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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – For months, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has avoided questioning fellow Republican President Donald Trump, despite their opposing responses to the pandemic.
The governor’s reward? A suggestion from the president that another Republican should challenge him in the 2022 election in Ohio.
From Trump Warning came after DeWine said it was time to realize Joe Biden won the presidential race. It was just the start of a few tough days last week for the governor of Ohio, who is dealing with a state he says is ‘on fire’ with skyrocketing coronavirus cases, and now finds himself to push back questions about his political future.
DeWine feels the heat mainly from inside his party. Republicans at the Statehouse pushed forward a series of bills last week that would limit his authority to issue orders in response to the pandemic, and they sent a letter criticizing him for telling companies to act as “Hidden police”.
On top of that, a group of anti-abortion organizations have announced that they no longer trust DeWine due to his choices to lead the state’s health department. It was another surprising turning point against a governor who signed one of the country’s toughest abortion restrictions last year.
The GOP’s dissatisfaction with the governor has led to a lot of talk about who might run in a Republican primary against DeWine, who has been elected to nearly every position in Ohio during a 40-year career and could rightly be considered the state’s most successful politician in decades. .
One of the names mentioned is U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, an extreme right-wing conservative who is one of Trump’s greatest allies in Congress and who has the name recognition and fundraising ability necessary for a race to statewide.
Jordan did not say if he had any interest in running for governor, but several times recently he has laughs on Twitter under DeWine’s mask and curfew orders.
Former US Republican Representative Jim Renacci, who led a failed campaign in the US Senate two years ago, was considering running and at the same time sparked a string of tweets criticizing DeWine’s handling of the pandemic.
DeWine, 73, said last week that he “doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about politics at this point. We have to face a pandemic. “
“The Mike DeWine you see today is the same Mike DeWine who was elected,” he said one day after ordering a statewide curfew.. “I’m pro-life – I’m completely pro-life. And that means I’m worried about the child before it is born, and I’m worried about the 80-year-old who’s in a nursing home and could get COVID.
Ohio GOP strategist Terry Casey said it was likely a Republican will challenge DeWine, but “the question is whether someone with a name ID and money, who knows who will run a state campaign, will actually lay down. ”
Polls still show DeWine enjoys strong and broad support despite the frustration and discontent resulting from the pandemic, Casey said.
At the start of the coronavirus outbreak, DeWine was praised for his aggressive measures to slow the spread, but since then he has come under fire of those who think he has gone too far with business closures and think he has given up on protecting the public.
“A lot of people here appreciate their freedoms and feel he violates them in a big way,” said Richard Delzeith, GOP chairman in rural Mercer County, where DeWine won 80% of the vote two years ago. “People have lost their businesses because of the shutdown. They will certainly remember it.
“People tell me that they will never vote for DeWine again,” he said. “It’s a pretty strong formulation.”
Party leaders in a handful of other rural counties have said it is too early to know if the frustration will last now.
Lacie Sims, owner of the Village Family Restaurant in Waynesville, a southwestern Ohio village, said DeWine “doesn’t have a lot of followers here.”
She voted for him in 2018 but spoiled him after he closed restaurants inside last winter before many counties, including his own, had confirmed cases. Her restaurant has lost $ 250,000 since, she says.
Sims, who wanted to know she was taking the virus seriously, said she would welcome a Republican primary for governor in 2022.
“I would be hard pressed not to support someone who believes in a small government,” Sims said. “If that candidate is out there, I hope he comes forward. They will have my support.
The revolt among conservatives stems from Trump’s inordinate influence over the party, which has shifted power from more mainstream Republicans, said La Trice Washington, professor of political science at Otterbein University.
The question for DeWine is whether voters in rural Ohio who overwhelmingly support Trump and remain skeptical of the coronavirus and DeWine’s protective measures will still feel that way in less than 18 months when Ohio holds its election. primary.
Maybe DeWine can recover, Washington said, “but I don’t think Donald Trump will be relentless, and he will watch.
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Seewer reported from Toledo.
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