Ohio's 2022 GOP Senate candidates are already squabbling over who's more loyal to Trump

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

In one of the earliest showcases for what a post-Trump GOP statewide primary might look like over the next couple of years, Ohio Senate candidates Jane Timken and Josh Mandel are already squabbling over who's more loyal to former President Donald Trump.

Timken kicked things off Monday when she called on Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), one of the ten House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump in January, to resign, arguing "President Trump is the leader of our party and we must have conservative leaders committed to the team."

Mandel, who has claimed to be Trump's "number one ally" in Ohio, followed that up with scathing criticism, accusing Timken of "flip-flopping" on Gonzalez. He cited Trump's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday which claimed "there is no room in the party for 'spineless establishment Republicans.'" Timken, Mandel said, "has proven herself just that," while he has consistently opposed Gonzalez's vote.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Mandel's comments may be one last desperate shot at getting Trump's approval, however — The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump has already told Timken he'll endorse her, though her camp has not confirmed the news. Either way, the back-and-forth seems to line up with an earlier prediction from The Bulwark's Tim Miller that GOP primaries won't represent a battle between pro- and anti-Trump candidates. Instead, it's a battle for the right to own the "Trump lane," plain and simple.

Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.