Trump remains undecided on whether he should endorse in Ohio’s crowded GOP Senate primary

Four people familiar with the matter said that what transpired in Pennsylvania with Parnell has cast a shadow over the primary in neighboring Ohio. In recent weeks, Trump has expressed concern about the general election viability of former Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel, who abruptly ended his 2018 Senate campaign over a still-undisclosed health issue that said his then-wife was facing and whose sealed divorce file has given Trump pause.

While Mandel and his ex-wife have made records related to their divorce available to reporters since the outset of his 2022 campaign, Trump has told allies that he is concerned about Mandel’s viability in a general election contest.

Asked about Mandel’s sealed divorce filing, a campaign spokesman noted that Mandel and his ex-wife, Ilana Shafran, who told The Cincinnati Enquirer last year that she was willing to “help elect” him, have jointly made records related to their divorce available to members of the media. The Mandel spokesman also pointed to a March 12, 2021, court filing in which Judge Ronald Forsthoefel, who initially sealed their divorce records, argued for the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Enquirer, which requested that the divorce filing be unsealed in its entirety. Forsthoefel said that the records Mandel’s campaign shared with the Enquirer and other press outlets “accurately reflect the source documents on file with the Court,” according to a copy of his motion to dismiss that CNN obtained. In a February 2021 story, the Enquirer said the records that were made available by Mandel’s campaign detailed the couple’s custody arrangements, income, and assets, but offered limited insight into why they chose to dissolve their marriage.

“We could lose a seat with (Mandel) and Trump doesn’t want to be responsible for that. He doesn’t want to pick a loser in Ohio,” said one Trump adviser. “We expect the Democrats to highlight it and it’s not worth taking the risk.”

Another Trump World adviser said the former President views Mandel as “a ticking time bomb” and said that “everyone down at Mar-a-Lago is pretty cognizant and aware of this situation.”

‘No good options’

The former state treasurer isn’t the only candidate about whom Trump has reservations.

Trump recently met with conservative tech mogul Peter Thiel at Mar-a-Lago to hear his case for endorsing “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance, according to two people familiar with the meeting. But the former President made no promises during the meeting and remains uneasy about getting behind Vance, who has struggled to pull away from the rest of the candidates, //insert comma// both in polling and enthusiasm on the ground, one of these people said.

Trump also remains hung up on Vance’s sharp criticism of him during the 2016 GOP presidential primary — something Ohio voters were reminded of in a spate of ads the Club for Growth ran late last year that featured footage of Vance calling Trump an “idiot” and “offensive.” The club, which has endorsed Mandel, hoped the ads would impair Vance’s image in a state Trump won by 8 percentage points in 2020.

“He likes J.D. a lot but hasn’t quite gotten over his criticism and is less than impressed with his polling,” said one of the Trump advisers. A spokesperson for Vance declined to comment on the record.

Though Trump is in talks with Republican Mike Gibbons’ campaign about a possible meeting with the Cleveland-based investment banker, two people familiar with the matter said Trump has told allies that he finds Gibbons underwhelming even as Gibbons has tapped a trio of former Trump aides — including 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien — to advise his campaign. He is also working with Trump campaign attorney Justin Clark and former 2016 Trump campaign adviser Michael Biundo.

Trump has not yet scheduled a meeting with Gibbons, according to a person familiar with the matter, but has been paying close attention to his campaign, which has launched a multimillion-dollar ad buy touting his business acumen and casting two of his rivals, Vance and former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken, as faux Trump supporters. Gibbons and Mandel are currently leading the pack of Senate Republican contenders in Ohio, according to a Fox News poll released Tuesday that found Gibbons with 22 percent support and Mandel with 20 percent — a difference within the poll’s 3-point margin of error. However, the same poll also found that nearly a quarter of Republican primary voters (24%) remained undecided about who to support.

While the former President is still unsure about Gibbon’s viability in the general election, one person close to Trump said he has also been warned by some of his advisers that backing Gibbons could irritate Trump’s religious supporters given a recent controversy over past comments Gibbons has made about abortion.

As a Republican candidate for Senate in the 2018 cycle, Gibbons told The Associated Press in an interview that he personally opposed abortion and supported overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that established a constitutional right to the procedure, but was “not a woman” and thus wouldn’t choose for them. Gibbons used the phrase “pro-people” to describe his views at the time.

After Vance mentioned the AP story during a campaign stop last month, Gibbons released an op-ed describing the Ohio primary as a “vicious arena where craven political opportunists seize on any and every opportunity to mischaracterize their opponents” and defending himself as “100 percent pro-life.”

“I ask every pro-life voter to look beyond the sound bites and the petty attacks. Look into our life stories. Look into our hearts. Then make your decision,” Gibbons wrote in the op-ed.

Also competing for Trump’s endorsement is Timken, whom the former President was on the brink of endorsing last spring until he was talked out of it by top advisers — including his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who has developed a close relationship with Vance. Despite recently hiring two of Trump’s longtime confidantes, David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski, as campaign consultants, Timken has struggled to regain the former President’s favor.

Former Trump adviser Bryan Lanza, who doesn’t expect Trump to make an endorsement before Ohio’s May 3 primary, said the involvement of so many Trump allies in the Ohio Senate race has made it increasingly difficult for the former President to bet on a single candidate in the primary.

“With so many candidates and such a tight window, he doesn’t know who to pick,” said Lanza. “When there are conflicting alliances and nobody has really broken away from the pack, I don’t think he will do anything.”

Multiple people close to Trump said Timken’s biggest misstep was her defense last year of Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. Though Timken eventually walked back her support for Gonzalez and called on him to resign, her comments are “seared in [Trump’s] memory and he’s not a forgiving person,” said one Trump adviser. (Gonzalez has since declined to seek reelection.)

Trump has also been paying close attention to Timken’s embrace of Portman, who endorsed her last month to succeed him in the Senate but has been far from a Trump acolyte inside the upper chamber over the past year. Portman has been critical of Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, after which he voted to certify the 2020 election results without objection. He was also one of 19 Republican senators who voted for the Biden administration’s $1 trillion…