Ohio Republican state Sen. Matt Dolan on Tuesday announced another campaign for the U.S. Senate, becoming the first GOP candidate to announce his 2024 candidacy for the seat.
Dolan, who finished third in last year’s Republican primary for the seat currently held by Sen. JD Vance, hoping to challenge Sen. Sherrod Brown of the Democratic Party, who was first elected to the post in 2006.
“A lot can change in 30 years, but in that time Sherrod Brown’s blind loyalty to his party remains the same,” Dolan wrote on Twitter. “I have a record of conservative leadership, based on results,”
Dolan previously signaled that his loss in the 2022 primary would not deter him from pursuing another race.
“This is not an obituary for me,” he told Politico in June.
The Ohio Republican has criticized former President Donald Trump and his efforts to cancel the 2020 presidential election, including the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, which he called “leadership failure.”
Dolan urged the GOP to switch its messaging.
“The midterm elections show us nationally that the Republicans want to put up folks who focused on yesterday, open this campaign grievances, we will lose,” Dolan told the USA Today Network Ohio bureau.
After the 2022 primary, Dolan created the Ohio Matters Super PAC, which supports GOP candidates who oppose political extremism.
Dolan, a lawyer whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians, a self-funded part of his previous Senate campaign, provided about $10 million in personal funding, according to Politico.
Ohio has experienced a political realignment in recent years, potentially representing a good pickup opportunity for the GOP. While Ohioans elected Barack Obama as president in 2008 and 2012, they voted for Trump in the next two presidential contests.
In 2020, Trump beat Biden by 8 points in the state.