Even with most candidates leading in the race for former President Donald Trump, the primaries are the first Senate contest of the year to test the strength of his endorsement.
While Trump did not endorse in the Ohio gubernatorial primary, he did play a large part in the contest to replace retired Republican Senator Rob Portman.
“It’s OK to change your mind. In fact, you should change your mind when the facts change and I think that’s the truth in terms of my view of President Trump,” Vance said Monday.
Trump’s endorsement of Vance created a momentum for the author, helping him nearly double his support between a Fox poll in March and another in April.
But most of the other top GOP candidates vying for the Ohio Senate seat — including former state treasurer Josh Mandel, businessman Mike Gibbons and former state party chairman Gene Timken, all of whom have sought Trump’s endorsement — shocked Vance with his earlier comments. about the former president. , claiming that they raised questions about his authenticity as a governor.
Speaking about Vance’s previous criticism during his election-eve conference call, Trump said that Vance “said some negative things about me, but made up for it with little things.”
“I think I can say he’s with us 1,000%,” the former president added.
Mandel, in turn, got help in the final days of the campaign trail from Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who urged Ohio Republicans to pay less attention to endorsements and more consistency of the candidate’s record as a conservative.
Ohio gubernatorial primaries
The governor, who has built deep connections in Republican circles over his many years of public service in Ohio, won national acclaim in the pandemic’s early days for his meticulous handling of rising Covid-19 cases. But as the pandemic has become increasingly polarized, he has become a frequent target of the right and Trump, which apparently made him vulnerable as he set out to win a second term as conservative.
In Ohio’s 11th congressional district, there is a rematch between Democratic Representative Shontelle Brown and Nina Turner. Brown had Biden’s support as well as some biased outside groups, but Turner, the former Ohio senator who was a key player in Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, hoped to motivate the progressives to push her to victory in the newly drawn territory, which includes more Cleveland.
In Indiana, Republican Senator Todd Young and Democrat Thomas McDermott, the mayor of Hammond, are running unchallenged in Tuesday’s Senate primary.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Paul LeBlanc, Gabe Orr and Ethan Cohen contributed to this report.