Uncategorized

Columbus, OH — Just when you think things can’t get worse for GOP Senate candidates in Ohio, they find new and creative ways to sink lower, turn off voters in Ohio and embarrass our state on a national stage. This week, Republican candidates were widely mocked and criticized for their desperate attempts to try and get Trump’s attention at the expense of Ohio voters.

And now, with the entrance of J.D. Vance into the race, an already chaotic primary is only going to get more desperate, messy and embarrassing from here.

“Every week, these GOP candidates sink lower and lower in a desperate attempt to serve their own interests rather than the interests of the Ohio voter. They’re no longer just embarrassing themselves, they’re embarrassing our state and Ohio voters deserve better,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Read more below:

Cleveland.com: Donald Trump holds Lorain County rally, but offers little encouragement to 2022 statewide candidates

Seth Richardson, 6/27/2021

“The Republicans running for U.S. Senate in Ohio have been falling over themselves to cozy up to former President Donald Trump for months. On Saturday, they finally got their wish to do so in public, though without the payoff they likely dreamed of. Yet, in the end, Gibbons, Timken, former Treasurer Josh Mandel and Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno barely got a passing mention near the end of Trump’s speech. Cincinnati venture capitalist J.D. Vance – a former critic of Trump’s who has since shifted his views and is expected to announce his entry into the race this week – didn’t get a mention.” 

WVXU: Commentary: Ohio GOP Senate Candidates Can’t Get The Time Of Day From Trump

Howard Wilkinson, 6/30/2021

“The fact is that neither Trump nor the people who came to the fairgrounds had any real interest in the Senate candidates – despite Timken’s campaign flying a plane over the fairgrounds with the message ‘Ohio is Trump Country’ and her campaign website address, and Gibbons holding a tailgate party at the entrance to the fairgrounds. Nobody cared.” 

Sandusky Register: Message for GOP: Stop groveling

Editorial Board, 6/29/2021

“Our candidates should stop this fawning; they should stop embarrassing our state this way. They should stop serving his interests and start serving ours.”

NBC News: Ohio GOP Senate candidates escalate competition for Trump’s favor

Henry Gomez, 6/29/2021

“Though all of the GOP hopefuls have gone out of their way to cozy up to Trump, their claims of loyalty are complicated. Mandel and Timken initially supported others in the 2016 primaries. More recently, Timken defended Gonzalez’s impeachment vote before flip-flopping. Moreno called Trump a ‘maniac’ and ‘lunatic’ early in 2016.

“Vance was also on record criticizing Trump that year and voted for independent Evan McMullin. Gibbons served as a Trump finance co-chair in 2016 but until his 2018 Senate run was not a public-facing politico. In an interview with Jewish Insider last month, Gibbons presented himself as a ‘Trump supporter’ without the ‘cult of personality.’”

J.D. Vance

Cincinnati.com: Jason Williams: As J.D. Vance launches U.S. Senate campaign, does ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author still feel ‘out of place’ in Ohio?

Jason Williams, 6/30/2021

“There’s a self-righteous vibe emanating from the Vance camp that he’s somehow uniquely qualified to serve in the Senate because he wrote a popular book about Appalachians and regularly goes on Fox News. But Vance’s past comments raise questions about his commitment to Ohio.”  

New York Times: J.D. Vance, ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Author, Is Running for Senate in Ohio

Jeremy Peters, 7/1/2021

“The arc of Mr. Vance’s short time as a quasi-political figure has followed the prevailing mood among Republican office holders since Mr. Trump won in 2016. At first, he was deeply critical of the former president, calling him ‘noxious’ and saying he worried Mr. Trump was ‘leading the white working class to a very dark place.’

“But today Mr. Vance is a prolific tweeter and occasional Fox News guest who has adopted Trumpian culture war language, denouncing ‘wokeness’ and calling for more restrictive immigration policies.

“His Republican opponents have already started dusting off his old anti-Trump statements as a way of suggesting that he is insincere and has lost touch with working-class Ohio.”

