Ohio, a Midwestern state considered a thermometer of the US political temperature, held several Republican and Democratic primaries on Tuesday ahead of the mid-term legislative elections in November, in which control of the US Congress is at stake.
The race that received the most attention was the one waged on the conservative side for the vacancy left by Republican Rob Portman, who has announced his retirement after 12 years in the upper house, and in which there were seven candidates.
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According to US media, a candidate endorsed by former US President Donald Trump was the one who won the disputed primaries of the Republican Partywhich will allow him to compete for a key position of senator from Ohio.
Like many Republicans, JD Vance, 37, was initially critical of Trump, going so far as to call him “America’s Hitler” before becoming an ardent supporter and emulating his populist style.
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A former Marine and graduate of the prestigious Yale Law School, Vance rose to fame with the publication in 2016 of his memoirs in which he tried to explain why white working-class voters could be seduced by the candidacy of a New York tycoon like Trump.
Several Republican candidates were up for the nomination in Ohio, in a contest centered on how loyal the party should be to Trump, who keeps repeating that he won the 2020 presidential election.
Moderate Republicans, including outgoing Sen. Rob Portman, fear Democrats could win November’s midterm elections if their party’s candidates endorse these unsubstantiated claims.
“I absolutely have to thank the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” Vance said in his celebratory speech.
The victory of investor JD Vance demonstrated the strong weight that former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) still has in the party.
It was Vance who had Trump’s coveted endorsement, and while nearly all of the candidates shared much of Trump’s nationalism and trade protectionism, Vance was the only one who managed to get the former president to one of his rallies.
Since leaving power in January 2021, Trump has remained on the political front lines with rallies and explicit endorsements for different Republican candidates, while fueling suspense about whether he will run in the 2024 presidential election.
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After being cast as the winner, Vance said that “the political press had wanted to write a story about his campaign as the death of Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is not the death of the America first agenda,” he told his supporters.
In the November election, Vance will face moderate Democrat Tim Ryan, a member of the House of Representatives from a working-class district.
The other senator from Ohio is Democrat Sherrod Brown, with a political style similar to Ryan’s, giving the party hope that they can clinch this key seat in a state usually leaning Republican.
The US Senate is split down the middle (50-50) between the two parties, so the November election could tip the balance in the upper house of Congress.
AFP and EFE
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