- Trump stopped accepting calls after announcing his support for JD Vance, according to The Washington Post.
- The former president injected himself in the GOP primary in Ohio to the horror of some party chairmen.
- More than two dozen leaders sent a letter to Trump in a failed attempt to prevent Vance’s approval.
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After former President Donald Trump on Friday backed “Elegy of the Hills” author Jay Dee Vance in the fierce Republican Senate primary in Ohio, he received so many phone calls that he refrained from accepting them until the end of the day. Washington Post.
Trump – who easily won Ohio in 2016 and 2020 – decided to support Vance despite his advisers and aides pushing him to other candidates in the race, which includes former Treasurer Josh Mandel, businessman Mike Gibbons, former Republican chairman. Jane Timken, and Senator Matt Dolan, among others.
The race has been a noisy affair in recent months as candidates sharpened their announcements ahead of the May 3rd GOP primary, seeking the favor of conservative legions that boosted Trump’s victories during his two presidential campaigns and shifted Ohio to the right after a long period works as the typical swing state in the Midwest.
Vance’s candidacy has been criticized by more than two dozen local GOP leaders across the state; the group wrote a letter to the former president last week in a bid to prevent approval.
“While we worked hard in Ohio to support you and make America great again, JD Vance was actively working against your candidacy,” they wrote in a letter from Politico.
Dave Johnson, chairman of the Republican District of Columbia and a staunch supporter of Trump, told The Post he did not want Vance’s approval to return and persecute the former president.
“I don’t want him to take the wrong step because of him,” Johnson told the paper. “I think that will have the opposite effect on Trump, and if he runs in 2024, I want Ohio to remain Trump’s strength.”
The president “received so many calls that he stopped receiving them on Friday,” according to an adviser speaking to The Post.
A March Fox News poll shows Gibbons leading the Republican primary with 22 percent of the vote, followed by Mandel with 20 percent, Vance with 11 percent, Timken with 9 percent and Dolan with 7 percent support.
Former President Donald Trump. Scott Olson / Getty Images
Before that, Vance was very critical of Trump – the Republican called himself “Never Trump” and denounced the then Republican presidential candidate as an “idiot” in a 2016 interview with former PBS journalist Charlie Rose – but since then he withdrew his statements.
“Like many people, I criticized Trump back in 2016,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News last July. “And I ask people not to judge me based on what I said in 2016, because I was very open that I said these critical things and I am sorry for them and I am sorry that I was wrong about the person.
Before Trump threw his support behind Vance, he had already received support from the eldest son of the former president, Donald Trump Jr., and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel.
According to an adviser to Trump, who spoke to The Post, the former president was ready to support Vance because he believes he can get the candidate through the finish line for the first time.
Trump reiterated his mood when announcing the approval, where he also admitted that Vance had been critical of him in the past.
“In the Greater Ohio State, the candidate who is most qualified and ready to win in November is JD Vance. We can’t play games. It’s all about winning!” the former president said in a statement.
He continued: “Like some others, JD Vance may have said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but now he understands it and I saw it with a spade. It’s our best chance of winning what could be a very tough race. “
Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who is stepping down after the November midterm elections, backed Timken in February.
The winner of the GOP competition is likely to face Tim Ryan, the leader of the Democratic primary.
A Trump spokesman did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment.
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