Support for the state House news bureau comes from medical mutual dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans offering health insurance plans, as well as dental vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med Mutual Rt.com.

The Law Offices of Porter Wright Morrison, Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter right Rt.com Porter Wright inspired every day the Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.

Ohio's Republican race for U.S. Senate gets tighter and more expensive as Election Day looms closer.

And a conversation with a would be presidential candidate connected to a group that still may launch a third party ticket.

All this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Before we get into politics, western ohio got hit hard with storms that tore through the darkness thursday night.

Three people are confirmed dead in Logan County, about an hour northwest of Columbus as a suspected tornado smashed through Russells Point and the Indian Lake area.

Buildings were demolished and heavily damaged and roads were shut down because of downed trees and debris.

The Ohio Department of Transportation brought out snow plows to clear the roadways after the storms.

Did we think it was going to be to this extent?

I don't know that we did.

Certainly, I don't think anybody did.

I mean, you know, the parameters were certainly there.

The tornado watch was issued earlier this afternoon.

So I think, you know, we all had as much heads up as we could.

But with situations like this, you just never know how bad it's going to be.

Several state agencies, including ODOT, the State Emergency Management Agency and Department of Health and the Ohio Highway Patrol, were mobilized in response.

One Logan County official called it devastating and a nightmare.

A new poll shows the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Ohio is very tight.

The survey from Emerson College and the Hill of registered voters finds Matt Dolan is leading by just over the margin of error, with 26% supporting him, 23% behind Bernie Marino and 16% voting for Franklin Rose.

But the poll also shows 32% of voters are undecided for the primary.

Marino is endorsed by former President Trump and Senator J.D.

Vance.

Dolan is endorsed by Governor Mike DeWine and former Senator Rob Portman.

La Rose is endorsed by several local and state elected officials.

Also in the poll, Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown leads all three Republicans with around 21% undecided.

By the way, an Emerson College poll just before the May 2022 primary accurately predicted the final order of finish for the seven candidates.

TV, cable and other ad spending is total nearly $32 million since the campaign began in late 2022.

Most has been for and by Dolan and Marino and almost none by La Rose.

And a last minute entry is a political action committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, spending $2.7 million on a TV ad that notes Marino's endorsement by Trump, who will be rallying with Marino on Saturday.

Republicans say that's meddling in the primary with more than $56 million raised by the three candidates and Sherrod Brown.

This is shaping up to top the $71.6 million raised in 2022.

The most expensive US Senate race in Ohio history.

All three of the candidates were on this show over the last three weeks for extended conversations about the issues about former President Trump, who won Ohio in the last two elections, and about why they think they can win.

You can see the full interviews with State Senator Matt Dolan, businessman Bernie Marino and Secretary of State Franklin Rose in our archives at State News dot org.

Also on the primary ballot that will be decided on Tuesday, the lineup for the November election for Ohio's 15 members of Congress.

Nine incumbents have no primary opponents.

Four have opponents, and two seats are open.

One of those is the strongly red second District in southwest Ohio, where 11 Republicans are vying to replace Representative Brad Wenstrup.

And there's the primary for the Republican nomination to run against the longest serving woman in Congress, Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur.

There are now three Republicans in that race now that Trump aligned J.R. Maduka has dropped out after controversial comments he made disparaging competitors in the Special Olympics.

Those candidates include former Senator Craig Riedl and Representative Derek Marron.

On that note, the battle between Marron and Speaker Jason Stevens over that leadership role hangs over the primaries for Ohio House and Senate.

11 of the 22 Republicans who joined all 32 Democrats in voting for Stevens over Marron for speaker are facing primary challengers.

There's a lot of money in these races.

Some of it's connected to Senate President Matt Hoffman, who is term limited there and is running unopposed for the House, where he is expected to challenge Stevens for the speaker's gavel.

Stevens opponents have tried to gain control over the $3 million in the House Republicans campaign fund, but a Franklin County judge ruled against them.

However, some are getting a boost from Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group founded by Charles and David Koch.

Of the 16 Senate races, six feature contested primaries, including Republican Senators George Lang and Sandra O'Brien.

Both are facing Republicans with House experience.

