With the release of several polls showing both Vivek Ramaswamy and Jon Husted losing their races just one month out and as early voting starts, as well as increasing rumors of wider losses in congressional seats and the Ohio General Assembly, now is an excellent time to make what shouldn’t be a controversial or necessary point to make. Here it is: blind allegiance to political parties is not only naive, it also ensures that those political parties are never held accountable for what they fail to do and not do. You can’t scroll far on X without seeing some moron’s post about party loyalty no matter what; that primaries are for sending a message not general elections; that Ramaswamy and Husted may be terrible, but Amy Acton and Sherrod Brown are worse; or voting for Acton or Brown is akin to being a traitor, Nazi, or socialist.
First, not voting for Ramaswamy and/or Husted doesn’t mean voting for Acton and/or Brown. Voters can vote third parties, undervote those races, or not vote at all.
Next, name me the last time a Republican outsider not named Donald Trump who wasn’t endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) or Trump won a statewide primary in Ohio? I’ll wait…The idea that Ohioans can have their voices heard in primaries is preposterous. Ohio is far too big a state with too many media markets for a non-multi-millioniare outsider or someone not backed by a $10 million PAC to reach a critical number of voters to defeat the ORP’s or Trump’s choice. Remember the much vaunted Blue 22 primary effort? Total failure. Mike Gibbons’ $20 million personal fortune? Not enough. Ask outsider ORP State Central Committee members how often they’ve succeeded in overcoming the Establishment members? Answer: never. With the ORP eagerly endorsing in primaries, which comes with a slate card mailed to every suspected Republican primary voter, winning without massive self-funding and Trump’s backing isn’t realistic. History proves that.
In a previous post, I asked for ideas on how to hold the ORP accountable outside of voting against Ramaswamy and Husted. The response was utter silence. As someone who has spent the last seventeen years trying to get the Establishment to do even minor reforms, I know first-hand that beating the Establishment is near impossible without millions in a war chest. The only success we ever had was when we rode the anti-Obamacare wave to pass the Healthcare Freedom Act in 2011, but we did that WITHOUT the Establishment. They jumped on our coattails after they knew it would pass.
I’ve written that Acton won’t be able to do much should she win, as Republicans will not lose the Ohio House or Ohio Senate. They may lose supermajorities, but not control. Thus, Acton will have to work with Republicans if she wants to actually get anything done. So, stop with the Chicken Little parade of horribles. She can spend four years doing what Ted Strickland did, which will ensure she loses her re-election bid. The sky will not fall if Ohio has divided government for four years. I’m hard pressed to think of another more powerful way to send the ORP and its elected members the message to stop pushing incrementalist pale pastel policies and Establishment candidates. If they want our vote, they need to earn it with a Reaganesque bold color agenda.
Ever hear of the idea of one step back, two steps forward. Maybe a loss today will set the stage for bold color victories tomorrow.
Lastly, I warned you about the electoral weaknesses of Ramaswamy and Husted. You didn’t listen. Donors repeatedly tried to get Ramaswamy to sit down with me to discuss how he might put together a bold color agenda. His right-hand man made sure we never met. I could have helped him do what he needed to do to excite the grassroots, which is not the same group who attends Reagan-Lincoln Day Dinners or goes to campaign events. As for Husted, he spent too many years listening to big Mike D and other Capital Square Wormtongues who made him think he was an 800-lb gorilla instead of a glass-jawed bonobo. Husted would have been better served staying in the primary against Mike DeWine in 2018 so he could finally learn how to survive a tough race instead of hitching his trailer to DeWine’s nibble-on-the-margin moderate reputation. Had he done that, he would have lost, but positioned himself for this year and not have had to carry the baggage of the House Bill 6 energy scandal, his Heritage Bank and JobsOhio self-dealing, and the severe pandemic shutdown of Ohio. By fighting in a primary against DeWine, Husted could have turned his jaw from glass to steel just as Proverbs states: as iron strengthens iron, let one man strengthen another.
Look closely at the polling summaries above. Since last December, Ramaswamy has led by a hair in only three out of eleven polls and Husted has led in four out of fifteen—none since June. Some of these polls pre-date the rough economic news post-Iran debacle, so they can’t blame Trump malaise on their weak showings. As I wrote in the piece linked above, both men are flawed candidates who simply don’t excite the Republican base. As an outsider, Ramaswamy could have, but he shunned people like me and got in bed with the same Capital Square consultants and Kasich people whose track records are devoid of bold colors. Husted’s entire political career is little more than DeWine 2.0 moderation. Look at the various favorable/unfavorable numbers from the most recent poll. Those are brutal numbers for Ramaswamy and Husted. Despite millions spent attacking her, Acton’s numbers remain level.
