GOP Ohio Sen. Portman not seeking reelection, cites gridlock, partisanship
CINCINNATI — Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said Monday that he won’t seek reelection to a third term in 2022, expressing dismay with the deep partisanship and dysfunction in American politics.
The career establishment Republican with a reputation for bipartisanship cited a political climate that has made it “harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress.”
“Our country is very polarized,” Portman said, adding that former President Donald Trump did not help with the polarization. “It’s shirts and skins right now. We need to tone it down.”
The decision is one measure of the difficult politics facing many Republicans in Washington as they cede power in President Joe Biden’s administration and watch their party split between hard-right Trump supporters and others eager to turn the page. Portman, a moderate who might see growing influence as Biden looks for allies, did not appear optimistic about the prospect of a new political climate.
Portman, 65, is among the longtime Republican lawmakers who often backed Trump, though not vociferously. Once
dubbed “The Loyal Soldier” in a front-page profile story in his hometown Cincinnati Enquirer, Portman usually defended Trump or avoided criticism of him with carefully worded statements. After Trump called the presidential election rigged, citing no legitimate evidence, Portman said Trump had a right to a probe of any irregularities.
But immediately after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of Trump backers, Portman said Trump needed to go on national TV to tell his supporters to refrain from violence.
“Both in his words before the attack on the Capitol and
in his actions afterward, President Trump bears some responsibility for what happened,” Portman said.
His retirement adds another open seat for the GOP to defend in 2022 as it seeks to regain control of a Senate that Democrats hold by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris being the tiebreaking vote. Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, two other more mainstream Republicans in the Senate GOP caucus, have also said they won’t seek reelection next year.
“There goes the kind of really thoughtful public official who listens, who works both sides, who tries to get things done,” Republican pollster Christine Matthews said. “And right now the kind of candidate that’s going to come out of a Ohio Republican primary is not going to be that kind of candidate. That’s not the kind of energy that’s in the Republican primary electorate right now.”
Indiana Sen. Todd Young, former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he wasn’t worried about moderates fleeing the party.
“(Portman’s departure) says nothing about the 2022 landscape,” Young said. “It says a lot about Rob Portman that, two years out, he made the announcement so that Republicans have plenty of time to field a very strong candidate and to give that candidate sufficient time to run a strong campaign, which they will.”
Eight-term Rep. Jim Jordan, an outspoken Trump supporter from western Ohio, and six-term Rep. Bill Johnson, from heavily pro-trump southeast Ohio, are viewed as potential candidates for Portman’s seat. Likewise, former Rep. Jim Renacci from central Ohio, a Republican who lost a Senate challenge to Democrat Sherrod Brown in 2018, is also considered a possible contender.