Portman Says Ohio's U.S. Senate Race is Drawing Lots of GOP Interest Now That Mandel Is Out

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Portman Says Ohio's U.S. Senate Race is Drawing Lots of GOP Interest Now That Mandel Is Out

海角破解版 | By Mark Urycki

Published January 9, 2018 at 6:49 PM EST

Republicans inside and outside Ohio are pushing their favorite candidates to jump into the U.S. Senate race to challenge incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown. The field opened when Josh Mandel .

Republican Senator Rob Portman.

In a call with reporters, Portman says he鈥檚 been hearing from people wanting to jump in.

鈥淚 would assume there would be a lot of people who jump in.聽 I鈥檓 trying to think how many people have called me the last few days.聽I think its five different people said they might be interested that either texted or called me.聽 So I think it鈥檒l be a spirited primary.鈥�

Portman says author J.D. Vance is 鈥渓ooking into it鈥� and gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci is 鈥渄efinitely looking into it.鈥� A spokesman for Renacci told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the congressman is .