GOP candidates lining up for Portman’s seat
The field candidates to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman keeps growing, with potential candidates including Rep. Steve Stivers, a House member since 2010.
That’s a horse race. In contrast, as of now — repeat, now — Republican Gov.
Mike DeWine will likely succeed himself, with plenty of ifs, ands, and buts.
The last time Ohioans refused to re-elect a GOP governor was in 1958. That’s when Ohio fat-cats’ Right to Work (for Less) ballot issue unseated thenGov. C. William O’Neill. Meanwhile, over the almost 64 years since, Ohioans refused to give second terms to Democratic Govs. Michael V. DiSalle (1962); John J. Gilligan (1974); and Ted Strickland (2010).
Sure, in 2022, much will hinge on whom Democrats field against DeWine. There has been speculation that Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley might challenge DeWine.
An often-mentioned, but so far unannounced DeWine
primary challenger, could be former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2018.
Some GOP conservatives trash DeWine for actions he’s taken to save Ohioans’ lives from COVID-19. But those Republicans likely wouldn’t vote for a Democrat. As for Portman’s seat, four Republicans said they’ll compete for it:
■ Cleveland investment banker Mike Gibbons
■ Westlake auto dealer Bernie Moreno
■ Ex-State Treasurer
Josh Mandel, who evidently thinks there’s no such thing as bad publicity; and
■ Ex-GOP State Chair
Jane Timken, an in-law of the Canton bearings-and-steel dynasty. The Timkens have slid to the right since the days when H.H. Timken Sr., great-grandfather of Jane Timken’s husband, was a pillar of Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party.
Democrats’ possible consensus candidate for Portman’s seat is Rep. Tim Ryan. His Youngstown-Warren-parts-of-Akron congressional district will likely vanish when Ohio redraws districts this year. He ran for president for 203 days in 2019. Reared Catholic, Ryan opposed abortion when first elected to Congress in 2002. But in 2015 he announced he favors a woman’s right to choose.
Stivers, 56, is an Ohio State graduate and a major general in the Ohio National Guard. He was elected to Congress in 2010. Before that, he was a state senator.
Cleveland.com’s Andrew J. Tobias reports Stivers “[had] raised almost $1.4 million so far in 2021 … [giving] him $2.4 million in total campaign cash on hand, [putting] him well on track with other Ohio Republicans who are considering a run for U.S. Senate.”
Stivers could be a strong contender for the GOP’s Senate nomination. The four announced GOP prospects are all from Northeast Ohio. Yet the last time a Northeast Ohio Republican won a Senate seat was in 1954, when Rep. George H. Bender, of Chagrin Falls, was elected to serve the remaining two years of Bob Taft’s term after Taft died. Bender failed to hold the seat in 1956.
Since 1970, Ohio’s population center has drifted Southwest, toward Columbus. That’s why a statewide candidate from Central Ohio — and Stivers is — may have an advantage in Election ’22.