Politico: J.D. Vance joins already chaotic Ohio Senate primary

James Arkin, 7/1/2021

“Vance’s long-anticipated entrance amps up what is already a competitive and nasty primary battle that includes a handful of well-funded candidates and no decisive frontrunner.”

CNN: Hillbilly Elegy author enters large, pro-Trump GOP field for Ohio Senate seat

Michael Warren, Dan Merica and Alex Rogers, 7/1/2021

‘“There has never been a Republican primary for statewide office in Ohio this wide open and this chaotic,’ said one Republican strategist familiar with Ohio.”

‘“Their chaos is our opportunity,’ said Liz Walters, chair of the Ohio Democratic Party.”  

###

Columbus, OH — With the financial backing of Big Tech, J.D. Vance launched his bid for U.S. Senate today, laughingly attempting to rail against the tech billionaires and coastal elites that are steering his campaign, including scandal-ridden Cambridge Analytica co-founder Robert Mercer. Vance is once again trying to use Ohio to further his own interests as he gets set for a campaign that’s sure to be full of hypocrisy and desperate attempts to convince voters he feels their pain.

“J.D. Vance has exploited Ohio for years, and now with the help of his Big Tech backers, he’s taking his sideshow on the road as he tries again to rewrite history. But Vance, the ultimate populist pretender, won’t fool Ohioans who have seen him take advantage of our state for years in order to line his own pockets and the pockets of his billionaire pals,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Vance’s entrance into the race only serves to make a messy Republican primary even messier, as Vance has already faced attacks from his fellow GOP candidates over his past criticisms of Trump. Republican candidates have been stumbling all over themselves in desperate attempts to secure Donald Trump’s support rather than the support of Ohio voters, and Vance will surely be no different. Funded by big-tech billionaires, he’s sure to follow the GOP field to the bottom, launching attacks and spewing vitriol that Ohioans are already tired of hearing.

We’re a year out from the primary and Brent Larkin’s predictions have already come true: “it will be a nasty affair filled with wild accusations, crazed conspiracy theories and enough nauseating and disqualifying embraces of Donald Trump’s lies to make millions of rational Ohioans reach for a barf bag.” 

###

Columbus, OH — Today, Cleveland.com previewed a bombshell book by former lobbyist Neil Clark, who was indicted in connection to the HB 6 scandal, that reportedly further connects Mike DeWine and Jon Husted to the corruption scheme. According to the reports, Clark’s book goes into detail about how involved DeWine and Husted were in the coordination of the HB 6 efforts, the way they allegedly worked to secure campaign donations from groups tied to the scandal and highlights the multiple connections the Republicans had to the scandal through their top-level staffers.  

From Cleveland.com: “‘We spent a long time talking about Husted and DeWine and the multiple [nonprofits and businesses] that each of them had access to,’ Clark wrote about the meeting with federal agents. ‘I gave them the names of fund-raisers and major vendors.’” 

As more and more information comes out about the largest corruption scandal in state history, DeWine and Husted find themselves increasingly linked to the alleged scheme that increased the cost of Ohioans’ energy bills in exchange for political and personal favors for Republican politicians. 

“The more we learn about the HB 6 scandal, the biggest corruption scandal in state history, the more we learn about the ways Mike DeWine and Jon Husted have connections to the scheme. DeWine and Husted can’t continue to ‘no comment’ their way out of this scandal. Ohio voters deserve answers and accountability from their top elected officials,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.  

