Fearful that Donald Trump’s alleged endorsement of fabulist and racist attractor JD Vance will upset the Republican Senate primary, leaders of the state GOP are working to abort his endorsement, Politico reports.
State party leaders believe that a Vance nomination would lose the chance to hold the seat, which is currently held by Republican Rob Portman, who is not seeking reelection. A divisive figure in state politics, Vance is a political dilettante who is know for writing a fictionalized version of life in Appalachia.
“JD Vance will still lose even with President Trump’s endorsement. JD Vance is widely known by Republican Primary voters for his Never-Trumper comments and his calling Trump supporters ‘racists,’” Titus Bond, the president of polling company Remington Research Group, wrote in a memo to Party leaders. “Since he is already known to Ohioans as a self-proclaimed ‘Never Trumper’ and voters will forcefully be reminded of that, Vance will still lose even with President Trump’s endorsement.”