WASHINGTON, D.C. — Frank LaRose won former President Donald Trump’s endorsement back in 2022 for Ohio Secretary of State, the only Secretary of State in the country to receive such an endorsement.
“Frank is committed to ‘making it easy to vote and impossible to cheat,’” Trump wrote in a now-deleted post on his campaign website. “I give Frank LaRose my Complete and Total Endorsement!”
Now that LaRose is running for Senate, though, the former president has endorsed an opponent, businessman Bernie Moreno.
But LaRose is staying loyal to the former president and to his populist platform that has grown more popular with Ohio Republican voters in recent years.
“The America First platform that President Trump has led on is the party platform,” LaRose said in a one-on-one interview with Spectrum News.
LaRose is hoping, though, that Ohio voters aren’t quite as loyal.
When asked how he could convince Trump supporters to ignore the former president’s endorsement and vote for him instead, LaRose claimed he better represented Trump’s America First agenda.
“People are looking for a Senator who is going to stand with President Trump and who is going to help him accomplish his agenda, but they also want a senator that's going to work for them and be focused on the needs of the people of Ohio. That's who I am,” said LaRose, who has criticized Trump in the past. “And endorsements are just what they are. It's one politician supporting another. Most people don't make their voting decision based on endorsements.”
LaRose is already well known in Ohio as an Eagle Scout and Army Green Beret who served eight years as a state senator and five as Secretary of State, a role in which he has publicly campaigned for Republican stances on ballot measures.
He played a central role advocating against a ballot measure in the state’s special election on Aug. 8, 2023 that would have raised the bar for voters to ratify future state constitutional amendments from the 51% currently required to 60%, which would have lowered the chance of passage for a November ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution. The August ballot measure failed by 57% of the vote, while the November ballot measure passed by the same margin.
Despite LaRose being on the losing side of both measures, the GOP base may yet reward him for working to restrict abortion rights.
“I’m kind of leaning toward [LaRose],” said Ralph Stonerock of Marysville, Ohio. “I think he’s done an amazing job as secretary of state. I’d like to see him go further. However, I don’t think we’re bad with any of the candidates.”
LaRose has been holding meet and greets on the campaign trail throughout Ohio to reach the 42% of Republican primary voters who say they’re still undecided.
“I’m just trying to figure out how we’re going to vote,” said Linda Ghiloni, a Republican voter who showed up to a LaRose meet and greet after hearing about it in church. “Which way is the best way to vote? Because we’re finding out, it’s very important.”
“Not particularly towards anybody right now. I’m open. Just got a good eye, just want to listen to what they have to say and check their track records,” said David Wolff of Collins, Ohio.
“I’m listening. I better be listening. I need to be able to prove what they’re saying compared to what the founding fathers said,” said Steve Lippert, cofounder of conservative group America First Ohio.
LaRose urged such voters to look past the Republican primary and ahead to the general election. He painted himself as the Goldilocks of the three candidates, not too moderate, not too aligned with Trump, but just enough of those to win against Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown.
“I'm the only one who has ever won a statewide election and again, if you're going to beat a long term, entrenched liberal incumbent like Sherrod Brown, it makes sense to send somebody into the fight that has proven they can win. And again, not just in traditional Republican strongholds, but in our urban areas, in our suburban households,” LaRose said.
Threading the needle on that message is a narrow path, but one that may just convince enough voters.
Early voting has already begun, and the primary is March 19. LaRose won’t have much time to campaign on Election Day, though, as he has to head back to his day job overseeing elections throughout the state.
Editor's note: This story is part of a series on the Republican candidates running in Ohio's U.S. Senate primary.