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Columbus, OH — Today, the Sojourner’s Truth published an article featuring Toledo leaders condemning Republican Senate candidates for their opposition to the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. In the article, State Rep. Paula Hicks-Hudson, CWA Local 4319 President Erika White, and UAW Local 14 President Tony Totty slammed Republican Senate candidates for putting politics ahead of good-paying jobs and investments in Ohio’s infrastructure. The article also mentions that GOP Senate candidates are opposed to the bill to curry favor with Donald Trump even though Sen. Portman – who they are all trying to replace – backs the bill.   

Read more at The Sojourner’s Truth.  

The Sojourner’s Truth: Toledo Leaders Slam Republican Senate Candidates for Attacking Infrastructure Bill

On Thursday, August 26, several Toledo leaders held a press conference to condemn Republican Senate candidates’ opposition to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

“Democrats are delivering for working families by creating good-paying jobs and investing in roads, bridges, water pipes, and high-speed internet. But instead of standing up for our state and supporting this commonsense plan Ohio Republicans running for Senate are too busy jockeying for Trump’s endorsement,” said State Rep. Paula Hicks-Hudson during the event.

The bill will bring a one-time supplemental appropriation of $548 billion to fund everything from major highway projects, to mass transit, to Great Lakes restoration and bringing broadband internet access to areas that don’t have it.

Ironically, the bill is the culmination of a bipartisan effort led, in great part, by Republican Ohio Senator Rob Portman who is retiring. The Republicans vying to replace him – Josh Mandel, former Ohio treasurer; Jane Timken, former chair of the Ohio Republican Party; J.D. Vance, author and venture capitalist; Mike Gibbons, Cleveland businessman; Bernie Moreno, Cleveland car dealer – have all issued statements opposing the Portman crafted legislation in order to curry favor from Donald Trump who has stated his own opposition.

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CWA Local 4319 President Erika White: “Clearly, the Ohio Republican Senate candidates who are opposed to this funding don’t care about helping working families or growing jobs in Ohio – or else they would support the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Instead, they only care about looking out for themselves and their political ambitions. Ohioans deserve leaders focused on Ohio. It’s time for the House to pass this vital bill so we can make meaningful investments in our infrastructure and build our economy.”

Mandel, the polling leader in the race, has made it clear that his primary concern is more about the fact that the Republicans in the Senate who have supported the bill – 19 of 50 senators – should not have embraced the spirit of bipartisanship. […]

UAW Local 14 President Tony Totty would disagree with such sentiments: “It’s past time for us to make upgrades to our roads, bridges, public transit, and water pipes. It’s shameful leading Ohio GOP Senate candidates have decided they would block progress for all of our families to put their corporate special interest donors first.”

Parts of the infrastructure bill will be paid for by redirecting money from previously awarded coronavirus relief funds and enhanced unemployment funds that states rejected. The Congressional Budget Office has said the bill will add $256 billion to the federal deficit over 10 years.

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Shapiro: “I think that they [Mandel and Vance] are doing a lot of stuff to win the primaries that could damage them in the general” 

Columbus, OH —  Yesterday, on his radio show, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro lamented the current state of the Ohio GOP Senate field and said that he is “deeply worried” about the prospect of Republicans losing the race because of the weak field of candidates. He called out Senate candidates Josh Seth Mandel and J.D. Vance specifically for their pandering that he believes could damage them in the general election. 

Shapiro said he has “significant doubts” about the race and that Republicans need to get behind someone “legit” – something he apparently doesn’t see in the current GOP field. This comes after a report from The Hill of Republicans worrying that the GOP Senate candidates are putting themselves on a “collision course” that could hobble the party’s chances in the 2022 midterm elections.

“Even Republicans like Ben Shapiro know that these attention-seeking millionaires are fueling a destructive primary fight and setting Republicans up to lose the Ohio Senate race next November. Shapiro is ringing the alarm bells about the GOP Senate field because he knows Ohioans won’t take these clowns seriously,” said Michael Beyer, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Listen to the audio here or a transcript below:

• Ben Shapiro: “I’m deeply worried about that Ohio Senate race. So the Ohio Senate Republican candidates range from Seth Mandel who has run in the past and fallen short, to JD Vance who’s getting a lot of publicity but doesn’t seem to be polling particularly well at this time. Those are the ones who are getting all the publicity. You’ve seen some other people who have talked about running – throwing their hat into the ring – until this develops a little bit more it’s hard for me to say who I think is going to win. But all I will say is the Republicans better mobilize behind somebody who is legit pretty quickly because if we lose that Ohio Senate seat it’s going to be very difficult to take back the Senate in general. I have significant doubts about that race. I think that some of the pandering from Mandel and Vance is not going to be particularly effective. I think that they are doing a lot of stuff to win the primaries that could damage them in the general.” 

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Columbus, OH — According to a new report in the Sandusky Register, the rivalry between out-of-touch millionaires Josh Mandel and J.D. Vance is heating up as the Republican primary for U.S. Senate gets messier and messier. 

In what’s only the latest in a “nasty, brutal” GOP primary process, Mandel’s latest attack on Vance is focused on Vance’s sham non-profit. Mandel went after Vance for the “charade” and “superficial” non-profit, calling out Vance for using the non-profit to bolster himself and his personal ambitions. Mandel accused Vance of taking the money from his sham non-profit and using it for his political campaign. 

