Among the Republicans currently campaigning to replace Sen. Rob Portman (R–Ohio) are former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance.
Writing in Reason this Friday, libertarian Joe Lancaster contends that the race has "laid bare some ugly aspects of our political moment" and alleges the two candidates are locked into a "race to the bottom."
According to Lancaster, one thing the two candidates have in common "is the utter shamelessness with which they stumble over themselves trying to appeal to former President Donald Trump's voting base."
After initially claiming he would never support Trump, Vance has since reversed himself and had moved "deeper and deeper into the authoritarian nationalist wing of the American right," writes Lancaster. But Mandel apparently thinks Vance is too moderate, and has regurgitated false claims about the 2020 election and has branded to lawmakers who've opposed Trump as traitors.
"Both candidates seem to be doing the same thing: playacting what they think the Trump base wants to see. Whether they're pandering or whether they truly believe these things, the spectacle is bad news," Lancaster writes. "If there's one thing that we should have learned over the last five years, it's that Republicans who are this beholden to Trump have absolutely no appetite for limiting the size and scope of federal power."
Read the full article over at Reason.
