finished a distant fifth.
Some establishment Republicans in Washington, most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have given indications that they hoped Trump’s influence was waning and that the party could look ahead in the races. This year’s midterm and the 2024 presidential election. That’s not Trump’s agenda: He still wants to focus on the 2020 election, refuses to acknowledge that he was clearly defeated, and wants to punish dissidents; Republican congressional leaders ignore him at his peril.
There are several important tests ahead for Trump. In Georgia, he’s trying to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp, who Trump believes didn’t do enough to overturn the state’s 2020 election results; Trump hugging David Perdue, who was defeated last year for re-election to the Senate. Perdue, by most accounts, has run a terrible campaign, and Kemp seems likely to win the primary on May 24.
A week before that, there are two other tests of Trump in which he endorsed candidates who were behind in the polls. In Pennsylvania, he endorses Mehmet Oz, a celebrity TV doctor, after turning down pleas from David McCormick, a hedge fund executive. Also on May 17, Ted Budd, a Trump-backed right-wing congressman running for US Senate in North Carolina, edged out former Governor Pat McCrory, according to polls.
On May 10, Nebraska Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster has Trump’s active support as he tries to overcome charges of several womenincluding a Republican state legislator, who sexually groped them.
There are no real ideological or political litmus tests for Trump endorsements. It is mainly about paying homage to him, whether or not he is familiar with the candidate. Campaigning in Nebraska last weekend, Trump confused who he had supported in ohio: “We have endorsed… JP, right?” he said. JD Mandel. And he is doing very well.” That seemed to confuse Josh Mandel with Trump’s actual backer, JD Vance.
And the former president still faces legal problems. A grand jury was convened in Atlanta on charges that Trump tried to illegally steal the Georgia election, which Biden won. There is a recorded phone call of Trump pushing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to get 11,780 votes so Trump can get ahead of Biden. Raffensperger refused.
The New York attorney general has an ongoing fraud investigation of Trump and his company that has drawn the former president’s fury. Trump dodged the most serious case, however, when a new Manhattan district attorney inexplicably sidetracked a criminal investigation despite two seasoned prosecutors declaring there was enough evidence to indict Trump.
In Ohio, Vance, author of the bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy,” was an anti-Trumper in 2016, but he turned around, courting the former president with lavish praise. And he worked.
In the general election, Vance will face Rep. Tim Ryan, who easily won his primary. Ohio has become a solid Republican stronghold, but Ryan has blue-collar appeal and could be a close match. Incumbent Senator Rob Portman retires.
Incumbent Republican Governor Mike DeWine won the nomination for another term, defeating a pair of right-wing opponents who criticized DeWine’s public health restrictions during the pandemic. Democrats turned to former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. DeWine is favored in November, even though the Republican Party in Ohio is embroiled in a $60 million bribery scandal.
In a Democratic ideological test, Rep. Shontel Brown, a mainstream progressive, decisively defeated Nina Turner, a leftist supporter of Bernie Sanders, in a primary contest for an Ohio House seat.
Al Hunt is the former executive editor of Bloomberg News. He previously served as a Washington reporter, bureau chief and editor for The Wall Street Journal. For nearly a quarter of a century he wrote a political column for The Wall Street Journal, then The International New York Times and Bloomberg View. he hosts political war room with James Carville. Follow him on Twitter @AlHuntDC.
Reference-thehill.com