Donald Trump Jr. is among the prominent national Republicans slated to visit Ohio to campaign for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in the final days before the Nov. 5 election.
The former president’s son is scheduled to make several stops here on Tuesday, including appearances with Moreno and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Moreno’s campaign said.
And Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is visiting on Wednesday, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is scheduled to be here on Friday. Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who’s vying to become the next Republican leader in the Senate, made a few stops with Moreno on Monday, including in Columbus.
The lineup of national representatives — called “surrogates” in political speak — shows the high stakes Ohio’s Senate race has for national Republicans as they aim to defeat longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and retake control of the U.S. Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow majority.
Republicans are favored in two states with Democratic incumbents that would allow them to win the Senate: Montana and West Virginia. Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to defend their incumbents, the most vulnerable of whom is Brown, while also reaching to defeat Republican incumbents in Texas and Florida.
It also shows how different factions of the GOP are interested in helping Moreno. DeSantis campaigned against former President Donald Trump ahead of last March’s primary election, staying longer than other contenders, including Scott, and angering Trump and his political allies.
Notably, though, Donald Trump, the former president who’s running for the White House again this year, has not scheduled a visit. The last time he was in Ohio was in March, when he visited days before the primary election to help Moreno clinch the Republican nomination. Ohio widely is not viewed as competitive in the presidential race this year, making it a near non-factor for both parties, although observers view the race between Brown and Moreno as a toss-up.
Brown’s campaign hasn’t emphasized or publicized national surrogates in the same way, although Martin Sheen, an Ohio native who portrayed a U.S. president on “The West Wing” TV show campaigned here last week, and two Democratic senators — Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Cory Booker of New Jersey — have campaigned here recently.
Brown campaigned in Northeast Ohio on Sunday, making appearances in Cleveland, Akron and Lorain.
A bevy of current Senate Republicans also have campaigned for Moreno recently or will soon: Steve Daines of Montana, the leader of Senate Republicans’ campaign committee; John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida, who both also are running for GOP Senate leader; John Barrasso of Wyoming, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Jodi Ernst of Iowa, Shelley Moore-Capito of West Virginia, Bill Haggerty and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Roger Marshall of Kansas, Mike Lee of Utah, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Marco Rubio of Florida.
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