RINOs in Cuyahoga County

Ralph King and President Trump

Ohio’s Ralph King: Establishment Republicans
are Trying to Take over Local GOP
to Help Matt Dolan in Primary

The “Ralph King” in the Breitbart headline is Cleveland Tea Party founder Ralph King :

Ralph King, the co-founder of Cleveland Tea Party Patriots, told Breitbart News Saturday that establishment Republicans with close ties to Democrats are trying to infiltrate the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County in order to help U.S. Senate candidate Matt Dolan early in the primary process and wrest control away from conservatives who have taken command in recent years.

King, who has been active in Cuyahoga County Republican politics since 2001, explained that the establishment Republicans are trying to infiltrate the local county party in an effort to help Dolan in the upcoming 2024 Senate race’s Republican primary after his failed attempt in 2022 when he came in third behind now-Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) in the GOP primary.

“The activists and the conservatives, you know, we’ve been fighting for a long time,” King acknowledged. “We just stopped a lobbyist from taking over the Ohio Republican Party. There’s a huge fight between the lobbyists and the conservatives in the Ohio House over the Ohio speaker. And in Cuyahoga County, which I’ve been on for many, many years, you know, we continually fought against the liberals, the establishment, the donor class, and until recently, we finally got a good chair to put a stop to all that. And the liberals and the RINOs in the establishment, you know, they are pushing back. And at this moment, what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to hold illegal meetings … to try to get rid of a new chairman that we have [who] has given voice to the members and has stopped putting their finger on the scale, to tip it towards the establishment, and they’re mad they no longer control the party.”

“Between [former] President [Donald] Trump coming out [in support] for J.D. Vance and us on the Cuyahoga County Republican Party, Matt Dolan tried to steal that endorsement,” King continued. “Cuyahoga County Republican Party is one of the largest GOP parties in the state of Ohio. Although we’re in the pit of the Democrat heart of Ohio, we do have the largest party. It is Matt Dolan’s home party. That’s the importance, so between President Trump and the Cuyahoga County Republican Party slapping Matt Dolan down in that last election — between the two — we ultimately killed his chances to win the primaries. That’s why Matt knows he needs control of the GOP in Cuyahoga County at this point. So what he did, he’s vowed revenge since that time.”

King ultimately said that the “illegal meeting” the establishment Republicans are trying to hold for the Cuyahoga County Republican Party is to remove the current chair, Lisa Stickan, halfway through her four-year term to put Lee Weingart in as chair to help Dolan be better placed in the 2024 Republican primary.

“So what [Dolan’s] done is we have a gentleman by the name of Lee Weingart,” King explained. “Lee Weingart is a lobbyist. Lee Weingart has a history of donating to [Rep.] Marcy Kaptur [(D-OH)], [Sen.] Sherrod Brown [(D-OH)], a long history of donating to [former Rep.] Tim Ryan [(D-OH)] — actually made $3,000 donations to Tim Ryan in 2021 and was actually campaigning for Tim Ryan in Iowa [during his failed presidential run] — which would be par for the course for Matt Dolan to team up with a guy and a lobbyist like Lee Weingart. Lee Weingart tried to hold an illegal meeting. He used Matt Dolan’s firm to give some outrageous legal opinion supporting this illegal meeting. And what people need to realize is there’s a key between Matt Dolan and Lee Weingart and the donations to the Democrats and supporting Democrats. Matt Dolan was originally a Democrat before he started calling himself a Republican. … We are in a fight for the life of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party against the establishment likes of Lee Weingart and Matt Dolan.” . . .

Ralph King: fighting the good fight.  Full report is here.

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Another GOP running for Portman’s Senate Seat in Ohio

 

Andrew J. Tobias at cleveland.com reports:

Republican Ohio Sen. Matt Dolan has changed his campaign materials from saying he’s exploring running for the U.S. Senate to actually doing it..

. . .

Dolan would enter a crowded field of five other well-funded, established contenders, including three from Cuyahoga County, plus several more lower-profile candidates. Dolan would be unique as the only candidate to have created daylight between himself and former President Donald Trump, who continues to hold a dominating presence over Republican politics despite losing the November election. Following the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, Dolan tweeted that the event was a “failure of leadership starting with @realdonaldtrump.”

He’s just lost me.

“Too many so called leaders perpetuated lies about the outcome of the November 2020 election. And the people who trust their leadership believes them. Real leaders lead not manipulate. Truth matters,” Dolan said in the January tweet.

. . .

Only one other Republican candidate, former state treasurer Josh Mandel, has previously held office. Three higher-profile candidates -- author and venture capitalist JD Vance, former Ohio Republican Party chairman Jane Timken and car dealer Bernie Moreno -- are first-time candidates. And Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons has never held office, but ran and lost in the 2018 U.S. Senate primary.

The field may be crowded, but the declared candidates are mostly wannabees who pretend to be Trump supporters.  So far, I am still looking at Mike Gibbons.  It is too bad he does not have better name recognition.

Full article by Tobias is here.

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