U.S. Senate Republican candidate J.D. Vance, right, shakes the hand of debate moderator Karen Kasler, of Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau, at the end of Ohio's U.S. Senate Republican Primary debate, Monday, March 28, 2022, at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. (Joshua A. Bickel/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, Pool)

With former President Donald Trump’s coveted endorsement going to J.D. Vance last Friday, the race to the right in Ohio’s GOP Senate primary ends with the former Trump critic winning his support. The losers aren’t happy about it.

Despite Josh Mandel currently leading with 28%, according to a poll by the conservative Trafalgar Group released last week, Vance is close at nearly 23%. The endorsement is expected to boost Vance’s chance of winning the vicious, costly primary. And the reactions to Trump’s endorsement led to elevated attacks against from the rest of the main field of candidates; Vance told Wheeling, West Virginia’s WTRF that he figured the other campaigns are “all coping and seething a little bit.”

JANE TIMKEN

 

Former Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken — who hasn’t backed down from directly calling out her primary opponents in the past — spoke the most about not getting Trump’s endorsement. Both in her press release and on a Tuesday afternoon appearance on “Steve Bannon’s War Room” on Real America’s Voice, she pivoted to highlighting Trump’s endorsement of her in the 2017 state party leadership race.

“President Trump’s endorsement of J.D. Vance is disappointing, but it doesn’t change the fact that he supported me to become chair of the [Ohio] Republican Party,” Timken told Bannon.

She also repeatedly brought up the “Hillbilly Elegy” author’s anti-Trump comments he made during the 2016 election, including a recently published private message where he once thought of him as “America’s Hitler.” In Trump’s endorsement of Vance, the former president said he would look past Vance’s prior comments since “he gets it now” and has come to embrace Trump’s politics.

But Timken believes that Ohioans wouldn’t be so forgiving because of the harsh language Vance once used to describe Trump supporters.

“It has riled up the base. They are not happy,” Timken said. “My voters are sticking with me.”

MIKE GIBBONS

 

Businessman Mike Gibbons, who was once a finance co-chair for Trump’s 2016 campaign in Ohio, greatly downplayed the necessity of Trump’s endorsement in a press release.

“I continue to be in a strong position,” Gibbons said. “While I would have loved the endorsement, I continue to be in a strong position in this race because I have been an American First champion and fighter.”

But one Ohio Tea Party organization backing Gibbons, the We the People Convention, is much more furious that Trump ignored county party leaders’ pleas to not endorse Vance once rumors of the endorsement began to circulate.

“Mr. President, you claim you won Ohio twice but let me be clear. You didn’t win Ohio. We the people worked our a—- off and elected you twice,” WTPC President Tom Zawistowski told the Ohio Statehouse News Bureau.

Trump’s endorsement of Vance is so offensive to WTPC that the organization may not support Trump in a 2024 presidential primary.

“President Trump needs us; we don’t need President Trump,” Zawistowski said. “We need conservative leadership, and there are other voices out there who can provide that leadership that President Trump can’t.”

JOSH MANDEL

 

Mandel, the former 2012 GOP Senate nominee who still brags about his early endorsement of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign in his Twitter biography, reacted to the Vance endorsement by looking towards the future instead.

“I continue to be a proud supporter of President Trump and the America First agenda,” the former Ohio treasurer said on Twitter. “I look forward to earning his endorsement in the general election and working with him to defeat Tim Ryan in November.”

Mark Levin, a high-profile Mandel supporter and host of “The Mark Levin Show,” harshly criticized Vance while bringing up Trump’s decision on Monday’s show.

“In 2016, he refused to vote for Donald Trump for president,” Levin said. “Well, if you didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, that means you could have easily ensured the election, for god’s sake, of Hilary Clinton.”

MATT DOLAN

 

State Senator Matt Dolan, the only major primary candidate to not fight for Trump’s praise, reacted to the endorsement by taking shots at his opponents while giving himself credit for being on Trump’s side on most issues.

“They’ve been running a campaign to get his endorsement and now they’re going to be fighting with each other to say no, they’re more Trump,” Dolan told News 5 Cleveland at a campaign event. “The reality is that I’m the one that’s implemented Trump policies, but I’ve stood for who I am and for what I have done.”