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Columbus, OH – Today, Cleveland.com reported that of the $3.3 million Matt Dolan raised for his Senate race in the first quarter of 2023, $3 million of it – or 91% – came from Dolan’s own coffers. Dolan only raised an abysmal $303,000 through donations and gave himself $3,000,000. 
 
“Matt Dolan may be trying to buy Ohio’s Senate seat, but even his millions cannot save him from what is shaping up to be one of the messiest, nastiest primaries in the country,” said Reeves Oyster, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 
 
With Bernie Moreno expected to officially announce his candidacy next week, the primary for Ohio’s Senate seat – which has already been described as a “brewing 2024 slugfest” and potentially “one of the messiest and most expensive” Republican primaries in the country – is getting messier by the day. Dolan’s willingness to spend millions of his family’s riches to impress Mitch McConnell and national Republicans is another example of how expensive and nasty this GOP primary will get. 
 
Read more from Cleveland.com here and below: 

• Next year’s U.S. Senate race in Ohio is shaping up to be a brutally expensive fight, if early financial numbers released Friday by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and potential Republican rival Matt Dolan are any indication.
  
  
• Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, raised more than $3.5 million in the first three months of 2023, according to campaign manager Rachel Petri. That’s the most any candidate in Ohio history has collected during the first quarter of the year prior to an election year, she said.
  
  
• Dolan, a state senator from Chagrin Falls who was recently joined in the GOP primary by Cleveland car dealer Bernie Moreno, raised about $303,000 during the first quarter of 2023, according to campaign manager Kathi Paroska.
  
  
• However, Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians, put about $3 million of his own money into his campaign fund, giving him $3,301,380 cash on hand as of the end of last month, according to Paroska.
  
  

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Columbus, OH – Today, Ron DeSantis’s visit to Ohio is putting Republicans in a tough spot. As Republican politicians in Ohio stumble all over themselves to embrace the most extreme wings of their party, Ron DeSantis’s visit to the Buckeye State further exposes the deep divides in the Ohio Republican Party. 

As much as GOP politicians in Ohio want to ignore DeSantis’s visit and avoid taking sides in the increasingly nasty Republican presidential primary, voters deserve to know where they stand. 

“Ron DeSantis’s record matches what so many of the Republican candidates running here in Ohio want to achieve. While Ohio Democrats are fighting for the Dignity of Work, Republicans in Ohio – and across the country – are fighting to strip workers of their dignity.  But Ohio Democrats are going to fight like hell to make sure none of the GOP extremists running for higher office are successful,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters. 

Here are five questions Ohio Republicans running for higher office need to answer about DeSantis’s visit to Ohio: 

1. Are you supporting Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump or another extreme Republican in the presidential primary?
    
2. Do you agree with DeSantis’s record of supporting cuts to Medicare and Social Security? 
   
   
3. Do you agree with DeSantis’s support of a constitutional abortion ban that would ban abortion nationwide? 
   
   
4. DeSantis strongly opposes Medicaid expansion and has made Florida one of only 10 states in the country not to do so. Medicaid expansion has helped cover nearly a million people in Ohio – do you agree with DeSantis’s opposition?
   
   
5. Do you echo DeSantis’s call to defund federal law enforcement, including the Department of Justice and FBI?

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Columbus, OH — Matt Dolan’s ears must have been burning yesterday, because hosts on WTVN’s conservative Mark Blazor Show did not mince words while criticizing his campaign for Ohio’s Senate seat:

• HOST: “Matt Dolan is giving me every indication, you know, he’s not big on Donald Trump, he’s pushed back against Trump.”

• HOST: “He, you know, his [family], you know, they own the Indians and they capitulated to the woke mob and changed it to the Guardians… so that tells me everything you need to know.”

• HOST: “He’s in with the old guard…the Old Country Club, establishment guard of the Republican Ohio GOP and he’s very good at that.”

• HOST: “If you remember, he flooded the airwaves towards the end in there with ads in the primary that J.D. was you know, fortunately, J.D. was able to, you know, win and win handily. But I think he finished, you know, second or third in that race, which was kind of – uh – that scared me.”

• HOST: “I don’t know now how you can call anybody a front runner…”

This isn’t the first time Dolan has felt the heat from the GOP. Opponents have described him as a “career politician,” said he is “running in the wrong primary,” and slammed him for refusing to support Donald Trump – going so far as to say it should be “disqualifying.” 
 
With news that Bernie Moreno plans to officially enter the Republican primary race next week – which has already been called “one of the messiest and most expensive” and “bruising” battles in the country – it’s clear this primary is heating up. 

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Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters released the following statement after a Texas judge suspended FDA approval of mifepristone, a safe, widely used abortion medication that has been on the market for decades.
 
“Last night, a single extremist judge further jeopardized Ohio women’s right to make their own healthcare decisions. It’s clear that Republican politicians in Columbus and Washington will stop at nothing to attack our freedoms and drag our country backwards. As they campaign for higher office — and the power to appoint our nation’s judges — Matt Dolan, Bernie Moreno, and Frank LaRose have a duty to clearly tell Ohioans if they would support a federal abortion ban if elected.”

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Columbus, OH — If you missed last cycle’s weekly newsletter on #OHSEN shenanigans then you’re in luck – we’re back! Here’s what you might have missed this week in what is already shaping up to be one of the messiest, most chaotic primaries in the country. 

BERNIE THROWS PUNCHES AND POTENTIALLY SETS A DATE TO OFFICIALLY ENTER THE RING.

Remember Bernie’s op-ed that said candidates who refuse to support Donald Trump should be “disqualified?” Us too. But Bernie isn’t just focused on Matt “One Person in the Race I Won’t Be Endorsing” Dolan – Frank LaRose is also feeling the hate.
 
BERNIE MORENO: “Maybe Frank LaRose decides that being Secretary of State isn’t that big of a deal… We just elected you for a job. Like, why are you looking for another one? It’s crazy. Do you not like that job? Right? Then you probably should have told us before the election.”
 
And there’s more…

MEANWHILE, LAROSE IS FACING NEW ETHICAL AND LEGAL QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS SHADOW CAMPAIGN FOR OHIO’S SENATE SEAT.
 
New reporting by The Daily Beast finds LaRose “repeatedly admitted that he’s actively raising money—including into a super PAC” for a potential U.S. Senate campaign but has failed to file with the FEC – “possibly trigger[ing] campaign finance regulations.” 
 
Candidates are strictly prohibited from coordinating with super PACs and the FEC requires any individual to file candidacy when they raise or spend more than $5,000. 
 
Yikes!
 
DON’T WORRY – LAROSE’S ETHICS TROUBLES AREN’T STOPPING HIM FROM NEEDLING HIS OPPONENTS.
 
FRANK LAROSE: “Well I think that Ohio needs somebody that actually has experience, somebody that’s battle tested, who’s won campaigns, who knows how to raise money, and who has deep relationships really in every part of the state. I obviously have those things…”
 
Ouch!
 
AND WE’RE STILL WONDERING – AFTER “RUSH[ING] TO TRUMP’S DEFENSE” JUST LAST WEEK, WILL THE #OHSEN FIELD STAND BY HIS CALLS TO DEFUND THE POLICE?
 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Spectrum News’ Curtis Jackson on the Republican primary field: “We’re a long way from the guy or gal you want to have a beer with. We’re talking about people that are…these so-called country club Republicans.”

Cheers!
 

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