Former Representative Candice Keller and current Representative Mike Wojcik.

The centrist group No Labels met this week to decide on its third party presidential ticket, a move that many people believe could spoil the 2024 election for President Biden.

No Labels, which was founded in 2010 by moderate Republicans, Democrats and independents, have said it is anti-Trump and that it won't be a spoiler.

It has said it would consider what it called a unity ticket if there were a Biden Trump rematch.

But more recently said it will not move forward with the ticket if it would lead to a Trump win.

One of the most well-known names that has been attached to No Labels is US Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat of West Virginia.

He is not running for reelection to the Senate, and there was widespread speculation that he would launch a presidential bid.

Manchin was at the Columbus Metropolitan Club last month and made it clear the day before it was national news that he was not running for the White House.

After I ask him about that directly, here are some of our conversation.

My purpose of coming around and being here is not to propose or propel me running for any office.

I said, I'm not running for reelection for the US Senate and I'm not out here running on any party for any other office, they said.

There might be an opening run as a third party.

That's a very, very, very difficult situation, you know.

And is there ever a chance that we might be able to open up to where a third party could be more competitive?

We need to examine that because the more competition, the better participation you get and you bring more people into the process.

That's something we can do.

So are you ready to tell people who you might vote for?

I haven't made my mind up.

I truly haven't.

I know I'm not going to vote for Donald Trump.

But you haven't made your mind up.

I haven't made my mind.

BIDEN Yeah.

Well, let me ask you about Americans together, This group that is organizing this listening tour.

You said it is not want to say that I better I better clarify that.

I know.

I know Mr. Donald Trump and I've worked with him.

I tried to think, well, you know, I like some of the things he wants to do and he has done.

It's just the way he doesn't mind.

And basically coming out in this campaign saying the things he said.

First of all, what he said about John McCain just went through me like nothing's ever gone through me before I knew John McCain and John McCain.

I always said this If you haven't been McCain and as you haven't been in the Senate, because John took on everybody and he was willing to go to go to the mat with you.

But, John, you had to earn John's respect.

And one time he and I got into it and we got pretty hot, hot and heavy because I was fighting for National Guard.

And John was more of a hard core military.

And he he never believed the National Guard was the guard.

He knew of my father's.

It wasn't the guard that we have today.

All the guards are very, very professional.

So we were fighting on and he got mad at me.

And then I'm thinking, how can they said, don't worry, it takes about a month or two.

He'll get over it.

Well, we'll have to start talking about ships because we I was in charge of land and sea in committee and we were trying.

How many ships do we need?

So I went and talked to John.

John says, Joe, let me I want to go ahead and apologize.

I said, John, you owe nobody an apology for the service you given to our country.

You owe nobody an apology.

So please, let's be friends.

And we became very dear friends.

And then to watch him denigrate that and even how he took after Nikki Haley's husband, it's just these are this is not you don't you don't call people and this is schoolyard stuff.

You don't call people names and you strike.

They want to work with you.

You just can't do that.

And then you can't tell your allies.

And I said, Vladimir Putin knows knows the value of our NATO allies more than Donald Trump knows the value of our NATO allies, that Putin would rather basically destroy our NATO allies that we have than the relationships we have, because he knows how powerful we are as a country.

When you have this many countries that have your values of the fight for your freedoms and willing to die with you for the freedom democracies that we have, and to say that, no, if you haven't paid up, I agree they should pay you, But there's other ways to get them to pay and they are paying up.

And he hasn't taken that in consideration.

And if he wants to take credit, thank you for putting it on the table.

But the bottom line, you threaten someone that you don't sic Vladimir Putin on you if you don't do this, this and this, the same as he tells me he's going to use revenge.

That's how he's going to basically govern.

And you're telling me that's democracy, that's America, that's who we are.

We're the superpower because people have the same values we had and we have to keep those.

And that's why I would not support him and I would tell him if he were standing here.

And I just said he's just very difficult to work with, period.

And this is a thought, you know, and Joe Biden has his he's gone too far left.

He's not the Joe Biden I've known forever.

He's not the Joe Biden that we voted for.

And he's and I've told him this.