I don’t have much to recommend to Husted at this point. As a career politician, his record is what it is. This will be my last unsolicited piece of advice to Ramaswamy. If he wants to win, he’d be wise to adopt it:
First, he should start ignoring the overpaid and underachieving consultants and stop attacking Acton. It isn’t working. His attacks are coming across as shrill and over-the-top. It is time for his main and only message to be what he wants to do for Ohioans. He needs to give grassroots Republicans reasons to support him. The typical pablum he has been using doesn’t pass their sniff test. They’ve heard it 1,000 times. Get bold.
Secondly, he should adopt the political reforms I announced during my 2023 exploratory run for governor. Use these reforms to criticize Republicans for failing to fix Ohio when they had the chance and promise that these changes will ensure accountability in Columbus and a constant influx of fresh blood and new ideas. He should promote these reforms as nonpartisan and ask Acton to join him, as all of these reforms are highly popular among all Ohioans.:
replace term limits with a 20-year time limit that will put an end to office swapping and statewide musical chairs by career politicians;
put the legislature, governor, and lieutenant governor on a pay for performance plan that includes a 50% pay-cut with ability to earn the other half if Ohio hits the top ten in private sector net percentage job growth each year—if it is good for teachers, should be great for policymakers—and pledge that he and Rob McColley will honor that pledge from day one;
move all elected officials in Ohio from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan, so politicians don’t stagnate in government just to get a pension;
make all elected officials get their health care from the federal exchange, so they live like Ohioans live; and
pledge to decentralize state government outside of Columbus so all of Ohio shares in its work, not just those living in Central Ohio. All Ohioans fund state government. They should share in its operation.
Thirdly, he should pledge to eliminate JobsOhio then use its funding to build a world-class airport at Rickenbacker. This pledge will allow him to connect Ohio’s systemic weak private sector and stagnant population growth to JobsOhio’s failures and the need for the 7th largest state and 15th largest city to have a major airport to spur economic growth. It worked for Denver. It can work for Columbus. The influx of Americans and their businesses that Ramaswamy wants to come to Ohio won’t if they can’t get from Ohio to/from most domestic and international locations in one hop. Ohio has lost businesses because our airports are junk. Ohio doesn’t have majestic mountains, white sand beaches, or sophisticated big cities to lure Americans from other states. It needs a world-class airport to compete.
Fourthly, he should pledge to freeze state spending and repeal Medicaid expansion, so he can regain control over Ohio’s budget to eliminate the state income tax and reform local government taxes to give Ohioans a break. Ohioans aren’t buying his promise to eliminate the state income tax and ratchet back property taxes—$29 billion in tax revenue per year—paid for by “economic growth” they haven’t seen since the 1990s and prosecuting Medicaid fraud. A spending freeze married with getting control over Medicaid that swallows 50% of state spending will signal seriousness. Grassroots Ohioans will LOVE these policies.
Finally, he should pledge to rebalance funding for higher education and the trades so that 85% of Ohio’s high school graduates who don’t get a college degree get 85% of the state funding instead of the 15% who do get a college degree getting that 85% of state funding, as well as commit to taking on the Hospital Industrial Complex that is bankrupting Ohioans with inflated medical bills. Acknowledge that a medial crises shouldn’t become a financial crisis that forever crushes Main Street Ohioans. The Trump voters and younger Ohioans Ramaswamy is losing to Acton, as well as scores of Ohioans who have had negative experience with hospitals and their inflated bills, will give him another look over the next month.
Nothing short of these bold color proposals will change the arc of the race. He needs to create major excitement. More of the same won’t cut it. The above policies will fundamentally shift the direction and substantive pitch of this race. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking my advice.
For what its worth, if the losses in Ohio are as bad as they say, I hope ORP Chairman Alex Triantafilou has the decency to resign so someone more competent and aligned with Main Street Ohio Republicans can lead the party forward. Triantafilou lacks vision, exudes an Establishment mentality, and blows too much smoke up the asses of donors and State Central Committee Members. And, no, I am not interested in replacing him.
P.S. On the subject of using my ideas to win, Ramaswamy has been stealing from my material without giving me attribution. Normally, I don’t care, but since he couldn’t manage to so much as grab a cup of coffee with me over the last two years despite being urged to do so and our homes being no more than fifteen minutes from each other, thugging my work without giving me credit is obnoxious.
If Acton wins there will be more then a few republicans that will willingly work with her especially when it comes to spending money
You are not wrong about how horrible the ORP is. In the end, however, I will always vote for the person on the ballot that most represents my values and goals for Ohio and America.