I know it’s tough. Nobody likes Mike DeWine, the current Governor of Ohio. Even the establishment Republicans who have kissed his ring and endorsed him through the State Central Committee. Everyone I talk to would like to vote for an option, but they think the reality is defined by corruption and that DeWine’s money machine will win in the primary no matter what happens with Jim Renacci. Since the primary is near, I must remind everyone of how it was in 2016 when Trump was on the ticket. All the same, characters were backing John Kasich. He was the establishment guy, the unbeatable goliath. Trump didn’t stand a chance.

Nobody cared because Trump was just an old television celebrity who wrote a few books when I went to events and met Trump. In the political world, that’s how they saw him. What did he know about politics? I would go to VIP events and see seat reservations for all the well-known area Republicans who went unfilled. The people who ended up sitting in those seats were truck drivers, factory workers, and other pick-up truck driving, flag-waving patriots who were there for the same reason I was, to vote for a guy who most represented us, not the Deep State Swamp. Of course, after Trump beat Kasich in Ohio, the political world was shattered, and those empty seats quickly filled with supporters who were nudging in front of me to get a picture with President Trump. I didn’t care. I was happy to see it. Trump brought unity to the Republican Party in ways I had never seen before, and as for John Kasich, he disappeared from the earth quickly. Where is he today? Well, he and Dr. Fauci are likely in a hot tub together someplace hiding from the world, which would be good advice for them.

If the Trump Republicans show up to vote for Jim Renacci in the May primary, DeWine will be defeated. I know the risk is that whoever comes out against DeWine will be remembered. He’s like that. He is a powerful politician not because he is good but because he runs his place in the Republican Party like a mob boss. Get on his bad side, and you’ll find yourself swimming with the fishes. He won’t physically kill you. He’s a shrimpy little man and would be easy to swat away. But he has made up for that over the years with political command of the world around him.   There is a reason Ohio is the first state in corruption among all 50 states. It’s not just the FirstEnergy scandal driven by greenie weenie assaults on Ohio’s power grid; it’s because of how Mike DeWine runs his political circles. Nobody wants to work with Mike DeWine the day after an election where they got caught speaking out against him. It’s a huge risk to their careers. I get it. But just remember, fortune favors the bold, and the way politics is supposed to work is that these politicians work for us, not the other way around. Mike DeWine is number 1 in corruption because of this sentiment. He uses politics to gain power he doesn’t otherwise have, which we saw firsthand during Covid. Mike DeWine ran Ohio during his first term as Governor well to the political left of most Democrats. He runs as a conservative but the minute he wins an office; he legislates to the extreme left. 

I said months ago this was how it would be; all kinds of good Republicans smell the blood in the water and think they can beat DeWine because he’s so weak politically because of how terribly he destroyed people’s lives during the Covid shutdowns. Mike DeWine was just as bad as even the worse of the Blue State governors. In many ways, DeWine led all governors into the shutdown protocols, which opened the door for the massive devastation that occurred to Ohio businesses during Covid. Even more troubling, Mike DeWine asked the legislature for emergency powers a year before Covid happened in 2020.   DeWine has a history of serving the United Nations much more than he does the United States, and he seems to be involved in every Deep State scandal with his ear to the wind. We’ve seen some scary stuff from Mike DeWine during his first term as Governor of Ohio, and we have a chance to remove him and put someone much better in power. Someone much more Trump-like, or even more specifically, like Ron DeSantis of Florida. With Jim Renacci, we have a chance to have a candidate like that. If the Trump supporters show up on primary election day and vote, Mike DeWine wouldn’t have a chance. To me, it’s a low-risk endeavor. But the traditional machine politicians who have thrown themselves behind Mike DeWine know that primaries don’t have typical voters in them. They are the Central Committee types who care about politics seven days a week, not just one time a year or every four years like what we see in popular elections. So for them, voting for Renacci is a gamble many of them can’t afford to lose because it’s all about voter turnout, which they don’t think will be very robust.

Jim Renacci, who I have gotten to know a bit over the years, is the only candidate for Governor in Ohio who can call President Trump any time he wants. Blystone is a good guy in this Governor’s race. And I like Candace Keller and others who want to get involved. But in a tight race, and this is what the DeWine people know, all those challenges are going to split the rebellion vote, meaning the smart money will be left behind DeWine, and the Governor would then win a second term, even though he doesn’t come close to deserving it. DeWine has played this game before. He knows what the other establishment Republicans know, that primary elections are low voter turnout endeavors, and people likely won’t be thinking about Trump. So they will be shy to rally behind Jim Renacci and vote for him in the primary. The actual die-hards who want to see change and reform will split their votes up among the other challengers because none of them could get their act straight before the election, and chaos prevails, giving us more of Mike DeWine. That is how corruption stays in power. That is why we still have Mitch McConnell as the projected leader in the Senate. That is why more people in Congress do not fight to defend our border from illegal immigration. That is why the Swamp just gets deeper and deeper in Washington. In the end, the Swamp is deep because people keep voting for it. The fault ultimately falls on the voters for supporting it in elections like this one. People complain about how corrupt Mike DeWine is and how it would be great to get rid of him. They know that the 20 billion investments from Intel are coming to Ohio despite Mike DeWine, not because of him. Ohio is a great place. It just has had bad, bad governors, from John Kasich to now the extreme leftist from Yellow Springs hippie town, Mike DeWine. And with a perfect alternative right in front of our faces in Jim Renacci, the only Trump candidate on the ballot, the option we have is evident if only we have the guts to take it. 

There is a difference between supporting Trump and being a Trump candidate. I think most of the DeWine challengers are supportive of Trump. But when I first met Jim Renacci, for the very first time, it was coming off Air Force One with President Trump and Melania; the best First Lady America has ever had. Trump had asked Jim to run against Sherrod Brown in the Senate so that Republicans could gain a seat in the Senate. Jim almost beat the long-time progressive. He came very close. And in this case, DeWine is a very weak candidate. He is very weak with the Republican base, so if we are ever going to take down an establishment RINO, this would be the time. For those who want to vote for Trump and want an Ohio version of Ron DeSantis’s style of government, Jim Renacci is that person.   But first, people have to have the guts to show up and vote in the primary, at a time when most people are thinking about spring and summer and aren’t thinking about politics. It starts with voters. If they stay home and allow corruption to gain another term with Mike DeWine, then who is it to blame? Voters have a chance, but do they have the guts to take it? I certainly think it’s worth doing, and I will be voting for Jim Renacci no matter what, with great enthusiasm. 

Rich Hoffman