I said, how come you've moved so far to the extreme, you've never been there.

Can't you come back?

I mean, we've got to have energy and we have to be responsible to the climate, all of these things we have to do.

But you have to make sure that this country remains a country that the rest of the world wants to follow.

We can't be asking for foreign supply chains to take care of us and do things we won't do for ourselves.

Those are that's leadership.

So that's my reason.

I'm glad you played.

I can shorter than that.

Now Americans together, this group that you're working on that's putting together this listening tour, you've said before that there's this tribalism ours and these and that if you're not on one team, the other is the enemy.

There's also lots of misinformation and disinformation.

How do you combat this and how do you do it?

And I want to say this.

Yeah, and she knows what how I feel very strongly about this.

People ask me, So where do you get your news from?

Because I says, I don't know how the average probably get your news today.

I know how your children and grandchildren get it, and it's not where you probably get it or I get it.

But the bottom line is, where do you get the facts?

So I tell people, if you really want to hear the facts, go to NPR, go to PBS, okay?

And then go to BBC.

If you want world facts, that's where I'll give it to you and unfiltered.

You make your own mind up.

And the net news networks are really good.

And some of the top papers, they're all But as far as the the social media or the cable news, they're not they're going to give you a slant because they're playing to a certain audience.

I respect that as a business model, but it's not good in this age for disinformation is kind of taking the lead and you're entitled to your opinion.

You're just not entitled to create your facts to support your crazy opinion.

Thank you for your kind words about NPR and PBS.

It's the truth.

I will not say that.

And I know that Karen thinks I'm pleasure.

I'm not playing to the audience here.

I said that unsolicited.

I really feel very strongly about that.

But I do want to ask you about how do you break through this partizanship that's out there?

And is this the time to talk about that?

With so much at stake, democracy is potentially at stake.

Here you.

Are.

You're not that I will tell you.

If you ask under what do you think about the board?

Do you think it needs to be fixed?

How many things that we all do.

Okay, the board are serious.

It's a serious thing we face.

How about gun violence?

How many think we should do something?

Commonsense of guns.

Okay, so you start asking questions that we all can agree on.

How come we can all agree here, but they can't agree in Washington.

They're afraid of losing your vote.

They're not hearing enough.

They don't know.

They're just hearing from the extremes.

The extremes are saying, I mean, I come from Camp Collin.

They know we come from a gun culture state in West Virginia.

If you don't have a gun when you come, you're going to have one.

When you leave, we'll give you one.

We want to make sure you can protect yourself, but we're going to teach you how to use it.

We're going to make sure you have some common sense and what we call gun sense.

But it's just the way things are.

And I just believe I tried to do the Manchin-Toomey bill and it was after after the Sandy Hook shooting.

You know, I don't know how how this would affect other people.

It affected me when 20 babies, their parents couldn't have an open casket because of the absolute utterly destruction, these little babies, because of the weapons.

There's no need for that.

Okay.

But if you say I'm going to ban this, I'm going to ban that.

Okay, Then people get, you're not taking that away from this man, right?

Second Amendment rights?

No, I'm not going to ban it.

I'm just going to make sure that you're a person who is worthy of having it.

You're a person who has basically the ability.

We've we've tested you.

We know that you can you've paid an extra fee because this is something you're either sportsmen or you're a collector or whatever.

But some of these weapons are on the street today.

Don't need to be there for every Tom, Dick and Harry.

You can get on the same the sun today and go buy one tomorrow.

That kind of things has to stop.

Red flag laws and all this.

And then you have concealed carry and cops are telling you, this is my God, you're sending us into a shootout.

The okay Corral, everyone's got a gun hidden somewhere.

When they pulled a gun out, who knows what happened yesterday at the Super Bowl parade?

This is ridiculous.

And I don't know how you feel.

I've got ten grandchildren.

I'm scared to death one of them.

Tell me, everyone, go to the game tonight.

Watch your game.

We're going to go with mom and dad.

We're going to go with with with Jimmy.

My my best friends.

We're going to go with his parents to see a movie.

I'm scared to death.

They're going anywhere because it's just.

It's just a crap shoot.

