Monday night, seven Republicans running to fill Rob Portman's Senate seat took the stage together, each trying to lure voters to their side.
The candidates described the race as a fight to preserve American values, protect U.S. security and revive the economy. But having that many candidates for a single primary race led to a lot of comments about them trying to separate themselves from each other.
“Dignity, decorum are the last things we need right now,” says Mark Pukita. “We need to fix problems. I want to save this country for my grandchildren, your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. This is astounding to me. We have people here upon the stage who have shown us exactly who they are. And they are going to put on their costume and their make-up and campaign. They are going to get to Washington potentially and they are going to get there, and they are going to screw us like usual.”
“Let me say this, I will promise you that when we go to Washington D.C., we are going to make sure that every conservative that we work with everybody, and we want to make sure that I can negotiate as a negotiator with other side in the Senate,” adds Neil Petal.
“I am a constitutional conservative unapologetic,” says Mike Gibbons. “I think 2022 is going to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime. And I don’t believe we can entrust our country’s future to career politicians, party insiders, to people who put their finger in the air, when they want to find out what they are going to say next.”
Almost all of the candidates say the 2020 presidential election was either stolen from President Donald Trump or was filled with irregularities and fraud. Only Matt Dolan did not embrace those election allegations.
“There are people up on this stage who are literally fighting for one vote, and that person doesn’t even vote in Ohio,” says Matt Dolan. “That concern for that one vote doesn’t end on Election Day. My responsibility is to be the senator from Ohio for Ohio.”
You can watch the entire Republican Senate debate at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4AQF4pqZT8
