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U.S. Sen. Portman says GOP is unified
CLEVELAND
During the daily breakfast meetings for the Ohio delegation to the Republican National Convention, the name of Donald Trump rarely was uttered by speakers even though he’s the party’s presidential nominee.
But when U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, who is seeking re-election, got to the podium Thursday, he mentioned Trump more times than all the other speakers combined over the four days of meetings.
Portman backed Gov. John Kasich in the Republican primary, but endorsed Trump when Kasich left the race.
“The Trump-Pence ticket is going to be the right ticket to win in November,” Portman said.
Portman praised Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, for his Wednesday night acceptance speech and called for unity.
“Let’s be honest, there’s no other choice,” Portman said of Trump. “We don’t want another four years of [President] Barack Obama.”
Portman was referring to Hillary Clinton, who officially will become the Democratic presidential nominee at that party’s convention next week.
Portman also questioned media reports that Republicans aren’t unified at the convention, which concluded Thursday after four days.
“I thought we were more unified than ever after this week,” he said.
During his Wednesday convention speech, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who lost the primary to Trump, was booed by numerous delegates when he didn’t endorse Trump and, instead, said to “vote your conscience.”
Moments before Portman preached unity Wednesday, Kasich spoke to the delegation about standing up for your beliefs.
Kasich has refused to endorse Trump or speak at the convention.
He pointed to the Cruz issue when he said: “There are a lot of people who are wondering what am I doing. You can all understand why I didn’t show up to speak at the convention, by the way, after what you saw” Wednesday.
Kasich said he was traveling to other states to help Republican congressional candidates, specifically mentioning he would “live in Arizona” to get U.S. Sen. John McCain re-elected.
Shortly after, Kasich called himself “the father of Ohio.”
Kasich never mentioned Trump in his speech and refused to take questions from the media when he left the meeting.
He told the delegation: “We want politicians to stand on principle, and then whenever they do, if it’s not the principles we like, we’re not so much into them standing on principle.”
At the end of his gubernatorial term in 2018, Kasich said he’ll have been in politics for 30 years.
“I have no regrets for what I’ve done in my political career,” he said, adding, “I look in the mirror and I feel good about who I am.”
Efforts to coordinate the Trump campaign with the Ohio Republican Party have been challenging.
Ohio Republican Chairman Matt Borges acknowledged as much when he said, “Things got off to a rough start” Monday.
He was referring to critical comments by Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, who said Kasich was embarrassing Ohio by not backing Trump and called the governor “petulant.”
Borges said he spoke late Wednesday with Trump in an attempt to work together.
“Our challenges are not with each other; our challenge is against Hillary Clinton,” Borges said he told Trump.
Kasich introduced Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who hosted Thursday’s breakfast.
Though she also never mentioned Trump, Taylor said, “It’s time to speak with one voice.”
She criticized Obama and Clinton, but not by name.
“Change was promised and we got change,” but not for the better, Taylor said about Obama.
“Don’t let it happen again,” Taylor said, regarding Clinton.