Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine is trailing behind primary challenger Jim Renacci by a significant margin in the latest poll commissioned by Renacci. Both candidates will be competing to win the conservative vote, but the race will likely be decided in large part by Donald Trump. Renacci has positioned himself firmly as the Trump-aligned candidate in the gubernatorial race and aims to make the primary a referendum on the former president’s influence in the GOP.
GOP incumbent faces tough primary
Governor DeWine and his allies have expressed confidence so far; DeWine has been a fixture in Ohio politics for decades and has a long record of office holding to point to, in addition to the advantage of being the incumbent.
Jim Renacci, by contrast, has a less certain record. The former rep. was the only Republican to lose a statewide race in Ohio in 2018 with his failed Senate bid.
If the polling is accurate, however, Renacci currently has a very strong lead as the 2022 primary approaches.
The poll gives Renacci an eight point lead over DeWine among likely Republican voters, suggesting that his efforts to align himself with the Trump agenda have had some success.
The former president has devoted his energies to unseating a number of Republican incumbents who opposed him by throwing his support behind conservative primary challengers.
Republican governors Brian Kemp and Doug Ducey, of Georgia and Arizona respectively, will face powerful Trump-backed primary challenges this year for their perceived opposition after the 2020 election.
Trump keeping his distance
Renacci, however, has not received the same kind of wholehearted support from Trump that other primary challengers have been able to call on.
Trump might be wary of throwing his support behind a candidate whose last run for office failed, but he may also have concerns about undermining DeWine too vocally.
The Ohio governor has a mostly conservative record and played a key role in delivering his state for the Trump campaign in 2020, despite his occasional flirting with anti-Trump forces.
Most of the controversy surrounding DeWine is related to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, for which he was praised extensively in the uncertain early days of the virus.
Since then, Republicans in Ohio have been displeased with his insistence on stricter mask mandates and lockdowns than those put in place by other GOP governors.
Renacci is focusing heavily on Republican opposition to these policies in his campaign, but that alone does not seem to have been enough to draw Trump’s full support yet, even if it is giving him a strong boost in the polls.
