This weekend, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Matt Dolan earned the endorsement of The Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial Board. In their endorsement, the editorial board described Dolan as the “only realistic choice … giving Ohio’s Republicans exactly one clearly qualified candidate of the seven who are seeking their party’s nomination and the right to go up against likely Democratic primary winner U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in November.”
The Board also noted that “Dolan is results-oriented and the only candidate with effective legislative experience, the gravitas we should expect from a senator and a clear vision of what he wants to do once he gets to Washington – a vision that aligns with conservative priorities that should be most important to the GOP electorate.”
The full endorsement can be read by clicking HERE.
Matt Dolan in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate: endorsement editorial
When Republican Sen. Rob Portman declared well over a year ago that he did not intend to seek a third term in the U.S. Senate, his surprising announcement drew a lot of attention – notably, and unfortunately, from several GOP wannabes who have no business being any closer to the Senate than the gallery.
Fortunately, state Sen. Matt Dolan of Chagrin Falls surveyed the field, reached the same conclusion, and eventually joined the crowded field last September – giving Ohio’s Republicans exactly one clearly qualified candidate of the seven who are seeking their party’s nomination and the right to go up against likely Democratic primary winner U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in November.
Dolan is results-oriented and the only candidate with effective legislative experience, the gravitas we should expect from a senator and a clear vision of what he wants to do once he gets to Washington – a vision that aligns with conservative priorities that should be most important to the GOP electorate.
Dolan, 57, is unequivocal regarding his reasons for running:
“I got in this race because I was not satisfied as a Republican, as an Ohioan and as a public servant, that these people in the race were talking about the issues that matter to Ohio,” Dolan told the editorial board of The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com in the endorsement interview this week. “They were running a campaign and still remain running a campaign of trying to get one person’s vote, one person’s support.”
That one person is Trump, whose contention that the 2020 election was stolen from him is eagerly supported by the other six.
Dolan is the only candidate willing to state the obvious:
“Let me be very clear,” Dolan said in a debate hosted by the Ohio Debate Commission two weeks ago. “Joe Biden is the legitimate president of the United States.”
“My problem is that he’s a failed president,” Dolan added, ticking off the areas of the economy, taxes, border enforcement, school choice, crime and support for police, foreign relations, burgeoning federal regulations and expanding government in which he disagrees with Biden and the Democratic leadership.
Dolan is not anti-Trump. He gives the former president his due on many policy matters, but separates himself from the pack with his refusal to re-argue the 2020 election.
“I’m OK with Trump policies because a lot of them were good Republican policies, but we need to look forward as Republicans, not backward,” he told our editorial board. “That doesn’t help somebody who’s looking for a job who needs workforce training, who’s scared about the drugs that are coming into our state because of the open borders.”
“The Biden administration is taking us at a direction that I do not want our country to go, that I do not want our state to go,” added Dolan, a lawyer who has served in the Ohio Senate since January 2017, and who has been entrusted with key budgeting duties as chair of the Finance Committee. “But as Republicans, if we just are going to point out problems, we’re going to fail. We’ve got to … be able to execute on good conservative ideas to make sure our economy is strong.”
All seven candidates in the Republican primary were invited to participate in the conversation with our editorial board. Only Dolan showed up, with the others either declining or ignoring the invitation. No matter – this was an obvious call, and there is only one realistic choice.
If Republicans want a candidate who will represent them well and effectively in the U.S. Senate, and not embarrass Ohio with conspiracy theories and fruitless combativeness, they will send Matt Dolan on to contend for the U.S. Senate in November.
View online HERE.
Learn more about Matt Dolan’s campaign for U.S. Senate at www.DolanForOhio.com.