Read more HERE and below: 

• Lobbyist Neil Clark told the FBI that no company “has ever owned as many politicians” as FirstEnergy Corp., adding that its top officials meddled in strategy involving House Bill 6, Clark’s new book says.
• It says he also described how Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, longtime proponents of FirstEnergy, used money from political nonprofits to fill their campaign coffers and shield the donors.
• “I gave [federal agents] enough to fill their gaps and prove my knowledge,” Clark wrote about his meeting with authorities on July 28, 2020, just days after his arrest on a federal racketeering charge. “After 3½ hours, we took a break. I could tell they were happy.”
• Clark questioned how DeWine, the state’s top elected official, could be spared scrutiny in the scandal when so many of his top staffers supported or had worked for FirstEnergy.
• The day after the arrests, DeWine said he supported the policy laid out in the bailout, saying it’s needed to preserve jobs at the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants and keep carbon-free sources of energy. He, however, called the way it was delivered “forever tainted.”
• Even before DeWine stumped for House Bill 6 and later signed it, reporters wrote about the relationship between his office and FirstEnergy.
• “We spent a long time talking about Husted and DeWine and the multiple [nonprofits and businesses] that each of them had access to,” Clark wrote about the meeting with federal agents. “I gave them the names of fund-raisers and major vendors.”
• Clark cited Sam Randazzo as an example of those with close ties to FirstEnergy and DeWine. Clark called Randazzo “the author of HB 6.” Records provided to the FBI in response to a subpoena confirm that, showing Randazzo was involved in writing portions of the bill.
• DeWine chose Randazzo, a utilities lawyer, in 2019 to lead the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. He resigned after federal agents searched his home in November.
• A day after the raid, DeWine appeared to support Randazzo: “I hired him. I think he’s a good person. If there’s evidence to the contrary, then we’ll act accordingly.”
• FirstEnergy has reported that it paid $4 million to an entity tied to a person “appointed to a full-time role as an Ohio government official directly involved in regulating” FirstEnergy in Ohio. In filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company did not name the person, but published reports and public records link the payment to Randazzo.

###

Columbus, OH — Mike DeWine signed the budget passed by the GOP-led legislature that included a number of harmful provisions inserted by Republican politicians. DeWine had the opportunity to line-item veto a number of these extreme provisions — including a major tax break for the wealthy and well-connected, language that hurts local schools and attacks on women’s access to healthcare — but caved to GOP politicians instead.

“Leadership is about doing the right thing for the people you serve, regardless of politics or outside pressure. Mike DeWine sold out working Ohioans to placate extreme members of his own party and statehouse special interests,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

###

Columbus, OH — This weekend, nearly 2 million Ohioans are expected to travel for the Fourth of July holiday as our state and country are back on the road to recovery thanks to the leadership of President Biden and Democrats. Since the passage of the American Rescue Plan — which every single Ohio Congressional Republican voted against — more than 5 million Ohioans have been vaccinated, businesses are opening back up and Ohioans are getting the help they need to support themselves and their families. This weekend, Ohioans will be able to safely travel to see friends and families, host cookouts and celebrate the holiday with loved ones.

“The number of travelers is pretty close to pre-pandemic levels. Travelers have put off their plans for a year and a half so we’re seeing enthusiasm to get out there,” Cindy Russeau, the office manager at the AAA building on Airport Highway told the Toledo Blade. 

That’s a major shift from one year ago today when unemployment rates were in the double digits and health experts were questioning when we would be able to relax COVID-19 precautions and safely gather again.  

“Thanks to the leadership of President Biden, Senator Brown and Ohio Democrats, families across Ohio and around the country are able to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday this weekend and all the progress we’ve made over the last year. Ohio is back on the road to recovery and we’re looking forward to even more progress over the coming weeks and months under Democratic leadership,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Read more from the Toledo Blade HERE and below: 

• AAA expects about 2 million Ohioans will travel over the Fourth of July weekend.
• The company said they anticipate 1.9 million of those travelers will hop in their cars. Popular destinations include national parks like Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore to the west and beaches along the Atlantic Ocean to the East.
• “The number of travelers is pretty close to pre-pandemic levels. Travelers have put off their plans for a year and a half so we’re seeing enthusiasm to get out there,” Cindy Russeau, the office manager at the AAA building on Airport Highway, said.
• Ms. Russeau explained that with public health restrictions lifted nationwide, people are eager to travel again, but they feel more comfortable driving because they can control their exposure.

###