“I was fighting him, and the coronavirus was hit, and then everyone jumped into the game and said,’We have to stop this guy,'” Renatch said here last week. In a speech to local activists, he talked about DeWine and the State Republican Party. “What do you think? I was trying to stop him in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 21. And by God, we will stop him in 2022.”
Renatch tries to catch the eye of the former president, praises Trump, and follows the well-trodden path of Republican aspirants surrounded by staff in Trump’s orbit. Renatch’s running mate Joe Knop has signed off for a recent fundraising email that is tricking his autographed copy of a movie called “Trump I Know.”
Brad Parscale, a former Trump campaign manager, recommends that Renatch take the throne of Dewein. Perscale shared with POLITICO a voting memo from a survey conducted by Fabrizio Lee, a longtime pollster at Trump. -Rising among the major Republican voters.
The memo addressed to “Lenatch Donor” did not share the entire questionnaire, nor did it mention the peasant Joe Bristone, the third candidate for the Republican primary.
According to the campaign, the vote shows that the majority of Lenatch voters support Trump and believe that the 2020 elections have been “stolen” from him. “It’s amazing how many people in Ohio and how many Republicans believe their elections have been stolen,” Renatch told POLITICO.
And the Renatch camp is working hard to create a wedge between Trump and Dewine. “Jim Renacci is the only Trump candidate,” Parscale said. “And from the data, it’s clear that Mike DeWine is an anti-Trump candidate.”
The DeWine campaign refused to comment directly on the vote.
“Mike Dewein’s conservative records have been on display for the past three years,” Dewein’s campaign manager Brenton Temple said in a recent announcement that Intel will build a large factory in Ohio, among other things. I advertised it. “He recently announced the biggest economic development project in Ohio’s history, as well as cutting personal taxes by $ 2.2 billion, making Ohio the most professional life and pro 2A law he’s ever seen. I signed it. “
Trump has been flirting before, but it’s unclear if he can be tempted to take part in the race. Trump seemed to talk about a major challenge to DeWine in a November 2020 tweet shortly after DeWine became one of the first prominent Republicans to recognize President Joe Biden’s victory. However, Dewein, who co-chaired Trump’s reelection bid in the state, faces a sustained bullet launched by Trump against other Republican governors such as Brian Kemp in Georgia and Doug Ducey in Arizona. I haven’t.
Renatch has also blackmarked his governor’s campaign: his unsuccessful 2018 Senate bid. He was the only Republican to lose the entire state of Ohio that year, despite being a nationally strong year for the Democrats. Renatch lost to Senator Sherrod Brown by just under seven points, Dewein won the governor, and the Republicans held other state-wide positions such as Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Auditor. Overall, DeWine won about 178,000 votes ahead of Renacci that year.
POLITICO previously reported that Trump had spoken about Renatch’s 2018 defeat at a March meeting with Ohio Senate Republican applicants in Florida.
Meanwhile, several parent DeWine external groups are backing up the governor.
According to data from ad tracking company AdImpact, a super PAC called Free Ohio has booked at least $ 240,000 worth of TV and radio ad time in the DeWine-backed state. Radio ads attack Biden while promoting DeWine with taxes and breaking bureaucracy. A copy of the ad retrieved by Cleveland.com..
Mike McCaulejye, who is listed as the organization’s treasurer on the ad purchase form, refused to share details about the group.
According to the platform’s ad disclosure portal, the second parent DeWine group, Ohioans for Free and Fair Elections, has been advertising on Facebook for $ 17,000 to $ 23,000 since last Thursday, giving a positive message about DeWine. increase. (The phone number listed in the group was disconnected and the organization did not respond to the email requesting comment.)
DeWine’s allies say the governor is in a good position.
“Some people at the base aren’t happy with him because of Covid’s decision, but he’s the most durable brand in Ohio politics,” said DeWine, a former deputy prosecutor. Mark Weaver, a longtime Republican in the state who engaged in lawyers, said a general campaign. DeWine was one of the first governors to order the blockade of the state in March 2020, but his position on pandemic management was controversial among Republicans throughout the year.
“He’s a known amount and he knows how to run a campaign in the state,” Weaver continued.
Weaver, who said Lenatch’s internal polls did not include Brystone, said he was working for another parent Dewine’s external group in this cycle, but did not name it.
On the Democratic side, two former mayors, Nan Whaley of Dayton and John Cranley of Cincinnati, are opposed to the nomination. Both left the office at the beginning of the year.
Another challenge for Renatch is to break through while there is a controversy on behalf of GOP Senator Rob Portman, who retired in the Republican primary. Senate primaries have a noisy area where candidates are dropping bombs on each other, already spending tens of millions of dollars on competition between candidates and external groups.
There are two effects. Broadcast times will be even higher in the Swing State, especially as the May 3 primary approaches, with the Senate primary sucking up much of the state’s political oxygen.
The next big date for the primary is January 31, when candidates must submit their 2021 annual funding report. Neither DeWine nor Renacci have announced the number of fundraising activities yet, but the challenger announced in mid-January that he had donated an additional $ 4 million in his money to the campaign.
During the 2018 Senate run, Renatch lent more than $ 8 million to a failed bid, eventually recovering about $ 4 million.
DeWine isn’t the only Republican facing a Trump-inspired challenger. Trump supports former Senator David Perdue’s major challenge to Georgia’s Kemp and casts his support behind Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeetin’s bid to defeat Republican Governor Brad Little. rice field. Others, such as Kay Ivy in Alabama, also have opponents who are trying to be more loyal to the former president than the current resident of the governor’s mansion.
In all of these cases, the National Republican Party says it has the back of an incumbent.
The Republican Governor’s Association “supports the incumbent,” spokesman Chris Gustafsson said of Ohio’s race and refused to comment further.
