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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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Columbus, OH — Today, the Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) released the following statement as the Republican-led Ohio Redistricting Commission misses a critical deadline today, one that is enshrined in the constitution requiring the commission to have produced a map proposal and have held three public hearings on the map by today, September 1st.

With so much on the line for Ohioans with redistricting — from healthcare to education to the economy — it says a lot about how seriously the Ohio GOP takes this process when they’ve already failed to live up to their constitutional obligations. And when Democrats on the Commission pressed Republicans on missing the deadline, and when maps may be produced for the public to see, Republicans flippantly replied “when it is presented.” The goal of the original provision was to ensure Ohioans had the opportunity to have their voices heard and hold their elected officials accountable on any proposed maps.

“Ohioans voted twice overwhelmingly for fair districts and a better redistricting process, but Ohio Republicans are playing the same political games they always have — putting their partisan agenda ahead of the transparency and accountability the voters have called for. With so much on the line for Ohio families, voters deserve a fair and open process. But sadly, Ohio Republicans will always put their own self-interest above the interests of working Ohioans,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

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Columbus, OH —  Yesterday, the Cincinnati Enquirer published an op-ed from State Representative Brigid Kelly highlighting how every leading Republican U.S. Senate candidate’s opposition to the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would hurt Ohio. In the piece, Rep. Kelly highlights how the bipartisan infrastructure package would grow Ohio’s economy and why political opposition to the bill from leading Republican Senate candidates is disqualifying. Despite Senator Portman negotiating the bill, all of the leading Republican Senate candidates vying to replace him would have voted against the bill.

Read more at the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: Rejection of infrastructure bill disqualifies GOP Senate candidates

Brigid Kelly

August 30, 2021

The bipartisan Infrastructure and Investment Act fulfills the promises President Biden made in Cincinnati six weeks ago. It improves our roads, bridges, electric grid and water pipes and creates good-paying jobs for working families. It even restores our faith in democracy, producing a bipartisan 69-30 vote in the U.S. Senate toward its passage.

But when every leading Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio came out against it, it did something else: it showed us, yet again, the bottomless depth of cynicism in today’s politics. Their opposition to the plan seems to come down to appeasing one man: former President Donald Trump.

Consider what the bill would mean for Ohio:

For years, politicians – from both parties – stood in front of the Brent Spence Bridge promising to replace it. Now that dream inches closer to reality. The bill will prioritize funding to repair or replace economically significant bridges like it, helping lift the burden off state and local governments, and reducing the likelihood of tolls to pay for it.

Another huge victory for Ohio is the inclusion of Sen. Sherrod Brown’s “Buy America” rules that require American-made iron, steel and manufactured products for taxpayer-funded infrastructure and public works projects. That’s how we grow good-paying jobs right here in Ohio and compete internationally.

The bill even has the support of Sen. Rob Portman, who helped negotiate it. But instead of getting things done for Ohio families, the GOP looks laser-focused on promoting themselves and their political ambitions. Opposing the bill may be helpful for the Ohio Republican Senate candidates climbing the political ladder, but it would leave Ohio’s roads and bridges to crumble while countries like China are moving full-steam ahead.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill also includes new funding for Ohio to improve access to high-speed internet. The bill includes a program that could help 28% of Ohioans to afford internet access. This past year, we have seen how reliable high-speed internet access is essential for Ohioans across the state to be able to work, attend a doctor’s appointment, or participate in school. By opposing this bill, every Republican candidate would oppose this funding – even though it clearly benefits Ohio.

It’s clear that Ohio Republican Senate candidates’ opposition has nothing to do with substance and everything to do with politics. They should care more about Ohio workers than about gaining Trump’s endorsement. Their political games would have serious consequences for the Buckeye State. If they had their way, Ohio would miss out on $1.2 billion to improve public transportation options, $140 million to support the expansion of an electric vehicle charging network in the state, at least $100 million to expand broadband coverage across the state, $9.2 billion for roads and highways, and $483 million for bridge replacement and repairs – all to appease their own self-serving ambitions.

Ohio deserves a senator focused on creating good-paying jobs in our state and growing our economy. All of the GOP Senate candidates’ rejection of the bipartisan infrastructure bill is disqualifying. If it were up to them, our roads, bridges and water pipes would be left dilapidated and hundreds of thousands of Ohioans would be left without access to high-speed internet. Ohioans will hold them accountable for prioritizing party politics over our state’s best interests.

