NBC’s Henry Gomez reports that David McIntosh, the head of the well-funded Club for Growth, used a private donor gathering earlier this month both to urge hardline Rep. Warren Davidson to act on his interest in challenging Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and to promise the Club’s backing if he does. That’s not likely to be welcome news for the Senate GOP leadership, though, as Axios wrote a little while ago that party officials are “concerned” about a Davidson bid.
Davidson emerged on the political scene back in dramatic fashion back in 2016 when the first-time candidate, thanks in large part to $1 million in Club support, won the primary to succeed none other than former Speaker John Boehner. Davidson immediately joined the nihilistic House Freedom Caucus, the group that played a key role in getting Boehner to quit in the first place, and he’s spent his time in the House racking up a far-right record.
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The congressman joined a majority of his party in voting to overturn Biden’s win in the hours following the Jan. 6 attack, though he was one of only 21 House Republicans a few months to vote against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the US Capitol Police force. Davidson, the following year, defended a state law banning abortion after only about six weeks without exception for rape or incest after CNN asked him, “[W]hat happens when a 12-year-old girl falls pregnant after being raped? Are you okay with her being forced to carry that fetus to term?” He responded, “Let’s say someone was raped; you don’t know you were raped for two months?”
If recent history is any guide, though, Davidson’s supporters and detractors may need to wait a while to see if he’ll challenge Brown. The Republican, in February 2021, first expressed interest in a primary bid against Gov. Mike DeWine for his "overbearing" approach to fighting the pandemic and soon set a September deadline for deciding. Davidson finally said in December that he’d remain in the House rather than go up against DeWine.
The only notable candidate running against Brown right now is state Sen. Matt Dolan, a self-funder who took third in last year’s primary to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman. He may have company before long, though, as wealthy businessman Bernie Moreno, who dropped out of that contest last time, is now openly mulling a campaign.
Moreno, the father-in-law of freshman Rep. Max Miller, has already castigated Dolan, who last time was the one candidate to condemn the Big, as someone who is “running in the wrong primary.” Moreno is also betting that Donald Trump, who reportedly convinced him to drop out last time to block Dolan, remains just as relevant as ever in GOP politics. Gomez reported that Moreno, has been working on cultivating ties with the man he called a “maniac” before the 2016 election. Miller, notably, is a former Trump aide who married Moreno’s daughter last year at Trump’s Bedminster lair.
Buckeye State politicos have also long expected Secretary of State Frank LaRose to run for Senate, as well, though LaRose has yet to say when he expects to decide. LaRose recently was part of a CPAC panel titled, “They Stole It From Us Legally,” though he insists that he doesn’t actually believe in the Big Lie.