Frank LaRose Admits He Has a Trump Problem, Hits Bernie Moreno in Messy GOP Primary
May 4, 2023
Frank LaRose was caught on tape downplaying the value of a Trump endorsement – an admission of his own problems with the former president and the latest sign of how messy the Republican primary will become. LaRose told attendees of a “closed-door political event” that Trump’s support “doesn’t carry the same weight it used to” and. at the same time, criticized Bernie Moreno who Trump has praised.
“Frank LaRose knows he has a Trump problem which is why he’s trying to convince Ohio Republicans behind closed doors that the former President’s support doesn’t matter and attacking the candidate Trump has praised,” said ODP spokesperson Reeves Oyster. “This is just the latest sign that this primary is only going to get messier from here as candidates are forced to duke it out to earn their conservative bona fides.”
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POLITICO: Top Senate GOP recruit privately casts doubt on power of Trump endorsement
Meridith McGraw
May 4, 2023
- Former President Donald Trump’s endorsement is widely viewed among Republican candidates as the golden ticket to the nomination. But at least one prominent GOPer weighing a bid in a competitive state has privately conveyed he thinks the former president’s seal of approval is overstated.
- Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a potential candidate in the race to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, recently told a group of Ohio Republicans at a closed-door political event that while Trump’s endorsement “matters,” it doesn’t carry the same weight it used to. He pegged the proportion of Republican voters who would “vote for whoever” Trump endorses at just 20 percent.
- “Max [Miller] has been making trips down to Mar-a-lago saying hey Mr. Trump, President Trump, can you endorse my father in law? Notice that [Trump] didn’t endorse him but he said nice things about him,” LaRose said in the recording.
- Few, if any, GOP candidates would openly downplay the significance of Trump’s endorsement. At the GOP event, he said that the 2022 midterms proved that the Trump endorsement doesn’t carry as much weight as it once did.
- LaRose, for his part, has not endorsed Trump’s current presidential campaign. Neither he nor Dolan have said whom they would support. So far, Moreno is the only candidate who has endorsed Trump.
- Trump has conveyed to aides he is less concerned with putting his stamp of approval on other candidates when he is running for president himself. He has been working the phones and meeting with state leaders in an effort to earn endorsements of his own.