Ohio House Republicans Hit Breaks on Appointment of Norfolk Southern Engineer to Open House Seat

On Wednesday, the ongoing conflict among Ohio House Republicans emerged once more when they hastily decided not to schedule a vote on filling a House seat vacancy with a Norfolk Southern train engineer.

A screening committee of the House GOP selected Justin Pizzulli, of Franklin Furnace in Scioto County to represent Ohio House District 90 above seven other candidates. If chosen, Pizzulli would replace former state Representative Brian Baldridge (R-Winchester), who resigned after being designated director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture by Governor Mike DeWine.

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Ahead of Forum Series, Renacci Sees Opportunities for Conservative Ascendancy in Ohio

Former Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Renacci has a hopeful outlook for conservatism in the Buckeye-State, though he expects progress to require serious toil and soul-searching as well as new leadership.

Renacci, who represented the 16th U.S. House District southwest of Cleveland and now chairs American Greatness PAC, spoke with The Ohio Star recently about the forum series his organization is commencing on September 15 in the Akron area and about other upcoming milestones for Ohio’s center-right movement.

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Vance Campaign Confident, Others Say Race Is ‘Wide Open’ Before Primary Election

With the deadline to vote in Ohio’s primary races approaching Tuesday night, the top candidates in the hotly-contested Republican U.S. Senate battle have varying views on what the outcome of the race will be. 

“We’re spending the day before the election with voters at town halls all across Ohio, leaving no stone unturned. JD is in a strong position, and we are confident JD will be the Republican nominee,” said Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for candidate J.D. Vance. 

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Poll: J.D. Vance Moves into Tie with Mandel, Gibbons in U.S. Senate Ohio Republican Primary

A new poll, conducted by Tony Fabrizio for a pro-Vance superPAC, showed Ohio U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance has surged into a three-way tie for first place with Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons.

Fabrizio, who served as a pollster for former President Donald Trump, noted that “as voters learn more about J.D. Vance and what he stands for, his ballot support increases.”

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Always Right with Bob Frantz Talks to Mike Gibbons About Confrontational Debate with Josh Mandel

The Authority with Bob Frantz on WHK Radio in Cleveland talked to U.S. Senate candidate Mike Gibbons to comment upon his altercation in a live debate with challenger Josh Mandel.

Frantz: In this instance, Josh Mandel was standing and speaking. He challenged Mike Gibbons, I played this for you before and then surrendered the floor to him. Mike Gibbons stood. And then Mike Gibbons responded in a way that apparently Josh Mandel didn’t like, because then he also stood.

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As New Poll Shows Him Leading Pack, Ohio Senate Hopeful Mike Gibbons Tells The Ohio Star: ‘I Am Tea Party at My Roots’

Ohio Rep. Mike Gibbons

Cleveland investment banker Mike Gibbons, who shot from virtual unknown to frontrunner when The Hill-Emerson College poll of 410 Republican voters, conducted February 25 and February 26, put the banker in the lead, told The Ohio Star his political program is more Tea Party than Republican Party. “I’ve got Tea Party at my roots, in my core,” said Gibbons, the Ohio finance chairman for Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. “I believe we need to take this country back to the American values that made it great. We have a Left that wants to destroy it.” Gibbons said the Ohio Republican Party’s establishment was not ready to hear that from him. “When I first went to the first central committee meeting I ever went to, I had a screening committee,” he said. “I walked in, and they said: ‘Mike, we’ve seen you giving a lot of money to Republican candidates over the years.’ I said: ‘I said, “Yeah, they closely reflected my ideology, and I look for people that believe what I believe.”’” Gibbons said there was an uneasiness already present in the room. “They said: ‘Well,’ and I said: ‘But if I have to tell you the truth, I’m…

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Mike Gibbons Commentary: I Am 100 Percent Pro Life

I was 12 years old when I found out my mother had been adopted. I was raised in a religious, pro-life household, but I was 12 years old when my pro-life convictions were truly forged in steel.

As I learned the story, my mother was the product of what we now call a crisis pregnancy. And yet through the grace of God, my mother’s biological mother gave her newborn child up for adoption. My grandparents provided my mother with a loving, nurturing home, and it was in her adoptive home where she learned the values of love, charity, hard work, and dedication to family that she passed along to us.

