Swamp Establishment, Donor Class Rush into Ohio to Try to Stop Trump-Backed J.D. Vance

J.D. Vance, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, speaks during a campaign rally
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Matthew Boyle
Washington, DC

Much like how many in the establishment raced to stop Donald J. Trump’s 2016 ascendancy to the GOP presidential nomination and eventually the White House, donor class and swamp forces are swooping into Ohio to try to block Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance from winning Tuesday’s primary to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH).

This 2022 primary for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate has been particularly revealing, showing what campaign consultants, donors, and politicians, both those from Ohio and elsewhere, are really all about when it comes to not just Trump himself but also key policies that Trump championed such as tariffs on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

When Trump endorsed Vance in mid-April, ahead of the May 3 primary on Tuesday, donor class forces rushed into action not to support the former President of the United States but to actively work against him in the U.S. Senate race. The Club for Growth, as Breitbart News has previously reported, doubled down with more ad buys in favor of former state Treasurer Josh Mandel’s candidacy — spending even more when Trump and his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. criticized the group. The usually conservative Club is on the same side as Trump in many races nationwide, such as in Nevada where they both support former Attorney General Adam Laxalt for U.S. Senate or North Carolina where they both support Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) for U.S. Senate. But the fissures in Ohio have gotten particularly nasty, where Trump’s team is calling the group the “Club for Chinese Growth” — a reference to the organization’s ardent opposition to any use of tariffs to rein in China whatsoever, a severe departure from the core of Trump’s nationalist populist policies.

But the Club for Growth, whose differences with Trump are generally minor as the organization does usually back anti-establishment candidates, is hardly the only donor-class force that has rushed into Ohio to try to prevent a win for Vance and Trump.

Ed Crawford, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland under Trump and a major backer of Mike Gibbons’ campaign, hosted a fundraiser for Gibbons — against the Trump-backed Vance — just days after Trump endorsed Vance. Crawford, who has not replied to a request for comment on why he crossed the former president so directly, hosted the ritzy fundraiser for Gibbons — a big-time self-funder himself anyway — on April 18 at the Union Club in Cleveland, sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News.

Then there is Frank Sullivan, an Ohio businessman who happens to also be the brother of Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) from Alaska, who NBC News reports has switched his allegiances to Never Trump candidate Matt Dolan from former Ohio Republican Party chairwoman Jane Timken. Frank Sullivan apparently had maxed out twice to Timken’s campaign, both in the primary and for the general if she were to get there, but according to NBC News has now texted more than 50 fellow Ohio power players this weekend, saying he is now voting for Dolan. Frank Sullivan has not replied to a request for comment from Breitbart News.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), whose chief consultant Jeff Roe counts among his clients Mandel, has barnstormed the state in the final days pushing Mandel on behalf of Roe — and trying to shield Mandel from criticisms from the right that he has been selling out conservatives behind closed doors to allies of Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell while feeding platitudes to the base.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings indicate that a Super PAC called Ohio Leads, which is backing Timken in the race, dropped nearly $1.8 million in new advertising against Vance in just the past few days.

The organization is funded in part by former Republican National Committee (RNC) finance chair Todd Ricketts and other Ricketts family members, but a source close to the PAC told Breitbart News the vast majority of the money came from other sources. Other donors to the PAC have included members of the Timken family and Portman. What’s more, most of this new buy is money from several other sources — and most of the Ricketts money was donated and spent before Trump endorsed Vance when the PAC was airing ads against Mike Gibbons.

Todd Ricketts, in a statement, made clear his support for Timken was longstanding before Trump’s Vance endorsement due to their deep relationship and that he will support the eventual nominee no matter who it is.

“I first got to know Jane Timken while I was Finance Chairman for the RNC and Trump Victory and Jane was serving as the Ohio GOP chair, and she was working as hard as anyone to help re-elect President Trump,” Todd Ricketts told Breitbart News. “My wife and I were proud to announce our support for Jane’s Senate campaign at the end of 2021 and have worked to encourage others to support Jane. Indeed, I spoke to President Trump on a few occasions to ask him to endorse Jane, long before he announced his support for JD Vance.”

Ricketts added that he will support whoever is the nominee when the primary is over. “The most important thing is that once the primaries are over, everyone must get together to back the party’s nominees so we win in November,” Ricketts said. “I look forward to continue working with President Trump to elect historical majorities in the House and Senate.”

Former U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH) — the former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) — said in a comment on a Facebook post after Trump endorsed Vance that he views Vance as a “fraud” and that he “can’t support” Trump’s pick. The comment came in reply to a selfie that former candidate Bernie Moreno, who Trump praised when he ended his own campaign, sent of himself at the Trump rally for Vance after Trump’s endorsement. Moreno has been very supportive of Trump and Vance, publicly backing the former president when all these other forces continue to work against him.

Stivers, in response when asked about the Facebook comment, told Breitbart News, “I support President Trump” and “my personal opinion has nothing to do with the former President.”

Stivers at first also said he did not recall making the Facebook comment. “I don’t know what comment you are talking about,” he said, adding “I have not publicly endorsed any candidate in the Senate race.” When Breitbart News sent him a screenshot of it, he said: “Huh. I don’t remember that. I have not stated who I’m voting for in the Senate race. And I won’t. Sorry. But my vote is not public.”

Asked if he stands by the Facebook comment, Stivers replied: “I have not publicly endorsed a candidate. I can say that I support the President and that I have opinions about candidates that are unrelated to the President.”

After some more back and forth about the matter, Stivers insisted again that he supports Trump even though he does not support Trump on Trump’s endorsement in the U.S. Senate race in Ohio. “I hope you will also quote in saying I disagree with the premise of your story,” Stivers said. “This isn’t about President Trump.”

But that’s the point here: it is very much about Trump, and whether voters stick with him as the leader of the party. How Trump does in these endorsements will say a lot about whether they want him back in 2024, or want to move on to someone else — so Trump has a lot on the line in each of these races. Also, regarding Stivers, it is worth noting that he now runs the Ohio Chamber of Commerce — a business class organization — and that Vance is the only candidate in the five-way field that did not sit down with the Ohio Chamber for a candidate interview.

Therein lies the ultimate question on the ballot on Tuesday, by the way: Vance is literally the only candidate backing Trump’s tariffs on China, the only candidate fighting against the Chamber of Commerce and other special interests trying to weaken GOP positions on issues like China, immigration, Big Tech, and more, and he is the only candidate not swept in this viper’s nest vortex of political consultants and politicians and donors that hampers so many Republicans nationwide. That’s not to mention Vance’s opposition to endless wars — much like Trump’s in 2016, which rattled the Bush establishment like nothing else — which is front and center in this campaign. As such, a win for Vance would be a win not just for Trump, but for the actual America First vision he represents — and a loss would mean a return to the business-as-usual swamp way of doing things for Republicans, dashing hopes for real progress inside the party. Vance, for his part, has employed a strategy of holding town halls — more than 75 of them around the state the whole campaign — to hammer these points home directly to voters.

The latest polling seems to indicate that things are looking up for Vance after the Trump endorsement, and things seem to be turning bad for the rest of the field. Mandel, who had led earlier in the race, has fallen to third place in the latest poll from Trafalgar Group — with Dolan surging into second place behind Vance, who leads.

That poll comes after a smattering of others showing Vance in the lead, with Mandel trailing.

Assuming those trends stick, Vance could be well on his way to winning on Tuesday. Of course, anything can happen, but things are looking up for Vance — and down for the donor class.

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