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Columbus, OH — Ohio voters can expect the already messy GOP Senate primary to get even messier this week as Republican candidates continue to ignore the needs of Ohioans to participate in failed blogger Donald Trump’s Hunger Games. As they stumble all over themselves to secure the support of the only voter they seem to care about, Republican candidates are too busy attacking one another and being exposed for the ways they’ll do anything to appease Trump to worry about the needs of the Ohio voters they claim to want to represent.

Last Friday, Jane Timken was caught in a fake-endorsement scheme and forced to take down a picture implicating that she had secured Trump’s endorsement on her website. The picture was immediately removed following reports that “people close to Trump” were unhappy with the image and other Republican candidates in the race went on the attack. In response, Timken’s campaign then used the fake-endorsement debacle to launch attacks of her own against fellow Republicans, calling her opponents “fake MAGA candidates and past quitters” to the Toledo Blade.

The mudslinging followed reports earlier in the week that exposed Timken and other GOP candidates for their past criticism and lack of support for Trump even as they now shift to prioritizing Trump’s support over the support of Ohio voters. National reports outline the ways in which GOP candidates in the race, including J.D. Vance, Josh Mandel and Timken, have tried to cover up their past words and actions in order to cater to the whims of one Florida resident above the interests of 11 million Ohioans.

“As Ohio Democrats are putting Ohio back on the road to recovery with shots in arms and money in pockets, GOP candidates running for Senate are only focused on the needs of one man: Donald Trump. Ohio voters are already sick of the Republican attacks and infighting, which is sure to only get worse over the coming days. While Ohioans are looking toward a better future thanks to Democratic leadership, GOP candidates are stuck in the past,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

Meanwhile, Ohio Democrats are laser focused on the needs of Ohio voters and efforts to Build Back Better in Ohio, as Ohio reported less than 200 COVID-19 cases yesterday and Ohio families with children are set to receive automatic payments next month, thanks to the American Rescue Plan and the work of Ohio Democrats.

Read more below about Republican candidates rough week last week, a preview of what’s to come:

Toledo Blade: Just friends or official endorsement? Lines can be blurry in Ohio Senate race

• On Friday morning, a Politico reporter tweeted that Mr. Trump’s aides weren’t happy that Ms. Timken featured a photo of her and Mr. Trump on her endorsements page, appearing to imply — though it wasn’t stated — that she was Mr. Trump’s pick.
• Ms. Timken’s campaign also flagged a mailer from Mr. Mandel’s team that read “President Trump is counting on us,” which they argue improperly implies an endorsement from Mr. Trump. Mr. Mandel’s campaign declined to comment.
• Other candidates in the race seized on the episode to advance their own agendas.
• It’s not clear yet how, or if, the Senate candidates are going to be involved with the June 26 rally. But they may try to stake their claim to Mr. Trump regardless of whether they’re playing an officially sanctioned role in the event.
• In March a backroom meeting between the four declared Senate candidates at Mr. Trump’s Florida golf club turned into a scene out of The Hunger Games, Politico reported at the time.

Huffington Post: After Criticizing Trump, GOP Senate Candidates Now Desperate For His Endorsement

• The battle for Trump’s endorsement in the Ohio race to replace GOP Sen. Rob Portman, meanwhile, asks whether personal loyalty to Trump or a record of support for his nationalist policies matters more to both the president himself and to voters.
• J.D. Vance, the venture capitalist-turned-author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” is considered all-but-certain to announce a run for the GOP nomination. But he is already on the receiving end of an anonymous text-message campaign informing Republican voters in Ohio about Vance’s numerous disparaging comments about Trump during the 2016 race, including a time he called Trump an “idiot.”
• When Timken sought Trump’s endorsement for her Senate bid, however, Trump reportedly backed off plans to endorse her after close advisers urged him to wait longer before settling on a favored candidate.
• In early February, while still serving as state party chair, Timken said Gonzalez was an “effective legislator,” while acknowledging, “I don’t know if I would have voted the way he did.”
• A few days later, Timken resigned as party chair ahead of her Senate run. And a few weeks later, as a Senate candidate, she called for Gonzalez to resign.
• Of course, Mandel has not always been a Trump loyalist. He boasts of being the first statewide elected Republican in Ohio to endorse Trump. But during the 2016 campaign, he appeared to be hedging his bets, declining to mention Trump’s name at a July 2016 speech to Republican state leaders and instead saying he was “focused on” reelecting Portman.

