San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Author Vance gets prized Trump nod in primary
Former President Donald Trump endorsed author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance in the Republican primary election for Senate in Ohio, aiming to give the candidate a needed boost in a crowded race that will test Trump’s potency as a kingmaker in key congressional contests.
Calling Vance “our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race,” Trump said in a statement Friday that the candidate was “strong on the Border, tough on Crime, understands how to use Taxes and Tariffs to hold China accountable, will fight to break up Big Tech, and has been a warrior on the Rigged and Stolen Presidential Election.”
The move amounted to a major bet on Vance and on Trump’s own influence over Republican primary voters in conservativeleaning Ohio, where several high-profile candidates are facing off in a contentious campaign to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican. With the May 3 primary less than three weeks away, limited polling has shown Vance struggling to break through against rivals including Josh Mandel, a former Ohio state treasurer; Jane Timken, a former chair of the Ohio Republican Party; and Mike Gibbons, a financier. No one has emerged as a clear front-runner. The endorsement came after weeks in which the race’s top candidates veered increasingly to the
J.D. Vance is part of a crowded field seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Ohio.
right in pursuit of Trump’s support, with tension rising before a planned visit to the state by the former president April 23. In recent days, as news reports trickled out that Vance was likely to win Trump’s backing, supporters of other candidates engaged in last-ditch efforts to prevent the endorsement.
More than three dozen Republican county and state committee leaders urged the former president in a letter not to endorse Vance, questioning his Republican credentials and noting that he had repeatedly denounced Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
But Trump had all but decided days earlier to support Vance, according to four Republicans familiar with his thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Trump called Vance to alert him to the endorsement before it became public. In his statement Friday, Trump said, “J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about
me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades.”
Trump has told allies that he believes the leading Democratic candidate, Rep. Tim Ryan, will be a difficult opponent in the general election and that he thinks Vance can beat him. Trump has been increasingly looking toward a prospective 2024 presidential campaign of his own, and he is said to see Vance as a reliable ally in the Senate on issues he cares about, like trade and immigration.
Few races across the country have captured Trump’s effect in Republican primaries in the way that Ohio’s GOP Senate campaign has, with candidates seeking to model themselves after the former president. Most of the contenders have railed against immigrants living in the country illegally, and only one has recognized President Biden as the nation’s legitimate leader.