J.D. Vance may have some serious competition in the Ohio Republican Senate primary.
Donald Trump’s endorsement gave Vance’s campaign a massive boost over MAGA-friendly rival Josh Mandel. However, there’s another candidate who, according to recent polling, has surged into second — or first place.
That candidate has sparked the ire of the former president by urging Trump to stop pushing “lies about the outcome” of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump has clung to and constantly promoted for two years.
That candidate is Matt Dolan, a Republican state senator and a traditional conservative (at least in the pre-Trump GOP). While other candidates running for Ohio’s Senate seat flew to Mar-a-Lago to pledge their fealty to Trump, Dolan poured over $10 million of his own money into the race.
His strategy now appears to be paying dividends.
As Politico reports:
Days before the May 3 primary, Dolan appears to be experiencing a late burst of momentum. While J.D. Vance — who received Trump’s endorsement last week — has surged into first place according to the most recent Fox News poll, Dolan was the only other top contender to gain ground in the poll since last month. A separate poll released Tuesday by Blueprint Polling actually placed Dolan in first place with 18 percent of the vote, followed by Vance at 17 percent.
Whatever momentum Dolan is riding, it was enough to prompt Trump to release a statement Tuesday suggesting that the state senator is “not fit” to serve in the Senate.
“I think there’s mounting evidence that he’s in a scenario where he’s running up the middle, unmolested, with a unique message and some things in his favor,” said Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who lives out of state but donated $250 to Dolan’s campaign in October. “Does it mean he has a lock on the race? No way. But it’s a competitive race, and he’s in it. He’s got the momentum, as of last week.”
Dolan likely has a low ceiling of support, given his dependence on Republican voters who are willing to move on from Trump — a minority of the party. But in a splintered field of candidates, that could be enough.
Pollsters scrutinizing the data coming out of Ohio say that Dolan has a pathway to winning the primary with a plurality of the vote.
Ohio remains competitive politically, but it has become increasingly Republican as the party has won over white working-class voters since 2016.
The Cook Political Report rates the race for Ohio’s open Senate seat as “Lean Republican.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Patrick Houck is an avid political enthusiast based out of the Washington, D.C., metro area. His expertise is in campaigns and the use of targeted messaging to persuade voters. When not combing through the latest news, you can find him enjoying the company of family and friends or pursuing his love of photography.
Sadly not enough republicans have not accepted the fact that if they don’t distance themselves from Trump they will find that they blew their chances of winning control of both the house and the senate. They have to know that the hate Trump feelings in this country are wide and deep and he is nothing but a dead weight around their necks. I say this as someone who voted for Trump in both elections, and now feel that his time has come and gone.
Spoken like a true sell out.