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Gibbons’ Ohio Senate Campaign Airs Rand Paul Endorsement in $2 Million Ad Buy

  The Ohio investment banker endorsed Monday by Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul in his campaign for U.S. Senate just launched a new commercial with Paul in a $2 million ad buy across the state. In the ad, which is part of a $10 million ad push, the senator said that he believes that Mike Gibbons will be an ally in the fight against President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony S. Fauci. “I’ve stood strong against the mandates of Dr. Fauci, but I need help. That’s why I’m endorsing Mike Gibbons for Senate,” the senator said. “I’m Rand Paul. I know Mike Gibbons will join me in demanding that Fauci is immediately fired and removed from office. Mike’s a tough businessman, not a politician. Mike Gibbons has the courage to stand with me to defeat the Washington machine.” A conservative operative familiar with the Gibbons campaign and its strategy told The Star News Network, while President Donald J. Trump hasn’t gotten involved in Ohio’s GOP Senate primary, Gibbons scored the next best thing. “What makes this such an effective ad is that Paul is the second-most popular politician in Ohio, behind President Trump,” he said. “Mike…

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GOP Senate Hopeful JD Vance Pledges Fight Fire with Fire When We Get Power Back’ in January 6 Video

  The author of “Hillbilly Elegy, who is one of the four major Republican candidates running to replace Ohio Republican Sen. Robert J. Portman, spoke out Wednesday on Twitter about the first anniversary of the storming of the Capitol. “Hi, guys. Tomorrow is the anniversary of January the 6th, the most traumatic moment in the history of American democracy,” said James D. “JD” Vance, who served a combat tour in Iraq as a Marine public affairs NCO. “So traumatic in fact that the Left has felt the need to talk about it eight times a day for the past year,” he said “It’s often framed as an assault on our democracy, but the assault on our democracy that too few people are willing to talk about is the fact that dozens of nonviolent protestors on January the 6th are being held in disgusting conditions in Washington, D.C., jails,” he said. Vance said he was concerned about the treatment of the protesters now held in custody. “No Democrats and too few Republicans are willing to speak up for them. They’re being denied their Constitutional rights, and the fact that so few in our media or in our political establishment are willing…

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Senior Consultant to Gibbons’ Ohio Senate Campaign Mike Biondo: ‘We’re in a Very Good Position in This Race’

In an exclusive interview, the general consultant for Mike Gibbons’ campaign for the Ohio Republican Senate nomination explained to The Ohio Star the investment banker’s path to victory.

“If you take a look at any of the polls that have been released by any of the candidates, the one constant is Mike Gibbons has consistently been moving up,” said Michael G. Biondo, a partner in Ascent Strategic, who has held senior positions in national political campaigns, including serving as national senior advisor to Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign.

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Ohio GOP Insider: All Four Major Senate Hopefuls Could Get Trump’s Endorsement

Donald Trump waving

An Ohio Republican insider who held senior positions in Donald J. Trump’s 2016 and since then been a consultant for Republican Senate and gubernatorial races told The Ohio Star each of the top four candidates running for the 2022 GOP Senate nomination has a shot at Trump’s endorsement.

“I think each of these candidates can make an argument to give an endorsement. Every one of them, all the top four,” said the insider and Ohio native.

Joshua A. Mandel

Former state treasurer and Marine Iraq veteran Joshua A. Mandel is leading in all the polls, and he has recovered from his surprise dropping of the 2018 Senate race, which was supposed to be a rematch of with Democratic Sen. Sherrod C. Brown, who beat him 51 percent to Mandel’s 45 percent, he said.

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Josh Mandel Campaign Releases Ohio Senate Poll with Him Still Heading GOP Pack

Josh Mandel

Former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel’s polling has him remaining at the head of the pack among Republicans vying for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.

The poll also shows venture capitalist and “Hillbilly Elogy” author J.D. Vance still well behind in second place and Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons edging out former Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken.

