Pro-Trump Ohio candidates realize endorsement may never come

MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's crowded Republican Senate race has been all about one man: Donald Trump.

But with less than two months until the state's May 3 primary to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman, some of the leading candidates have accepted that, despite their best efforts, the former president's coveted endorsement may never come.

“I’ve made my pitch to the president. I continue to make my pitch to the president. But we also have to make our pitch to voters because I think there’s a chance he stays out of it," said J.D. Vance, one of the candidates eagerly courting Trump.

Perhaps no race in the nation better represents the transformation of the Republican Party over the last six years than the one in Ohio. The state that voted twice for former President Barack Obama and elected a long succession of moderate Republicans, from former Gov. John Kasich to the establishment-minded Portman, has swung decisively right. And the leading candidates in the race have been working to out-Trump one another as they try to woo both him and his voters.

Vance notes at his town hall events that he speaks with Trump regularly. Former state Treasurer Josh Mandel is running with the slogan “pro-GOD, pro-GUN, pro-TRUMP.” And former Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken's website opens with an ad titled “Incredible Leader” that features footage of Trump praising her at his rallies and by tweet. At his last event in the state, her campaign hired a plane to pull a banner that read “Ohio is Trump Country" and distributed a flyer that called her “The Only True Pro-Trump, America First Candidate" in the race.

The candidates' past criticisms of Trump have also dominated the millions of dollars in negative advertising that has flooded the state's airwaves.

But Trump has remained on the sidelines,...