A conservative activist in Ohio is suggesting that a large number of Democrats may have crossed over and voted in Tuesday’s Republican primary in hopes of advancing the most “Democrat-like” candidates to the general election.
The big story out of Ohio’s GOP primary was how JD Vance rode Donald Trump’s endorsement to victory, winning over second-place Josh Mandel by more than eight points. In mid-April, Vance trailed Mandel – a former state treasurer – in the polls by five points. The GOP hopeful now will face incumbent Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan in the general election in November.
During an appearance on the Fox News Channel, political analyst Karl Rove pointed out the dramatic increase in Republican voter turnout in Ohio’s Senate and gubernatorial primaries on Tuesday.
“It looks like the Republican turnout this year will be coming close to 1.2 million,” he noted. “So, think about that: nearly a 50% increase since four years ago. The Democrat turnout? It will be lucky to get to 600,000.”
That, said Rove, shows the state “has moved dramatically … in a Republican direction” over the last four to six years.
But Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio-based We the People Convention, offers another theory about the dramatic Republican overvote.
“There was a news article that came out right before the election that said the Democrats were going to cross over and vote in the Republican primary for [Governor] Mike DeWine and for [Senate candidate] Matt Dolan because they consider them to be the most Democrat-like candidates,” he explains to AFN.
“So, these 228,000 votes that came in in the governor’s race – were those votes actually from Democrats for Mike DeWine?” he wonders. “I don’t know how we can figure that out, but I thought that was very interesting that there was such a large overvote in the governor’s race.”
Meanwhile, a political analyst who had predicted Vance’s victory now predicts the GOP candidate – should he win the in November – probably would be more conservative than the Republican he would replace, Senator Rob Portman.
“And probably more so. I would predict more so,” Rob Chambers, vice president of AFA Action. “We saw where Rob Portman went squishy on LGBT-type issues. I don’t think we’re going to see that with JD Vance, however.”
And like Rove, Chambers sees Ohio turning more Red. “When it comes to a Senate voting history, there is a trend that it has gone Republican since 1998,” he says, pointing out that three congressional districts in the state that were traditionally Democratic have flipped to Republican.
Editor’s Note: AFA Action is an affiliate of the American Family Association, the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
“As Ohio goes, so goes the nation”, not just a slogan these days of Democrat self-destruction but a reality.
AND It wouldn’t surprise me one BIT, to find out that DEMS WERE ALLOWED TO ‘change party” just so they could PUSH THE RINOS to the head of the pack. WHILE STILL VOTING for their favored demonrat operative(s).
Nobody likes radicals except when they are useful otherwise they are avoided. After the 2016 election came the rise of the radical anti-Trumpers whose sole purpose was to undermine and destroy the sitting President, they merely unseated him but in their zeal and haste to get rid of him they neglected to devise working plans to allow the government to move forward. Instead they had the figurehead they elected to impliment all of their socialist unproven agendas to a disasterous result. The whole country sees this and are not ‘amused’ which the shenanigans used divert attention from the real problems!
Which is why i was SHOCKED to hell, that trump DID endorse vance… HE WAS, a RABID never trumper, and i have NOT SEEN A SINGLE THING to change my mind about that.