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Ohio General Assembly Veteran Joins Crowded GOP Race for U.S. Senator Portman Seat

A suburban Cleveland state lawmaker has become the latest Republican to join the crowded GOP field seeking the nomination to replace retiring U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio.)
Ohio Senator Matt Dolan, R24-Chagrin Fall, a three-term Ohio House member term-limted from seeking re-election to the state senate, jumped into the race with three high-profile contenders and several others lesser know candidates mounting some level of challenge as the national GOP attempts to wrest control of the upper chamber of Congress in the mid-term elections.

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Ohio Senate Candidate Jane Timken Pledges Support of Constitutional Amendment Against ‘Court-Packing’ in Wake of SCOTUS Abortion Ruling

U.S. Senate contender Jane Timken has formally signed onto efforts in support of  a constitutional amendment to keep the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court at nine  as the political left again attempt to expand the court’s membership.

Timken’s statement follows the recent U.S. Supreme Court “shadow docket” ruling not to immediately block a Texas law restricting abortion to the first six weeks has revived calls from political progressives to put more justices on the court beyond the nine set by tradition since 1869. The so-called “court packing” tactic first threatened in the 1930s New Deal era gained favor among the political left a few years ago as former President Donald Trump place three conservative/libertarian justices on the court.

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Ohio GOP Candidates for U.S. Senate, Cincinnati Congressman Rip Biden After Afghan Blasts Kill Marines, Navy Medic

The deaths of at least 13 American service men and women and 75 civilians in Kabul on Thursday has again sparked even mor criticism of President Joe Biden’s leadershp from several candidates for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate in Ohio as well as a Cincinnati congressman..

Three candidates – J.D. Vance, Mike Gibbons and Jane Timkemin in statements sent to The Ohio Star – called for Biden’s resignation 10 days after the Taliban rolled into Kabul and Afghani provincial capitals as the U.S. military scrambled to evacuate its personnel as well and U.S. and select Afghani civilians.

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Ohio U.S. Senate Hopeful Timken Joins Calls for Biden to Resign, Adds Sacking of Secretaries of State, Defense and Joint Chiefs Chair

U.S. Senate candidate Jane Timken joined several Republicans calling for President Joe Biden to resign in the aftermath of the chaotic withdrawal of American troops and diplomatic personnel from Afghanistan.

U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew, (R-NJ-2) began the call for Biden’s resignation Sunday evening as video streaming from broadcast news outlets showed Afghanis crowding U.S military air transports, desperate to leave with the fall of the Afghani capital of Kabul as well as provincial capitals to the extreme Islamists known as the Taliban.

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Ohio GOP Senate Candidate Mike Gibbons Calls for Resignation of President Biden After Fall of Afghanistan

The rapid collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban and miscalculations during the disorderly withdrawal of American Troops has led U.S. Senate candidate Mike Gibbons to call for the resignation of President Biden.

Congressional Republicans from Ohio also joined the widespread condemnation of the Biden administration’s poor handling of the withdrawal of American troops nearly 20 years after President George W. Bush directed the invasion of the west Asian country in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2011 terror attacks by Islamic extremists trained in that west-central Asian country.

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South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Endorses Jane Timken in Ohio Senate GOP Primary

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R) on Tuesday endorsed former Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken in the crowded GOP primary for U.S. Senate. 

“I am proud to endorse Jane Timken for the United States Senate. I saw firsthand Jane’s leadership skills when she served as the first female Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) and delivered the State of Ohio for President Trump by substantial margins in 2020,” Noem told Fox News when announcing the endorsement.

