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Who are the Republican candidates for the Ohio Senate?
As the May 3 primary election date looms, we take a look at the Republican candidates in an Ohio Senate race that will likely be a one-party affair
The mid-term Senate race in Ohio goes to the primaries on May 3 and it is all up for grabs now that the two-term incumbent Rob Portman (Rep) has announced that he will not seek re-election. The race in this staunchly Republican state is to be fought between the GOP candidates and here are those declared.
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Matt Dolan
The Ohio state senator from the 24th district since 2017 is an attorney by trade and jointly owns the Cleveland Guardians with his father Larry.
Mike Gibbons
An investment banker with working class roots, he was previously a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2018
Josh Mandel
The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Iraq War veteran served as Ohio state treasurer from 2011 to 2019. He was a nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2012 and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2018
Neil Patel
An Indian-born Ohio businessman, Patel made his name as a hotelier and insurance agent. He has run for the Senate in 2010 and 2014.
Mark Pukita
An IT executive with a background at IBM, Pukita started his own company in 1996 and wants to bring his business acumen to the Senate
Jane Timken
The chair of the Ohio Republican Party since 2017, Timken has staked her colors on her belief that the November 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.
J. D. Vance
The author of Hillbilly Elegy, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and venture capitalist Vance has campaigned on creating manufacturing jobs and building a wall on the Mexican border.
Perhaps no race in the nation better represents the ground shift that has happened in the Republican Party over the last six years than the one in Ohio. Ohio twice voted for President Barack Obama and has long courted the more moderate Republicans has swung decisively to the right. And the leading candidates in the race have been working to out-Trump one another as they try to woo his endorsement as well as his voters.
In a show of just how confrontational politics have become in recent years, two Republican candidates squared off during a heated debate. No longer content to simply attack Democrats, Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons decided to throw some mud at each other in a tense exchange, forcing a moderator to pull the two apart.
Gibbons and J.D. Vance are leading the pack in most polls, but with the tempers of the electorate as frayed as their candidates, any number of things can happen between now and May.