Thank God they can come home safe.

That's not the America that I grew up in.

And should we fix it?

We should try.

And without taking away anyone's rights.

But there's, you know, there's there's laws that we have and people should have to have certain types of and certain types of weapons should be showing that you have the capability to do it.

And you're a mature person and you're not and your mentally, mentally stable.

And I imagine that's some of what you're hearing on your American.

Together hands I can assure doesn't questions financial responsibility countries 33 and a half $33.8 trillion in debt.

You can't just our generation can't sustain this much longer.

Think about your children and grandchildren.

Think about 2050 where we'll be ten.

You know, we're going to be we're going to be close to if we're going at this rate, close to $100 trillion of debt.

Nobody can sustain it in any modern any any government, any type of empire.

Going back to civilization has been brought down because of finances.

The people refuse to support the debt that's been incurred upon.

Well, let me ask you a little bit more about Americans together.

This is a group that you and your daughter have put together to try to.

She spearing it.

And we have a team here with us.

So everybody's doing Jonathan's back.

There was gardeners back there.

We got them all here.

They're working their tails off on this, trying to give people options and how we how good we can help you.

Now, this is a dark money group.

You're not required to disclose your donors, correct?

We are here in Ohio.

I've gotten a little suspicious of dark money groups because.

I'm suspicious of.

Certain energy laws and certain indictments and certain federal trials.

So and you've even said yourself that you support campaign finance reform.

absolutely.

So are you going to disclose your donors?

Well, when everybody else does, here's the thing about they should be basically transparency.

Okay.

From that standpoint, and especially I've always said in campaigning when when Citizens United came in, it basically came in because they thought businesses got tired of saying labor's got the upper hand.

Labor can have all these political PACs, they can raise all this money against us so we can never win.

And all you had to do is say we're going to have a fairness and balance in the system.

Labor and businesses would have had the same ability to have PACs.

They went over to the Supreme Court to get Citizens United, which says that a corporation is the same as a private citizen and was able to spend unlimited.

And then they had the 5a1c threes as you know, the public and then 501c fours.

But there are certain things you can and can't do with them.

But still, yeah, I think that everything should be transparent.

I'll be happy to do that.

But right now we're the smallest of a51c4.

If you knew the size of the 501c force of the Democrat and Republican, remember this.

These are not political parties any more the way we thought we grew up with political parties.

These are high end businesses, multibillion dollar businesses, the Democrat business and Republican business in Washington.

And it's a business entity, if you will.

And I can tell you, you know what?

I know the commodity is dysfunction.

Hate all the things that we say, because if I can get you to turn on them, you're going to get more.

To me, My business model is much better if you don't like the other side.

And the more I can make you dislike the other side, the better my business model does.

And that's just not who we are.

They were based on policy.

George Washington said 1796 be where the political parties before they were usurp the power from the people.

It's exactly what's happening.

So do we take it back?

If we can do that from Americans together to show you how to grab it again, whether it's going to be in, how you set your primaries up, the quality of the candidates, and that means everything to character.

And one more thing about candidates.

When people are asking you, I sure want you to support me and I sure need you to give me a contribution, a donation.

I wish you would say this.

I don't give contributions or donations to politicians, but I'm willing to make an investment.

What should I expect from my investment?

What are you going to do for me and my country?

Make them just put us on the spot.

Find out if a person is really in it for themself.

You can tell ambitious people that put their ambitions ahead of basically the purpose of why they're serving in West Virginia.

We can shake your hand, look in your eye and see your soul.

It's about all we got is our gut.

So we're going to figure out, Hey, you, you're in it for me.

Are you in it for you?

And that's what people do.

And right today, I think you're going to really dig deep.

Dig real deep.

Another dark money group that you've been tied to is No Labels.

And that's a group that had talked about maybe having a presidential ticket put together if there was a Trump-biden rematch.

What's going on with No Labels?

I think they're still out there doing everything they possibly can.

I got I got I support a No Labels still do.

I know all the people involved there.

And that started way back in 2010 when I first got elected.

I got elected to the United States Senate after Bob Byrd.

Robert Byrd, he died in June.

I thought I could just appoint for the next two years and still am.