Democrat Brigid Kelly of Hyde Park is the 31st District state representative.

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Columbus, OH — According to a new investigation from Business Insider, J.D. Vance created a non-profit focused on combating the opioid epidemic that was a “charade” and “superficial,” bolstering himself and his personal ambitions. In its first year, the group spent more money paying Vance’s top political advisor than on programs to fight opioid abuse. Now, Vance’s campaign refuses to answer questions about the non-profit and hasn’t included his experience there on his campaign website. 

“Only a Silicon Valley millionaire like J.D. Vance would use Ohio’s opioid crisis as a way to bolster his political career and enrich his political cronies. Maybe if Vance hadn’t spent so much of his life in DC and San Francisco he’d realize that Ohioans need real help and not fraudulent grifters,” said Michael Beyer, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Key points below:

Business Insider: ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author JD Vance is running for Senate as a savior of the Rust Belt. Insiders and experts say otherwise.

Adam Wren and Meghan Morris

August 29, 2021

• After moving back to Ohio in 2017, Vance founded Our Ohio Renewal, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting the opioid epidemic that he wrote about so wrenchingly in his memoir. He also raised $93 million to launch Narya Capital, a venture-capital firm focused on startups in the Midwest. The two projects are key chapters in his political biography — accomplishments he’s frequently cited to portray himself as a job creator and champion of the white working class. “What we need in Washington is not just leaders who talk about doing things,” he said on a recent campaign stop in his hometown of Middletown, “but have actually done them and will continue to do them.”
• Plenty of politicians seek to bolster their image by pointing to their business acumen and philanthropic efforts. In reality, though, it’s not clear what, if anything, Vance has achieved through his company or his charity. A review by Insider of Our Ohio Renewal’s tax filings showed that in its first year, the nonprofit spent more on “management services” provided by its executive director — who also serves as Vance’s top political advisor — than it did on programs to fight opioid abuse. The group, which has shut down its website and abandoned its Twitter account after publishing only two tweets, says it commissioned a survey to gauge the needs and welfare of Ohioans, but Vance’s campaign declined to provide any documentation of the project. A spokeswoman for Ohio’s largest anti-opioid coalition told Insider that she hadn’t heard of Vance’s organization.
• “This is a charade,” said Doug White, a nonprofit expert and former director of the master’s program in fundraising management at Columbia University, who reviewed Our Ohio Renewal’s tax filings for Insider. “It’s a superficial way for him to say he’s helping Ohio. None of that is actually happening, from what I can tell.”
• Over a martini with a Washington Post writer in early 2017, Vance expressed misgivings about running for office. At the time, he was looking to help his home state through his nascent nonprofit, Our Ohio Renewal. “I’m not going to say that I’m never going to run,” he said. But he made clear what he thought of politics. “I think running a small nonprofit to work on the opioid crisis and bring interesting new businesses to the so-called Rust Belt — all of these things are valuable, if not more valuable, than running for office.”
• Our Ohio Renewal, Vance explained in August 2017, would identify “the things that have been tried, from prevention programs to physician training to treatment options, and trying to understand how well they are working.” Its mission statement was audacious: “Our Ohio Renewal is dedicated to promoting the ideas and addressing the problems identified in J.D. Vance’s #1 Bestseller, Hillbilly Elegy, related to divides along racial, economic, and cultural lines.” It would engage in political advocacy across Ohio, including “fighting against opiate abuse.”
• In its first year, according to an Insider review of its public tax filings, the nonprofit brought in $221,135. Jai Chabria, the nonprofit’s principal officer, earned more in management fees — $63,425 — than the company spent on programming, which totaled about $50,000. Chabria, a former senior advisor to John Kasich and an employee of Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, is now advising Vance’s Senate campaign.
• But Our Ohio Renewal’s biggest problem wasn’t its spending; it was its lack of fundraising. The nonprofit raised so little in each of the last three years — less than $50,000 a year — that it wasn’t even required by the IRS to disclose its activities and finances. “It’s a pittance, given what they said they want to accomplish,” said White, the nonprofit expert who reviewed the organization’s initial filing. “This is a very small operation. They’re not doing much. I don’t think it rises to the level of fraud, but they are sitting around doing nothing.”
• The only accomplishments listed in Our Ohio Renewal’s 2017 tax filing are the $45,000 it spent for a survey of the “social, cultural and general welfare needs of Ohio Citizens,” along with travel and meeting expenses. Vance told Columbus Monthly that the nonprofit sponsored a yearlong residency for Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and research fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who treated patients at a methadone clinic in an underserved area of southern Ohio. But Our Ohio Renewal declined to respond to questions about its programs and finances, and Satel did not respond to Insider’s request for an interview.
• It looks different now, with him being a Senate candidate. […] Whatever Our Ohio Renewal did to fight the opioid epidemic, it did so without joining the state’s largest anti-opioid partnership. […] These days, Vance seems reluctant to even acknowledge his signature philanthropic effort. In the section of his campaign’s new issues page devoted to the opioid epidemic, the candidate makes no mention of Our Ohio Renewal. […] The nonprofit, he [Jivani] acknowledged, never lived up to the vision he and Vance hashed out that night in German Village. “It looks different now with him being a Senate candidate,” Jivani said.

