GOP candidates look for final boost in Ohio Senate race

Описание: High-profile surrogates for Republicans running in the hotly contested Ohio U.S. Senate primary are fanning out across the state or holding other events to give their endorsed candidates a last-minute boost ahead of Tuesday's election.

Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, along with Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, were among the conservative emissaries making final pitches in the critical Senate race. Former President Donald Trump, who held a rally in Ohio late last month to boost candidate JD Vance, botched Vance's name at an event in Nebraska over the weekend while trying to tout his endorsements nationwide.

The involvement of prominent surrogates in the primary shows the high stakes of Tuesday's election, when seven candidates are seeking the Republican nomination for the seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman. Democrats see the race as one of their best chances nationally to flip a seat in the midterm elections, while Republicans remain optimistic about their chances of holding a seat in a state that has swung to the right under Trump's influence.

The primary has been heated from the start, with nearly all the Republicans in the race competing for Trump's endorsement — a prize that eventually went to Vance, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy.” At the time of the endorsement, Vance was trailing in the polls, and the race is seen as one of the first big tests of Trump's enduring influence among Republican voters.

But at a rally in Nebraska on Sunday, Trump seemed to undercut his support for Vance by mixing up his name with that of another candidate in the race.

“We’ve endorsed Dr. (Mehmet) Oz. We’ve endorsed J.P., right — J.D. Mandel. And he’s doing great,” Trump told the crowd. “They’re all doing good. They’re all doing good. And let’s see what happens.”

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