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Thanks to Ohio Democrats, Families will Receive Monthly Payments Beginning in July as Part of the Child Tax Credit Enhanced in Democrats’ American Rescue Plan

Columbus, OH — Today, the Ohio Democratic Party is celebrating Child Tax Credit Awareness Day, a day to spread awareness about the American Rescue Plan’s historic expansion of the Child Tax Credit and how it will benefit their families. In Ohio specifically, the tax credit will provide relief of up to $1,600 per child to the families of 2,372,000 children, lifting 132,000 children out of poverty.

“Thanks to President Biden, Senator Sherrod Brown and Ohio Democrats, the American Rescue Plan will soon deliver major tax relief for working families with children through a historic expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Despite opposition from Ohio Republicans, the expanded child tax credit will lift 132,000 children out of poverty here in Ohio, help bolster financial security and spur economic growth in our state,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was instrumental in securing the increase in the Child Tax Credit for Ohio families in the American Rescue Plan. Thanks to Brown’s work and the support of Ohio’s Democratic Congressional delegation, the Child Tax Credit is now fully refundable and the credit amount has been increased to $3,000 per child, and $3,600 for a child under age six.

Every single Ohio Congressional Republican voted against the American Rescue Plan, which included these critical provisions for working families and also helped put Ohio back on the road to recovery by providing funding to spur the huge increase in vaccinations, $1,400 stimulus checks to help Ohioans make ends meet and important investments in Ohio small businesses to help them open back up and hire more Ohioans. 

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Columbus, OH — Today, the Ohio Democratic Party released the following statement after the Ohio House of Representatives voted to expel disgraced former Speaker Larry Householder. Speaker Bob Cupp and House Republicans delayed any action on Householder and only moved forward with expulsion after House Democrats introduced legislation to expel Householder from office. 

“Thanks to the leadership and initiative of Ohio Democrats, Larry Householder is no longer a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, collecting a taxpayer salary. But before House Republicans strain their arms patting themselves on the back for finally getting rid of the disgraced former Speaker a year later, they should know this story is far from over. Householder is just one of many high-level Republican officeholders with strong ties to the largest corruption scandal in state history — one that Ohioans continue paying the price for. And Democrats will continue working to hold these Republicans accountable,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

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Columbus, OH — Today, the Ohio Democratic Party released the following statement in response to a reported Trump rally in Cleveland on June 26:

“President Trump spent four years betraying Ohio workers, and now that our economy is back on track thanks to Democratic leadership, working families are looking forward not back. The only Ohioans a visit from Donald Trump will help are all of the GOP candidates who can save on travel expenses to Florida to kiss his ring in person,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

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Columbus, OH — As more than 1 million Ohioans live without internet access in the year 2021, Ohio Senate Republicans last week cut all funding for broadband internet in their version of the state budget that passed strictly along party lines. As the last year has shown us, broadband internet access is one of the most important tools for Ohioans and Ohio businesses to stay connected. But Ohio Senate Republicans prioritized funding for a major tax break that will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Ohioans instead of funding to help get more Ohioans connected to reliable internet service.

And not only did the GOP cut all $250 million for broadband funding in the original state budget proposal, they went even further by passing an amendment that would bar public agencies from expanding broadband internet in their local communities in favor of private companies who want to charge Ohioans more for access to the internet.

“Oh, it’s maddening,” William Murdock, Executive Director of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission said to the Columbus Dispatch about the proposal. “Looking forward, thinking our state would constrain the ability for our public, private and philanthropic partnerships, it’s maddening,” he continued.

“The past year has underscored how critical internet access is to our ability to live, work and connect with one another. While millions of Ohioans still don’t have access to the internet, Senate Republicans are leaving these Ohioans out to dry to help their corporate donors and to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Read more about the major GOP cuts to broadband HERE and below:

• The future of Ohio’s broadband expansion could be on the chopping block.
• The state Senate approved its version of Gov. Mike DeWine’s two-year state budget on Wednesday and killed all broadband-related funding (the House version of the budget included $190 million — a $60 million cut from DeWine’s proposed $250 million investment).
• The bill would effectively restrict public agencies’ ability to expand internet access outside of a municipality’s boundaries, advocates in rural and central Ohio said.
• Misty Crosby, director of the Buckeye Hills Regional Council, a southeast Ohio coalition of local governments that serves eight Appalachian counties, said the amendment will also limit the ability of organizations like hers to use federal funding, (including dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act) while paving the way for private internet carriers to be the sole provider in a given area.
• Murdock, the executive director of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, an agency of local governments that serves central Ohio, said 80,000 of the rural and urban constituents his organization serves lack access, and another 84,000 only have the internet on their phones, a deficit only exacerbated further by the pandemic.
• Advocates suspect lobbyists for Charter Communications, better known as Spectrum, are behind the telecommunications-friendly amendment.

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