The Republican Senator isn’t one the Trump people’s favourites
Even so?
Portman leaving a US Senate seat open is probably not someplace where Democrats could make a gain….
Portman on who might replace him: ‘There’s plenty of candidates out there.’
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman said he doesn’t know who might run on the Republican side to replace him.
“There’s plenty of candidates out there,” Portman said. “I don’t have one in particular that I’m prepared to talk about today.”
Portman undecided on impeachment
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman said he hasn’t decided how he will vote on impeachment during former President Donald Trump’s trial.
“I’m a juror, it’s going to happen,” Portman said. “As a juror, I’m going to listen to both sides. That’s my job.”
Portman said Trump contributed to partisan gridlock in Washington, and he also laid blame on Trump for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot…
This will be a test of the continued influence of Trumpism in the GOP.
If Gov DeWine faces a primary challenge from a more Trumpian Republican a Senate candidate in line with the primary challenger is likely to emerge.
Do the Republicans have a DeWine-esque candidate to run in the Senate race? I guess John Kasich but he may not be interested at this point.
This is gonna be across the Republican lands….
Post Trump strength or weakening?
What’s funny is I’ve seen Portman described as a “moderate” because Trump didnt like him or vice versa.
Portman always has been and continues to be a conservative.
It appears ,among other problems he’s caused, Trump now has hastened the collapse of labels having any meaning.
Add a Pro or Anti Trump category ?
Twitter chatter….
Lebron James could run for the Portman Ohio Senate seat?
The LA pro Basket ball star is only 32 years old and would take YUGE cut in income to do this which he would wise to NOT DO…
That’s some of the dumbest Twitter chatter ever to be heard.
I’d always thought of Portman as having at least a few liberal-moderate tendencies, but the 2017/18 ratings of his voting record in The Almanac of American Politics (2020, p. 1374) doesn’t show that.
o%/ — —-ADA
10%/C — ACLU
0%/ — —-AFL-CIO
0%/7% —- League of Conservation Voters
C/ — —- Information Technology Industry Council
100%/80% — Chamber of Commerce
C/62% —- Heritage Action
68%/72% — American Conservative Union
72%/50% —- Citizens for Growth
92%/100% — Family Research Council
Am. Almanac ratings 2017-18
(% Liberal votes/% Conservative)
0% – 100% Economy
0% – 100% Social
3% – 97% Foreign policy
1% – 99% Composite
Portman has always been a mainstream conservative and exactly the kind of person I would want to see on a national ticket.
Clearly, the Republican Party has a lot of problems and he doesn’t want to try to run for the Senate in the midst of it.
but who knows what he might be thinking about beyond that.
I would also take this as a sign he is more likely to vote to convict Trump.
I do not see John Kasich running for the Senate at this point in his life.
If the field in Ohio is filled with Trumpists, there would be an opening for Congressman Anthony Gonzalez, a rising star in the party, who was among the 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump.
Endorsing Biden probably ended any chance John Kasich had at running as a Republican for any office.
Agreed. I actually liked Kasich even before he endorsed Biden. Not enough to vote for him, but enough to respect him.
I’d be with Scott….
Maybe down the road …,
But anti- Trump should be hard sell in any GOPer primary …Even the person could do well on election day….
Define Beyond….
Obviously Portman is extremely conservative. I always thought of Portman as intelligent even though I disagreed with most of his values.
Because Portman is very conservative, I assume that he would be very allied with Trump. But because Portman is leaving office, he might be more interested in protecting his own legacy than in protecting Trump. I assume that while he remains in office, he will continue to take positions that are in his financial interest, so we will see how he votes regarding Trump.
Needless to say, there’s nothing incompatible about being both severely conservative and severely critical (even condemnatory) of the last Republican president.
See any issue of National Review since 2015 for examples.
There was nothing remotely conservative about Trump’s brand of populism and authoritarianism.
Yes, conservatives, to varying degrees, including Portman himself, decided to go along with it, but that does not mean they supported Trump because they viewed him as conservative or in line with views they had long held.
Principled conservatives such as myself opposed Trump from Day 1.
Well I guess then we could say that there are a lot of “unprincipled “ conservatives?
Obviously.
That is why you should be glad that a bunkless person like me still exists.
At this point, it is hard to imagine any Republicans who voted to convict Trump will be nominated by the GOP in the future. (Except for Romney). The ship for opposing Trump has sailed. Cheney won’t win her next primary.
Lots of things can be imagined.
After every election, everyone has “hot takes” about the losing side that turn out to be completely off-base.
Hope you are right! Right now, I think that the Trumpists want blood.
