COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance won the controversial and highly competitive Ohio Senate primary on Tuesday, backed by Donald Trump’s approval in a race that was an early test of the former president’s conduct over his party. the mid-season starts at high speed.
Once a staunch critic of Trump, whose 2016 memoirs of his childhood in the Appalachians made him famous, Vance spent much of the campaign behind the polls. But Trump’s endorsement later pushed him to become a favorite, and the two men downplayed Vance’s previous scathing criticism of the former president, saying Vance was wrong.
Accepting the GOP nomination, Vance gave a unifying tone by complimenting his rivals – including drowning out booing on his fiercest opponent, former US Treasurer Josh Mandel – and vowing to address the many moderates in the state targeting November after an extremely bitter a campaign that, at one point, saw two candidates almost fight over a debate
“Now this campaign, I really think, was a referendum on what kind of Republican party we want and what kind of country we want,” Vance told the crowd.
Tuesday’s race marked the beginning of a more competitive phase of the midterm season, with closely watched races in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia scheduled for later this month. The election will culminate in November with control of Congress, governor’s offices and key election offices.
Vance will face Democrat Tim Ryan in the general election race to take the seat vacant by retired Republican Sen. Rob Portman. The 10-seat Democratic congressman, who easily won his trilateral primary on Tuesday night, is likely to climb to a state that Trump has won twice by eight points. As a potential warning sign for Ryan, approximately twice as many Republicans ran in the primary as Democrats.
President Joe Biden called Ryan late Tuesday to congratulate him on the nomination, and Trump also kept in touch with Vance.
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike Duane, meanwhile, has secured his party’s nomination for a second term and will face Democrat Nan Weiley.
In neighboring Indiana, incumbent Republicans in the State House pushed back key contenders who wanted to push the legislature further to the right. Among approximately two dozen so-called freedom candidates in the Republican legislature, one won 10 terms as a North Indian incumbent, while the movement’s leader lost his main race.
The campaign is intensifying at an unstable moment in the nation’s politics. On the eve of the primary election this week, a draft opinion from the US Supreme Court expired, suggesting that the court could overturn Rowe’s remarkable 1973 ruling against Wade, which legalized abortion across the country. As Democrats condemn the project, they suddenly have a clear, unifying message that they hope will compensate for an otherwise difficult political climate dominated by economic problems that include high inflation and gas prices.
Meanwhile, Trump is using primaries to build his reputation as a Republican leader as he considers a new presidential election a year after leaving office under the cloud of two impeachments and the Capitol Uprising on January 6, 2021. A Trump spokesman on Tuesday credited the outcome. in the Ohio Senate race, saying the former president’s approval “moved (Vance) to command first.”
While Vance was the undisputed winner of the Republican primary, increasing support in rural Ohio, there was significant support for Mandel and US Senator Matt Dolan, the only major candidate who did not aggressively court Trump. His attraction suggests that the party’s appetite remains for non-Trump alternatives, especially in a country with a long history of electing moderates, including Devine, Portman and former Ohio governor John Trump, who has become a critic of Trump.
Dolan had a strong performance in Ohio’s metropolitan communities, especially around Cleveland and Columbus. Meanwhile, Mandel also found some support from rural areas.
At the Strongsville Library in the Cleveland suburbs, Joan Mondak, 71, said she voted for Dolan because the other candidates were “crazy” people who were “too many Trump.”
Ohio, once a leading state, is now strongly Republican, a challenge for Ryan, who distances himself from his party’s progressive wing during the race. Leading campaigns with sweatshirts and baseball caps, he has shaped himself as a blue-collar crusader fighting for working families.
During his acceptance speech, Ryan became emotional as he spoke about the community his steelworker grandfather had managed to build while taking a well-paid union job.
“I am absolutely sure that we can do this if we unite, and it is not a question of finding differences. It’s not about hatred, “he said.
Backed by historical trends and Biden’s deep unpopularity, Republicans are optimistic about regaining the House of Representatives and Senate in November. A new president’s party is almost always losing seats in the next by-elections, and Republicans hope rising inflation, high energy prices and continuing frustration with the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic will further boost their prospects.
Democrats, meanwhile, are taking care of the Republican Party – with Trump’s help – they will choose candidates so extreme that they will be ineligible in November. Vance, in particular, has drawn criticism for rejecting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a non-United States job and accused Biden of deliberately trying to kill Trump’s voters by allowing illegal drugs to cross the southern border.
“By all accounts, history tells us that Democrats will lose control of the House of Representatives,” said Dale Butland, a Democrat strategist in Ohio. “We must lose control of the Senate by all means. However, the only thing that can save us is for Republicans to nominate a bunch of far-right lunatics who are unacceptable in a general election.
While DeWine is widely known in Ohio after a 40-year political career, he has faced a fierce reaction from conservatives over the suspensions and mandates of COVID-19 that he imposed during the first months of the pandemic.
DeWine’s three opponents – former US envoy Jim Renachi, former MP Ron Hood and farmer Joe Blystone – have all joined in the anger, but seem to have split far-right voices. However, DeWine did not take any risks and poured millions into advertising in the last weeks of the race.
On the part of the Democrats, Whaley became the first woman in the history of the state to receive the support of a large party. She defeated former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley in a race that garnered relatively little attention as much of the state focused on the controversial Republican election in the Senate and the ongoing lawsuit to relocate the area. Whaley had the support of the state’s top Democrat, US Senator Sherrod Brown, a popular name, while Cranley had the support of feminist icon Gloria Steinham.
The two candidates met face to face on most key issues – weapons, abortion rights, social justice – but Whaley has repeatedly said that Cranley had only recently said he had a choice.
Trump-backed Secretary of State Frank Larose also won his party’s nomination for another term.
In the House, Republican Max Miller, a former Trump campaign and White House aide, won the Republican nomination in the sprawling new 7th district in northeastern Ohio, despite accusations from his ex-girlfriend, former White House spokesman Stephanie Grisha. grew up violent with her as their relationship deteriorated. He has denied the allegations.
Miller was originally hired to challenge Republican Anthony Gonzalez, one of 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted in favor of impeachment of Trump. But instead, Gonzalez chose to retire.
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Colvin reported from Washington. Associated Press authors Patrick Orsagas of Columbus, Steve Peoples of New York and Mark Gilispie of Strongsville, Ohio, contributed to the report.
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