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Columbus, OH — Frank LaRose is having a rough week. After LaRose was called out this week for his hypocrisy on election integrity, Howard Wilkinson is out with a new column today exposing LaRose and the Ohio GOP for using a new radical anti-voter bill to help LaRose politically.

LaRose, facing a primary challenger to his right and facing pressure to embrace the Big Lie, is once again using Ohioans’ right to vote to further his own political ambitions. LaRose wants to talk about the success of the 2020 election, but as a Republican in 2021, also needs to be seen casting doubt on the results. So he’s using attacks on Ohioans’ voting rights to do it.

So, LaRose and his buddy Bill Seitz are pushing HB 294, an extreme anti-voter bill that would drastically reduce the ways Ohioans are able to vote and directly attack the methods of voting that made the 2020 elections a success. The bill is a wink and a nod to the Big Lie to shore up LaRose’s political support on the right. But Democrats quickly and loudly fought back against the legislation and put LaRose in a tough spot for attacking Ohioans’ right to vote, and he’s looking for a way out.

Here’s where HB 397 comes into play. As Wilkinson points out in his column, the new legislation goes even further than HB 294, but it’s also gone nowhere in the House. Wilkinson posits that LaRose and Seitz are using the new bill as a way to make their extreme anti-voter bill look moderate by comparison. But Ohio Democrats aren’t going to stand by quietly and Ohio voters won’t be fooled. Enough with LaRose’s political games. Ohioans’ voting rights aren’t tools for Frank LaRose to serve his own political ambitions and he needs to stop with the partisan games and instead do his job and stand up against lies being told within his own party about the 2020 election.

“And it seems to me that the incredibly antediluvian HB 387 could give some political cover to LaRose, a supporter of HB 294 who is running for re-election next year with a primary challenger – former State Rep. John Adams of Shelby County who is coming at him from the Trumpist right. Something tells me that HB 387 is more show business than legislative business,” writes Wilkinson.

Read more from Howard Wilkinson HERE and below:

• We are sitting here wondering if the Republican majority in the Ohio House is trying to pull off an elaborate bait-and-switch game in order to scale back early voting in Ohio.
• The fact of the matter is that voter fraud in Ohio – where no county has its vote tallying system connected to the Internet and where there is a paper back-up for every scanned ballot – is exceedingly rare. About as close to non-existent as you can get.
• According to Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican who is supporting HB 294, there were only 13 cases of non-citizens who cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election in Ohio, along with another 104 who apparently were registered illegally. All were referred to the Ohio attorney general for further investigation.
• By the way, 13 out of 5.794 million votes cast works out to .0002%.
• Democrats may not have the numbers to stop the GOP in the Ohio legislature, but the Ohio Democratic Party will fight any attempt to rollback voter access, said party spokesman Matthew Keyes.
• Seitz said he believes HB 387 has no chance of passing. There seems to be little enthusiasm for that bill, except possibly among the sponsor and six co-sponsors.
• Seems to me that the only purpose of HB 387 is to die on the vine, but not until it makes HB 294 seen like a reasonable alternative.

• And it seems to me that the incredibly antediluvian HB 387 could give some political cover to LaRose, a supporter of HB 294 who is running for re-election next year with a primary challenger – former State Rep. John Adams of Shelby County who is coming at him from the Trumpist right.
• Something tells me that HB 387 is more show business than legislative business.

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