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GOP Senate Candidates Pummel Biden on Inflation, Infrastructure in Wake of ‘Town Hall’ Talk

Biden Town Hall

  President Joe Biden took to the stage at Mount St. Joseph University at 8 p.m. Wednesday before an intimate audience comprised of hand-selected, loyal Democrats and disgruntled Republicans to run the gamut of issues from the surge of the Delta strain of COVID-19 and the proposed federal infrastructure bill to economic issues such as inflation concerns and one restaurant owners’ inability to find workers. Biden singled out those in their 20s and 30s as well as skeptics in poor, minority communities to get immunized. “We have a pandemic (among) those who haven’t gotten the vaccine,” He noted his administration has stepped up efforts with ads featuring prominent athletes and entertainers urging reluctant Americans to get jabbed. The President downplayed the risk that massive federal spending has played in igniting inflation. “The good news is the economy is picking up significantly,” he said. “… Prices are up now but it will not be long term.” Mike Gibbons, a Cleveland businessman and GOP candidate to running to replace retiring U.S. Senator Rob Portman, said unchecked federal spending from Congress and Biden has fueled inflation, which he called a “hidden tax” on Ohioans. “Families and businesses alike are negatively impacted by rising…

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Ohio Businessman Gibbons Vows Aggressive Campaign in Second Run for U.S Senate

  Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons spent part of his Independence Day weekend walking in a couple of parades with his wife Diane in his hometown of Parma and another nearby community, hoping to shore up support in the Ohio county with the most Republican voters so as not to lose on his home turf as he did in 2018 when he last sought the GOP nomination for U.S. Senator. And he’s hopeful he can win enough of a plurality in the rest of the state to advance to the general election in November 2022. Gibbons sat down for an interview in a spartan flex office building near the Columbus suburb of Hilliard as he prepares to battle against at least four other viable contenders for the GOP nomination. Two-term Sen. Rob Portman has held the seat since January 2011 and earlier this year announced he would not seek a third term. Like Timken and several other 2022 GOP contenders for the Senate, Gibbon has never held elective office, and that’s his point. He built a real estate and investment banking businesses over the last few decades and is still wanting to put that experience and expertise in public service. “Until…

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EXCLUSIVE: Mike Gibbons Tells The Ohio Star Why He’s the Best Candidate for the U.S. Senate Job

Mike Gibbons announced Tuesday that he will run for the Ohio seat in the U.S. Senate up for grabs in 2022. A Cleveland Republican, Gibbons is an investment banker, entrepreneur and real estate investor who made his first bid for U.S Senate in 2018 when he competed in the Republican primary.
The Ohio Star talked with Gibbons Tuesday morning shortly after he announced his candidacy. His full press release can be viewed below.
“I’ve got five kids and five grandkids. I’ve never been more frightened for their future in my life,” Gibbons responded when asked why he’s running. “When I started, I didn’t know I’d do as well as I have. We were able to send our kids through college and grad school without loans – I started with nothing.”

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Ohio Businessman Mike Gibbons Joins U.S. Senate Race

Mike Gibbons

Cleveland businessman and 2018 U.S. Senate candidate Mike Gibbons has officially entered the 2022 Senate race.

In his announcement, Gibbons stated that he can help others achieve their American Dream, because he did that for himself. He added that he’s never been a career politician. Instead, he described his journey as a self-made businessman who spent over 30 years helping local Ohio companies grow.

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Clevelander Mike Gibbons Announces Statewide Listening Tour in Potential Preparation for Run at U.S. Senate

Monday morning Cleveland businessman and 2018 U.S. Senate candidate Mike Gibbons announced a statewide tour during which he will listen to what Ohio voters have to say as he considers a run for office in 2022.

“This listening tour will allow me the opportunity to meet directly with the voters who understand that we can’t afford to send another politician or party insider to Washington. We need to send someone with a business background, who will fight for working-class Ohioans, who’s unafraid to stand up to his own party and who will always tell the truth,” said Gibbons.

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Ohio GOP List of Replacements for Sen. Portman Long but Narrowing

Rob Portman’s U.S. Senate seat is up for grabs after the establishment Republican announced he would not run for re-election in 2022. Portman cited gridlock and more time with family as primary reasons driving his decision to step away from federal politics – ending his 33 year career since his first political job as a legal aid to President George H.W. Bush in 1989.

Following the announcement, the Ohio rumor mill swirled with talk about many prospective Republican replacements.

Jim Jordan (R-OH-4) is a strong Trump advocate and member of the House Freedom Caucus who has represented Ohio in D.C. since 2007. His spokesperson said the congressman was honored by the overwhelming support to run for U.S. Senate but is solely focused on representing Ohio’s Fourth District and would not be running.

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