Two of President Donald Trump’s closest allies have endorsed dueling candidates for Ohio state treasurer. The winner could signal whose word carries more weight in the American heartland.
The race is pitting state Sen. Kristina Roegner — a state legislator with the backing of 2024 presidential candidate and current gubernatorial front-runner Vivek Ramaswamy — against former state Rep. Jay Edwards, who’s been endorsed by Vice President JD Vance.
People close to Vance and Ramaswamy downplayed the split, stressing that there is no bad blood between the two Republicans. But the otherwise sleepy battle between two native sons of Ohio is one of many divides bubbling up in the Republican Party that is tentatively charting a post-Trump future, with both Ramaswamy and Vance jockeying to put their stamp on the GOP.
Roegner, who spearheaded the state’s anti-abortion “Heartbeat Bill” during her time in the Senate, was a supporter of Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential run and his gubernatorial campaign.
She backed his bid when he was still a relative political outsider, rankling veteran Republicans in Columbus who have plotted for years to run for office. Ramaswamy in turn backed her treasurer bid in January and soon after signed onto a letter urging the Ohio Republican Party to support Roegner in the primary.
Edwards, on the other hand, is leaning into his endorsement from Vance and GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno, a close ally of the White House. He wrote on his campaign website that he was “inspired to run by President Trump” when he first ran for the Ohio House of Representatives in 2016.
“Jay and I are both sons of Appalachia. We know what it’s like to come from places the elites ignore — and we know the strength, pride, and values that built Ohio,” Vance said in a February statement backing Edwards, a rare endorsement from the sitting vice president who has largely not personally intervened in primaries early in his term. “Jay has never forgotten where he came from, and he’s spent his career standing up for Southeast Ohio and putting hardworking people first.”
Edwards told The Columbus Dispatch last month that there were “no hard feelings” over Ramaswamy’s decision to back Roegner, saying, “It kind of speaks to him and his morals and the fact that he’s willing to stay true to his word.”
Ramaswamy did not respond to a request for comment about the race, and a spokesperson for Vance did not offer comment beyond the vice president’s statement endorsing Edwards.
The dueling endorsements came to a head last month, when the Ohio GOP decided not to back a candidate in the race. The state party requires a two-thirds majority to decide whether to wade into a primary before taking a separate vote on who to endorse, and its leaders did not clear that first hurdle.
While Roegner’s campaign — which has the backing of more than a dozen county GOP chairs and the leadership in the statehouse — had pushed the party to endorse, Edwards hoped the Republican State Central Committee would decide to stay out of the primary fight.
Khadine Ritter, who represents Washington County on the committee and has backed Roegner in the primary, said some state party members feared breaking with the vice president’s endorsement and thus voted not to endorse.
“I think the concern was, ‘how does this look for our vice president?’” Ritter said. “And I think that's where some of the people that voted not to endorse made their decision — not necessarily on the qualifications or the merit of the two candidates, but on, ‘gosh, we have been put in a difficult position because Jay Edwards has recruited the endorsement of the vice president, who we support.’”
Roegner said in an interview that while she had hoped the party would reach the supermajority needed to endorse, she respects the decision to stay out of the race and remains proud that “we still had a very strong majority of votes to move forward with an endorsement.”
Roegner met Ramaswamy at a 2023 conservative conference in Washington and the two have stayed in touch ever since, she said.
“The more I heard him, I'm like, ‘he's gonna make a great governor.’ It’s just very charismatic. It's a clear vision. It's very bold. He wants to make big changes,” Roegner said. “Over and and through that process, not only did I get to know him, but he also got to know me and many other leaders from across the state of Ohio that have worked with me.”
While the treasurer’s perch is a relatively low-profile role in the state government, it can often serve as a springboard for Ohio Republicans with higher aspirations. Former state Treasurer Joe Deters now serves on the Ohio Supreme Court, and Josh Mandel, who held the role from 2011-2019, ran three times for U.S. Senate.
While it’s possible the dueling endorsements end up canceling each other out, Ohio GOP strategist Matt Dole said Edwards may enjoy a bump from the Vance endorsement which, while not equivalent to an endorsement from Trump, is “Trump-adjacent.”
Trump has not personally weighed in on the race.
“At the end of the day, in a statewide race where you have a state senator running against a former state rep, their number one job is building name ID,” said Dole, chair of the Licking County GOP, which did not endorse in the primary. “If they're doing their campaign correctly, these endorsements become a vehicle by which to say, ‘Jay Edwards is endorsed by JD Vance. Did you hear the name, Jay Edwards?’”
Edwards’ support from Vance could also help him fend off a potential attack line tying him to a bitter intraparty scandal that tore the state’s Republican Party apart two years ago. Edwards was one of 22 state representatives who voted with Democrats to back a more moderate underdog GOP candidate for speaker. The Ohio GOP ultimately censured the lawmakers, labeled the “Blue 22” by their critics.
“I’m proud to have the endorsement of Vice President J.D. Vance and Senator Bernie Moreno: two leaders who, like President Donald Trump, are fighting every day to put America and Ohio first,” Edwards said in a statement.
The race is already shaping up to be an expensive one: Roegner, who has loaned more than $1 million of her own money to her campaign, had about $2.4 million on hand, according to public filings submitted at the end of January, while Edwards had about $1.4 million in his campaign coffers.
While both campaigns have sizable war chests, Ohio GOP strategist Terry Casey said they still lack the money for multiple slates of TV ad buys.
“The money maybe allows them to fire one bullet,” he said, and each candidate will have to decide how best to leverage their endorsements to turn base voters out.
“All that sounds good to the Republican base. Both of them sound good,” Casey said. “But do either one of them, Ramaswamy or Vance, are they going to cut commercials and spend a million or $2 million running that commercial?”
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