#OHSEN Slugfest: LaRose Struggles To Thread Needle As He’s “Locked in a Battle” in Senate Primary
October 10, 2023
After Downplaying The Former President’s Endorsement This Year, LaRose “Twisting Himself Up” In Ohio’s “Bloody Primary”
Columbus, OH – A new report by Huffington Post is highlighting how Frank LaRose is desperately “twisting himself up” to appease Donald Trump as he is “locked in a battle” in the Ohio Senate primary. Trump has repeatedly praised LaRose’s primary opponent Bernie Moreno, who is also endorsed by J.D. Vance – Trump’s handpicked Senator from Ohio.
LaRose refused to endorse the former President in 2016, 2020, and the first week of his Senate campaign and was caught downplaying the former President’s endorsement earlier this year at a closed-door Republican gathering. LaRose recently stood by his critical comments about Trump – including that he is “racist,” “disgusting,” and “not a role model for children.”
Read more:
Huffington Post: Ohio’s Chief Election Officer Hasn’t (Yet) Embraced The Big Lie. It Might Cost Him A Senate Nod.
Liz Skalka
October 8, 2023
- Ralph King, a grassroots GOP activist and former delegate for Donald Trump, hasn’t committed to a candidate in Ohio’s highly anticipated 2024 contest for a U.S. Senate seat. But there is one he’s already ruled out: Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
- Though LaRose’s office did respond to some of HuffPost’s questions for this article, it did not comment on whether he currently believes that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
- LaRose’s end game is clear to many observers: Last year, Trump’s endorsement lent some MAGA heft to author and then-candidate J.D. Vance, helping him become Ohio’s junior senator despite being anything but a Trump cheerleader before running for office.
- However, LaRose’s detractors don’t see him pulling off the same feat as convincingly. “He’s a chameleon. This guy will literally support anything and everything he needs to,” said King, who is no fan of Vance either.
- In July, King lodged an election complaint against LaRose, alleging he was running his campaign before officially filing with the Federal Election Commission. LaRose’s campaign did not comment on the complaint.
- LaRose didn’t endorse Trump in either of his previous presidential bids, claiming, at least in 2020, that he wanted to appear neutral as Ohio’s chief elections officer. In 2016, LaRose, then a state senator, tapped his background in campaign advance work to help former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who ran for president that year as one of the original Never Trump Republicans. LaRose, keeping his powder dry, backed Kasich in the primary but went on to help with Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
- “I think Frank’s definitely trying to position himself to be considered” for Trump’s endorsement, the longtime LaRose friend noted, “and in fact twisting himself up a little bit.”
- “We pay you to do a full-time job. Do your full-time job,” Moreno said on a Columbus radio show in late August, suggesting that LaRose should step down. “If they want to run for a different office, they should resign.”
- The Ohio Democratic Party, which has relentlessly targeted Brown’s potential opponents, alluded to the possible negative consequences of LaRose serving as secretary of state while running: “Frank LaRose will do anything to further his political ambitions, no matter how much it hurts — or costs — Ohioans,” spokesperson Reeves Oyster said.
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