We could say they flipped to the winner ?
He isn’t anymore….
We’ll see if the Trumpism dust wears off
Portman was very successful statewide in Ohio (and nothing wrong with Senators only wanting to serve two terms. That is all they should serve in theory.)
Again, he ran stronger than Trump did in 2016. He was able to get the sort of people who voted for Trump while also keeping suburban Republican types, etc, who are increasingly leaving the party.
Portman ought to be a model for the type of Republican that can have national success.
Portman served as Co Chair of Trumps re-election Committee in Ohio, called himself a Trump supporter and was supportive of his electoral challenges.
He refused to go along with Trumps antics in the Senate as to the Electoral vote.
Certainly if he isn’t running for reelection he is in a better position to vote to convict Trump.I doubt such a vote would go over well with Ohio Republicans.Maybe he doesn’t care?
Just speculation of course.
Portman voted to certify the election results.I don’t know what “supportive of electoral challenges” means. Everybody paid lip service about Trump having the right to pursue his options in Court. Of course he did, but nobody expected that to go anywhere, since there was no actual evidence.
Like many others, Portman would say that he was very different than Trump but was supporting Trump nonetheless, because they did not want to rock their own political boat.
Ok
So Portman is “unprincipled”
As you would label him…
A MAGA red hat wearing bootlicker
And you certainly never would have voted for him if you lived in Ohio .
to varying degrees. He is in a long line of Republicans who should have known better.
*Now*, with the GOP “Civil War” underway, people on my side need to increase our ranks, even if it includes those (McConnell, Liz Cheney, etc. etc) who only now are going to find it possible to find their balls/ovaries/whatever.
As for Portman, the last time he ran was in 2016, on the ballot with Trump. Late in the game, he said he could not vote for Trump and did not. He won his race by a wider margin than Trump did in Ohio. So, yes, I would have voted for Portman in 2016.
I’m referring to Hawley and Cruzs efforts in the Senate.
If you don’t know what that refers to?
Go look it up .I think you well “know.”
Portman opposed Cruz/Hawley. Not sure of your point. Perhaps you had a typo?
Yeah I know that what I said…
“He refused to go along with Trumps antics in the Senate as to the Electoral vote.”
I was referring to the Cruz/ Hawley challenges.
What is the difference between Cruz/Hawley and “Trump’s antics in the Senate?”
Sounds like the same thing.
They are .
I was just lumping them all together under the term “ Trumps antics.”
Quite obviously Cruz and Hawley were functioning as Trumps surrogates .
Democrats want to censure the two….
How was Portman “supportive of Trump’s electoral challenges” then?
Only answer if you want. My blood pressure is already off the charts today due to work and I shouldn’t even be on here.
I said he was supportive of his electoral challenges(referring to the Trump individual state challenges) but not his challenges in the Senate.
Maybe I wasn’t totally clear but that was my point.
Toomey, Romney, everyone else, even Democrats conceded Trump had the right to take his challenges to court. I don’t think Portman acted at any point as any kind of Trump surrogate or campaigner.
Privately, I would think it very possible he did not even vote for him in 2020, as he publicly stated he would not vote for him in 2016.
People should have the right to take challenges to court, but only to the extent that they are not frivolous. In theory you can sue for any reason, but since when is that acceptable?
Ohio is the least likely of the 3 states with retiring GOP Senators next year to elect a Democrat to replace.
It would take me a great deal of effort and time to recall or reconstruct how Republicans treated or finessed their previous support of (and reliance upon) the disgraced and censured Joe McCarthy and the disgraced and nearly-impeached Richard Nixon.
Both retained a substantial base among the Republican base even after their disgrace and rejection by the public in general, and I think that those prematurely-antifascist GOP leaders (like Margaret Chase Smith and Pete McCloskey) who had had the barefaced temerity to oppose Nixon or McCarthy early were considered by many Republicans to be disloyal traitors to The Cause.
This is different in my mind, by the way, from accounting for support of Barry Goldwater in 1964, just as few Democrats are condemned for having stayed with the party during George McGovern’s candidacy in 1972. Those are ideological affinities, rather than conniving with the Forces of Darkness.
Interesting….
Hillary Clinton is among those calling for Rep. Tim Ryan to run for an open Ohio Senate seat in 2022.
On MSNBC Saturday morning, the Ohio Democrat said he’s “looking closely” at running following Republican Sen. Rob Portman’s recent decision not to seek a third Senate term….
More…
Tim Ryan could win if he runs a good campaign.
I agree about Ryan. Ohio is trending Republican overall but Ryan seems like he would be able to follow the Sherrod Brown route.