“Republican Senate candidates are sharpening their knives and the attacks are getting nastier and deeply personal. With these escalating attacks, it’s clear these GOP Senate candidates are more focused on attacking each other than the needs of Ohio voters, no surprise from a bunch of out-of-touch millionaires,” said Michael Beyer, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Key points below:

Sandusky Register: Rivalry heats up between Mandel and Vance

Tom Jackson

September 1, 2021

• The Democratic race for Senate isn’t very exciting so far, but Republicans are engaged in a lively contest.
• For example, despite Ronald Reagan’s “11th commandment” not to speak ill of fellow Republicans, it looks like at least one GOP candidate is trimming the 11 commandments to the original 10.
• The candidate who leads in the polls, former state treasurer Josh Mandel, launched a strident personal attack on Twitter against J.D. Vance, one his challengers.
• Describing Vance’s career, Mandel wrote on Twitter on Aug. 30, “Step 1: Abandon hometown. “Step 2: Profit off of crapping on hometown and calling people from there racists. “Step 3: Return from silicon valley to start nonprofit to ‘save’ hometown from opioids. “Step 4: Take the money from the nonprofit and use it for political campaign.”
• Mandel then linked to a tweet from Toledo Blade political reporter Liz Skalka criticizing Vance’s Our Ohio Renewal nonprofit.
• While Vance’s nonprofit apparently isn’t above criticism, Mandel’s tweet appears to be mocking Vance […]. 
• Vance’s spokesman, Taylor Van Kirk, had no comment on Mandel’s tweet […]. 
• Ronald Reagan, the main Republican icon before Trump, popularized the “11th Commandment,” “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican” during his 1966 campaign for governor, although the Gipper was not always able to live up to that ideal.
• Mandel may be targeting Vance because he appears to be the biggest threat to Mandel’s frontrunner status.

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Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Howard Wilkinson yesterday eviscerated Mike DeWine for his monumental shift on handling the COVID-19 pandemic in the face of increasing political pressure within his own party. Amid a messy primary, DeWine is looking out for himself and his own interests, and leaving Ohioans to fend for themselves as cases of COVID-19 are on the rise. As Thaddeus Hoffmeister observes in Wilkinson’s column: “(DeWine) seems to have his eyes in the primary and not on the ICU units.”

“In case Mike DeWine needs a reminder, the health and safety of Ohioans is more important than a political campaign. Instead of a governor who caves again and again to extreme members of his own party, Ohioans deserve a strong governor who is willing to stand up and do what’s right for the people of our state. It’s clear that Mike DeWine is not that governor,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Read more from Wilkinson HERE and below:

• The anti-vaxxers. The Trump acolytes. The so-called free market conservatives who don’t believe a private business or a public institution should be able to require masks be worn in their facilities to help stop the spread of the delta variant.
• And, most of all, the Republican majority in the Ohio General Assembly, both House and Senate, who have been busily stripping DeWine of the executive authority he used freely in the first half of 2020 to break the spread of COVID-19.
• It has left the governor – who says he is running for reelection, at the age of 75 – frustrated at every turn. And, most likely, impotent in the face of some deadly serious challenges.
• And he admitted he is powerless now even to mandate masks be worn in schools.
• “I made the decision not to do that,” DeWine said. “As you know, the law provides that if the state legislature does not like a health order, they can repeal it – get rid of it – instantly.
• All of this comes at a time when Ohio’s COVID-19 cases have hit their highest level in seven months.
• “The legislature has effectively made themselves into the executive branch,” said David Niven, professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.
• “It seems as if he is now saying, ‘I’m going to put partisan politics above the health and welfare of 12 million Ohioans,’ ” Hoffmeister said. “He seems to have his eyes in the primary and not on the ICU units.”

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Mandel Making “New False Claim” That Trump “Actually Won By A Higher Margin” In Ohio In 2020

Columbus, OH — Yesterday in an interview with Taylor Popielarz of Spectrum News, failed Senate candidate Josh Mandel invented a new lie that Trump won Ohio by more than 8 points. 

According to Spectrum News’ Taylor Popielarz, “@JoshMandelOhio made a new false claim I hadn’t heard before: That Ohio’s Republican election officials suppressed Trump’s victory in the state and Trump “actually won by a higher margin” than his 8-pt win.” 

Mandel launched his campaign by saying the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. He has continued to carry water for Trump’s baseless lies about the election and held a rally yesterday on the subject. The Big Lie is the defining issue in Republican primary races around the country – and Mandel is doing his part to keep this conspiracy theory in the news in Ohio.  

“In an effort to appease a failed blogger from Florida, Josh Mandel is dragging the Republican Senate field down another dangerous right-wing conspiracy rabbit hole,” said Michael Beyer, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. “Mandel will do or say anything to earn Trump’s endorsement and does not care about the consequences of lying about the results of an election, which saw a violent mob storming the Capitol and the deaths of five people including a police officer. Every Republican Senate candidate now must answer whether they think Ohio’s election results were fair, and if they refuse to answer their silence will speak volumes.” 

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