basquebromance
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2015
- 109,396
- 27,004
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It's easy to dismiss Josh Mandel as a fringe candidate with bizarre tweets. But the truth is, he's using Trump's playbook to lead every single GOP primary poll.
www.politico.com
www.nbcnews.com
excerpts:
He called Black Lives Matter activists “thugs.” He called “the transgender movement” “insane.” He called Covid-19 “a bioweapon manufactured by the Chinese Communist Party” to defeat Donald Trump. He talked about the “seep” of “illegals” at the border, describing the emigration of Haitians, Hondurans, Mexicans and Guatemalans as an “invasion” “funded” by George Soros, “orchestrated” by Barack Obama and “enabled” by Joe Biden. He said he didn’t believe in the separation of church and state because “there’s no such thing.” And he suggested he didn’t need or even want traditional GOP support. He made a fist and patted his chest at his heart.
“I wear as a badge of honor,” said Josh Mandel, with two quick curls of his lip and a self-satisfied smirk, “that the establishment in the Republican Party hates me.”
He doesn’t act the way he used to act, and he doesn’t talk the way he used to talk, say so many Democrats and Republicans alike. And they’re right. He used to present as more moderate, used to preach bipartisanship and diversity and civility, and no longer does. Perhaps most importantly, he once was conspicuously unsupportive of Trump, and now he has publicly pivoted to full-fledged MAGA. Who, they wonder, is he really? In the end, though, that elemental, sometimes poignant question that has coursed through so many of my conversations about Mandel is actually a question about the identity of the Republican Party writ large. Mandel, they all thought, was a big part of the future of the GOP. And they might still be right. The future’s just not what they thought it would be.
“Josh,” a Democratic operative who spent years working against Mandel told me, “is more emblematic of the Republican Party and of what has happened in American politics than maybe any human being who’s running for office.”
“He’s always been a chameleon,” Ohio GOP strategist Ryan Stubenrauch told me. “This was always Josh Mandel.”
On the way out into the icy dark, I told him I was going to see Vance, dropping in on some of the stops on the town hall tour he’s calling “NO BS.”
Mandel sniffed.
“What a phony,” he said. “He’s an actor playing a role.”
“I don’t think he’s ever really changed,” said Dennis Eckart, a longtime Democratic strategist in Ohio. “He’s an opportunity-seeking opportunist.”
Josh Mandel Could Be Ohio’s Next Senator. So What Does He Believe?
He publicly changed from moderate to full MAGA warrior to survive in today’s GOP. It might work.
www.politico.com
Josh Mandel foreshadowed Trump’s rise. His Ohio Senate bid is a test of what’s next.
Trump reflected and reinforced the brand that Mandel had been building for years. But Mandel can’t shake the criticism that he’s an opportunistic shape-shifter.
www.nbcnews.com
excerpts:
He called Black Lives Matter activists “thugs.” He called “the transgender movement” “insane.” He called Covid-19 “a bioweapon manufactured by the Chinese Communist Party” to defeat Donald Trump. He talked about the “seep” of “illegals” at the border, describing the emigration of Haitians, Hondurans, Mexicans and Guatemalans as an “invasion” “funded” by George Soros, “orchestrated” by Barack Obama and “enabled” by Joe Biden. He said he didn’t believe in the separation of church and state because “there’s no such thing.” And he suggested he didn’t need or even want traditional GOP support. He made a fist and patted his chest at his heart.
“I wear as a badge of honor,” said Josh Mandel, with two quick curls of his lip and a self-satisfied smirk, “that the establishment in the Republican Party hates me.”
He doesn’t act the way he used to act, and he doesn’t talk the way he used to talk, say so many Democrats and Republicans alike. And they’re right. He used to present as more moderate, used to preach bipartisanship and diversity and civility, and no longer does. Perhaps most importantly, he once was conspicuously unsupportive of Trump, and now he has publicly pivoted to full-fledged MAGA. Who, they wonder, is he really? In the end, though, that elemental, sometimes poignant question that has coursed through so many of my conversations about Mandel is actually a question about the identity of the Republican Party writ large. Mandel, they all thought, was a big part of the future of the GOP. And they might still be right. The future’s just not what they thought it would be.
“Josh,” a Democratic operative who spent years working against Mandel told me, “is more emblematic of the Republican Party and of what has happened in American politics than maybe any human being who’s running for office.”
“He’s always been a chameleon,” Ohio GOP strategist Ryan Stubenrauch told me. “This was always Josh Mandel.”
On the way out into the icy dark, I told him I was going to see Vance, dropping in on some of the stops on the town hall tour he’s calling “NO BS.”
Mandel sniffed.
“What a phony,” he said. “He’s an actor playing a role.”
“I don’t think he’s ever really changed,” said Dennis Eckart, a longtime Democratic strategist in Ohio. “He’s an opportunity-seeking opportunist.”
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