I finished my second term as governor, but it came to the point where I couldn't because he got outside of the Constitution window.

He was longer than two years in the next general election.

So I had to appoint somebody and then run for a special election.

I I'd served the last two years of his term.

Now I served then I won in 2012 for a full term, 2018.

And no Labels.

When I went there, I thought, boy, I'm I'm going to the big leagues now because I've been a governor and I was head of the National Governors Association.

And I swear to you, I could not I could not walk in to a governor's meeting where there were 50 of us.

I could not tell you who were Democrats and Republicans if I didn't look at their resume, because we all had the same problems and we were all trying to help each other.

It was, I don't want to talk to you because it might help know Jeb Bush.

He really got involved with us in education in West Virginia.

We worked together.

Mitt Romney, my buddy up and up in Massachusetts at the time worked with us on health care.

We had no problems.

Call him.

They call me on crisis when we had mine disasters and they were having disasters, we would help them through it.

No one ever said, Well, I can't help you because you're on the other side.

Okay?

We traveled together.

We went over overseas together.

We did everything together.

And now all of a sudden I says, Well, I'm really going to the big time now.

I've been I've been into the triple AA ball, but now I'm going to the majors.

Well, guess what?

I think I went back to the Little League because I got up there and it was just so dysfunctional and they were the only avenue I had to sit down with a venue that I can meet Republicans and have that same collegiality with them that I had when I was a governor.

And I miss that.

So I've tried to keep that and I've always tried to keep Democrats and Republicans.

I invite them to go dinner.

And I'll give you one more thing.

I live on a boat.

I do when I'm in Washington and people say, why do you live on a boat?

And I said, I never want to be tied down to D.C. And when things get so damned, when things get bad, I can just pick up that old anchor or take them ropes off of the dock and just float away.

And I still intend to do that.

But once again, with no labels, like with other dark money groups, something together.

Yeah, but they have a lot of Republican donors, as with.

The main.

Thing or their backers.

I mean, is that a group to try to get Trump elected?

well, I don't think so.

Not the group, not the people I know is involved there.

No, very much so not.

But they've said it might might help him and hurt the thing of it is Joe Biden doesn't have a strong base.

Let's face it.

I mean, I know what's going on there.

His base is not strong.

It's very fluid.

Okay, Donald Trump has a very strong base of anywhere from 26, 27 to about 30, very strong.

You can't move him.

So they're saying if you are going to move somebody, you're going to move Joe Biden's people more than you are Donald Trump's people.

If they're responsible, reasonable people.

I think those who haven't made their mind up or those are holding their nose.

I've got people that Republicans says I don't like Donald Trump, but boy, that's what I got.

I might have to vote for him.

I got a year that I've got people that says I wouldn't vote for Donald Trump no matter what.

I vote for Joe Biden in a wheelchair for our Donald Trump.

I hear that.

I hear a little bit of everything back and forth, and none of them seem to be enamored of what they have.

But the system is producing what the business model wants you to.

That's that's your options.

It's like going in the you only have one or two couches to choose from.

Which one do you want?

Don't know.

Big variety.

No Labels has access to the ballot in 14 states.

As of January, it filed for a third party status in Ohio.

Last April.

But Secretary of State Frank LaRose said there were some problems with the 28,000 needed valid signatures.

And if No Labels is certified as a third party in Ohio under a law passed in 2013, it would not be until sometime in July.

Official ballots for the November election must be certified by the Secretary of State by August 27th.

And finally, a somber remembrance in the state House rotunda for Ted Gray, who was Ohio's longest serving state senator in 1950.

The 23 year old Republican from Springfield became the youngest person ever elected to the Ohio Senate.

He retired in 1994, and those four decades, he had been the Senate majority leader, President, pro-tem and chair of the Finance Committee.

Ted Gray was 96 years old.

And that is it for this week.

And my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our Web site at state News dot org or find us online by searching state of Ohio show.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the statehouse news bureau comes from medical mutual dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans offering health insurance plans as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med Mutual dot com the law offices of Porter right Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Right.

Is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter recom Porter right inspired every day.

The Ohio Education association representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.