Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan Launches Senate Bid to Replace Retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman

Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) launched his campaign for the United States Senate Monday to replace retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH).

Ryan, who ran for president in 2020, became the first Democrat to jump into the Ohio Senate race. Portman announced earlier this year he will not run for reelection.

“I’m running for U.S. Senate to fight like hell to cut workers in on the deal,” Ryan announced on Twitter. “Change is coming, and we’re going to flip this [Ohion Senate] seat. Like I always say, never bet against Ohio.”

Ryan originally mulled over his options to run at the beginning of the year when Portman made his announcement. Ryan has frequently teased the idea of running for Senate against Portman, cleveland.com reported. Ryan announced in the first three months of the year he “raised $1.2 million for his potential Senate bid over three months and had $1 million in the bank.” Ryan is currently in his 10th term in Congress.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has already come out with a statement, saying, “Ryan has earned his spot on the NRCC’s Exit List officially announcing he is jumping ship to run for the Senate.”

The statement added, “it’s not hard to see why,” they claim Ryan’s Ohio 13th Congressional district has been “trending away from the Democratic Party for years and Ohioans want nothing to do with Democrats’ socialist agenda.”

Camille Gallo, an NRCC Spokeswoman, gave a statement as well:

Tim Ryan is jumping ship because he knows Democrats’ socialist agenda that will strip Americans of their private health insurance, defund the police and open our borders doom his chances of reelection in OH-13 and will send his party back to minority in 2022.

This comes on the same day the census information was released, and many states like Ohio are losing Congressional seats. When Ryan previously mulled over the Senate run, a Politico writer reported his district is going in the opposite direction for the Democrats.

The reporter claimed Obama won the district by 27 points in 2012. Clinton won the district by seven points, 20 points less in 2016, and Biden won the district by a small three point lead.

Currently, there are four Republicans so far who have announced a bid to replace Portman, including Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, and Cleveland-area businessmen Mike Gibbons and Bernie Moreno.