Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel – the front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination – spoke to local Tea Party activists at Voice of America Park’s Ronald Reagan Lodge in West Chester Monday. That same morning Mandel received an endorsement from the Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest tea party political action committee.
“It is the focus of the Tea Party Express to take conservative control of the U.S. Senate, and we are proud to announce our endorsement of Treasurer Josh Mandel in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race,” stated Amy Kremer, chair of the Tea Party Express. “Josh is the perfect candidate to replace Sherrod Brown, Washington’s most liberal senator according to National Journal.”
Mandel is the organization’s fourth Senate endorsement this election cycle, according to a release from the Tea Party Express. Other endorsements include Attorney General Jon Bruning in Nebraska, Treasurer Richard Mourdock in Indiana, and former Solicitor General Ted Cruz in Texas.
In a recent story published in The Cincinnati Enquirer, political reporter Howard Wilkinson showed that the Tea Party in Ohio could focus more on electing Mandel and not on which Republican presidential candidate it backs in the primary.
“I think our people are all over the map,’’ said Mike Wilson of Springdale, who, three years ago, founded the Cincinnati Tea Party and is running this year for the Ohio House.
“We haven’t been tremendously impactful in the primaries so far, and it is hard to imagine that we will be in Ohio,’’ said Wilson. “Tea party people aren’t getting around one candidate.”
It could be that the tea party activists who wielded such influence two years ago could turn their attention this year to Ohio’s U.S. Senate race instead of the presidential contest.
Wilson and other tea party activists in the area say that if the Republicans nominate a candidate who doesn’t excite them – Mitt Romney, for example, who is seen as a moderate by many of them – they could end up spending more energy trying to elect Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel – the front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination – over Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
“I think you will see tea party folks gravitate toward Mandel,’’ said Chris Littleton, a co-founder of the Cincinnati Tea Party and the Ohio Liberty Council, an umbrella group for tea party organizations. “That is a race that could get people excited. And then they vote for Romney or whoever along the way.”
A Mandel vs. Brown race, Wilson said, “might get people excited. Josh has a lot of support among tea party people. He’s got them more excited than any of the presidential candidates at this point.”
Posted in: Election, Government, News, Tea Party |
