Josh Mandel is against our principles

Josh Mandel has many ideas contrary to RationalOhio’s values platform. He’s against civility and bipartisanship, undermines our democracy with lies and extreme policies, makes authoritarian calls to expel or even imprison political adversaries, and threatens separation of church and state. He must be defeated in the 2022 Senate race.

Mandel is against civility and bipartisanship

Civility is how we resolve our differences peacefully and democratically, rather than using intimidation or force, but Mandel encourages an end to civility.

Lots of politicians use the word “fight” to refer to hard work, determination, and assertive debate, but this article documents how Mandel uses lies, aggression, and attacks on democracy in his fight, more akin to authoritarianism than republicanism.

Some bipartisanship is necessary to keep our diverse country running, and when hyper-partisans refuse to work together, the result is gridlock and dysfunction. Mandel outright rejects bipartisanship.

Mandel shows his incivility and dishonesty

During a 3/18/22 debate in Gahanna, Mandel stood up out of turn, interrupted Mike Gibbons, and yelled into his face because Gibbons pointed out his lack of private sector experience.

He defended his unwarranted aggression, rejecting suggestions to be “above the fray” and promising to “never stop fighting”.

Mandel did continue this fight by producing a dishonest campaign ad, lying about his confrontation with Gibbons:

The ad shows a woman saying, “Mike Gibbons has the nerve to say that military service doesn’t count as real work”, but that’s not what happened. Gibbons actually said to Mandel, “You may not understand this, because you’ve never… [interrupted, crosstalk] No, you don’t [understand]. You’ve never been in the private sector in your entire life.”

It’s clear Gibbons was referring to business employment, and not commenting on the value of military service. Gibbons’ own son and daughter-in-law are active-duty Navy pilots. Mandel’s hot-headed interruption made him misinterpret Gibbons, but he chose to double down on that error with an advertisement. This is a perfect example of how low Mandel is willing to stoop.

Mandel undermines American democracy

Josh Mandel perpetually repeats the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, but in reality Trump tried to steal the election away from Biden. Trump has been accused of criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States by a bipartisan Congressional committee.

Mandel also has the most extreme election policy, to eliminate all voting options outside of a single day, which would suppress the votes of many elderly and working people, among other groups.

He shamelessly lies about Democrats using early voting options to cheat, even though many Republican voters use these options too.

Read more: Josh Mandel would end voting methods used by every state, disfavoring elderly and working voters

Mandel shows signs of authoritarianism

Mandel has called for the wanton imprisonment of political opponents Hillary Clinton and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a strong indicator of un-American authoritarianism. Demanding a prison sentence over conspiracy theories is a dangerous tendency. Neither Mrs. Clinton nor Dr. Fauci have been charged with any crime, even when Trump held the White House.

Mandel also spreads unsubstantiated rumors about Congress members Ilhan Omar and Eric Swalwell to force them to lose their duly-elected Congressional seats.

Mandel rejects separation of church and state, pushes for a more theocratic government instead

Mandel rejects the wisdom of Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who explicitly held the principle of separation of church and state. In our Constitution, Article VI prohibits religious tests for office and the 1st Amendment prohibits the government from respecting a religious establishment, but Mandel falsely claims the principle of separation is not in our Constitution.

It’s a threat to religious freedom for a Senate candidate to call Muslims “radical” and “evil”.

In one speech at a church, Mandel even connected the Christian fight for good over evil with the Big Lie that the 2020 election was evil, stirring a dangerous blend of religious fervor and sedition.

Read more: Josh Mandel’s push for theocracy, wants government to impose religious beliefs

Mandel puts out childish, divisive insults

We need leaders who inspire us to greatness, not pit neighbor against neighbor which makes our country weaker. Senate candidates should present their policy vision to voters, not unnecessarily sow division with childish partisan jabs like these:

The origin of the words “pandemic” and “democracy” is the Greek word dēmos which means “people”, but Mandel thinks it’s clever to associate the deadliest pandemic in US history with Democrats.

Defeat Mandel in 2022

Josh Mandel is antithetical to our principles and unfit for office.

Matt Dolan is the only Republican candidate in Ohio’s Senate race who respects our democracy by rejecting the Big Lie.

Democratic frontrunner Tim Ryan accepted George W. Bush’s presidential victory when other Democrats voted to reject it in 2005, so he has shown that he also respects our democracy.

Mandel loses primary election

On 5/3/22, Josh Mandel lost the Republican Senate primary to JD Vance. In a short concession speech, he congratulated Vance on his victory and pledged to vote for him.