Former Rep. Jim Renacci on Wednesday launched a Republican gubernatorial primary challenge against former senator and current first-term Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
"Ohioans can’t afford four more years of Mike DeWine as their governor," Renacci charged as he announced his gubernatorial campaign.
"We have seen what failed leadership can do to a once prosperous state. DeWine’s tenure as governor will be defined as the worst period in Ohio’s long and rich history," argued Renacci, who spent eight years as a congressman representing a northeast Ohio district "Corruption, indictments, low job creation, shutdowns, rampant crime and more scandals—that is DeWine’s legacy."
Renacci claimed that DeWine is "more interested in being the Andrew Cuomo of Ohio rather than actually helping everyday Ohioans" and in a campaign video characterized the governor as "a career politician."
In an exclusive interview with Fox News last month, Renacci panned DeWine's performance. "If you compare Ohio to other states, he is definitely failing," Renacci said. "He has not been able to move the needle."
And he said at the time that he had seen four polls – including one that he commissioned – that all show him leading DeWine in a hypothetical 2022 Ohio GOP gubernatorial primary showdown that would shape up as a clash between the party establishment and loyalists and supporters of former President Donald Trump.
The 62-year-old Renacci, an independently wealthy businessman who built his wealth in auto dealerships and nursing homes before entering politics, was running for governor in 2018. But he dropped out of that race and launched a Senate campaign after encouragement from the then-president. Renacci ended up losing to incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown by less than seven points.
"I have very few regrets in life," Renacci told Fox News. "My biggest mistake and my biggest regret was that I jumped into a Senate race because people wanted me to jump in, when I was fully prepared and running for governor."
Renacci explained that "to switch races like that was very difficult … and I really did it based on the request of the president at that time."
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