Donald Trump is aiming for a repeat performance.
Two years ago, the former president endorsed J.D. Vance in a crowded and hard-fought race for the Republican Senate nomination in Ohio, propelling Vance to victory in the Republican primary a few weeks later.
Fast forward to the present, and President Trump is scheduled to return to Ohio this weekend to once again support the Republican Senate candidates he supported in the state’s increasingly contentious Republican primaries.
Trump, who confirmed the Republican presidential nomination earlier this week and is now seen as the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, will headline a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday, and will be joined by businessman Bernie Moreno. is scheduled to serve.
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Former President Trump poses for a photo with businessman Bernie Moreno before a rally in Wellington, Ohio on June 26, 2021. (Bernie Moreno Campaign)
President Trump’s visit comes three days before the state’s March 19 primary election. The rally was announced Monday night by the pro-Moreno group Buckeye Values PAC.
The move comes as state Sen. Matt Dolan, one of the two leading Republican Senate candidates, along with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, announced that he will be joining Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, along with longtime U.S. senator and state representative Mike DeWine, as one of the two leading Republican Senate candidates. The move came hours after receiving the endorsement from the two-term governor. Attorney General.
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Late last week, Dolan. The former top county prosecutor and assistant attorney general of Ohio, whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, also received support from former Sen. Rob Portman. DeWine and Portman are considered top members of the Ohio Republican Party’s old guard or establishment.
“Matt Dolan has a vision for the future. He listens, he fights, and he knows how to get results at Ohio State,” DeWine said of Dolan’s support.
And DeWine said Dolan is the strongest Republican candidate to defeat longtime Democrat Sherrod Brown in November.
Dolan, who is running for the Ohio Senate seat for the second year in a row with Moreno, emphasized that while he supports Trump’s policies, he does not support the former president’s personality. Dolan is the only one of the three major candidates not seeking Trump’s support.
Moreno, an immigrant who entered the United States legally from Colombia and later became a successful Cleveland-based businessman and major luxury car dealer, was endorsed by President Trump in December.
Mr. Vance, who will campaign with Mr. Moreno across Ohio on Monday, endorsed Mr. Moreno last year, in what was seen as a prelude to an eventual endorsement of Trump. Moreno also has the support of two other Trump allies, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy from the Buckeye State.
Former President Trump welcomes Republican Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance to the stage during a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on September 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Tom E. Pasker)
After DeWine endorsed Dolan, Moreno cast the race as a battle between the “America First Republican Party” and the “RINO establishment.”
And Andy Slavian, a senior adviser to Moreno’s campaign who is close to Trump’s political orbit, emphasized in a social media post that “the Ohio Senate race is officially Team America First vs. Team RINO.”
RINO is a term used to insult some members of the Republican Party, calling them “Republicans in name only.”
There is a lack of polling in the Republican Senate primary, and the three major campaigns are treating it as a close race ahead of next week’s primary. Millions of dollars have been spent on coordinating campaigns and super PACs to put negative attack ads on the airwaves.
Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose speaks at an election night watch party on November 8, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay Lapreet, File)
And now Democrats are intervening in the primaries.
Duty and Country PAC, which receives funding from Senate Majority PAC, the top super PAC supporting Senate Democrats, used the final days before the primary to run ads backing Moreno. It has spent nearly $3 million.
The winner of the Republican primary will face Brown, the only Democrat to win a statewide race in Ohio over the past decade, in November. Brown has been heavily targeted by Republicans in the state, which was once a battleground state before turning red.
Democrats control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are eyeing a favorable situation in the Senate in 2024, when Democrats will defend 23 of the 34 seats at stake. Three of those seats are in red states that Trump won in 2020: Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election.
The remaining five seats are in key battleground states that President Biden narrowly won in 2020: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Trump gestures during a campaign rally in Loma Ga on March 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Trump is once again tightening his grip on the Republican Party as he secures the Republican presidential nomination.
A week ago, a prominent Trump ally and the former president’s daughter-in-law was sworn in as chair and co-chair of the Republican National Committee. On Monday, the RNC’s new structure ousted about 60 current members.
But Trump’s influence over Congressional Republicans diminished this week after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives went against his wishes. Weeks after a bipartisan border deal was rejected in Congress, a majority of House Republicans could ultimately ban TikTok in the United States, over President Trump’s objections. Supported the passage of gender-neutral legislation.
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The showdown in Ohio is one of the few major down-ballot Republican primaries in which Trump-backed candidates are in danger of defeat.
“Trump has invested a lot in Bernie Moreno,” said Matt Gorman, a veteran Republican strategist.
Mike Hartley, a longtime Republican consultant based in Ohio who has remained neutral in this year’s primaries, told Fox News, “Mr. “It’s important to Mr. Trump, as evidenced by the fact that it’s coming.”
“President Trump wants to have allies in Congress who can help him pass his agenda. I think it’s a no-brainer,” Hartley added.
Get the latest on the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more with Fox News Digital’s Election Hub.
