(CN) --- Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat with nearly two decades of congressional experience, announced on Monday his intention to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, hoping to win the seat that will be vacated by Republican Rob Portman upon his retirement.
Ryan, 47, currently sits on the House Appropriations Committee and is also chairman of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee, but will face an uphill battle in a state that voted overwhelmingly in favor of former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
In a video posted to his Twitter account, Ryan said he’s running to “fight like hell to cut workers in on the deal.”
“The success of America isn’t housed in the halls of Congress,” Ryan said. “It lies in the calloused hands and unrelenting grit of America’s workers.”
Portman, a Republican from the southwestern part of Ohio, stunned the political world when he announced in January he would not seek reelection. The Cincinnati native said in a statement the decision was based on “partisan gridlock” and polarization “that means too few people … are actively looking to find common ground.”
Portman previously served as the representative from Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District for 12 years before he was appointed as U.S. trade representative by President George W. Bush and eventually won his Senate seat.
Ryan, meanwhile, has served in Congress since 2003, and currently represents the 13th Congressional District in the northeast portion of the Buckeye State.
He made a short-lived run for president in the 2020 election, but withdrew from the race in October 2019 after he qualified for just two debates and polled at less than 1% nationwide.
A graduate of the New Hampshire School of Law, Ryan began his political career as a congressional aide in the House in 1995 and also interned at the Trumbull County prosecutor’s office.
Courthouse News spoke with Ryan Salzman, associate professor of political science at Northern Kentucky University, about Ryan and his chances to win the Democratic nomination.
“He has a lot of positive momentum in the Ohio Democratic Party,” Salzman said, “so I think that he would be among the leaders out of the gate.”
However, Salzman pointed to the possibility of a Senate run by Dr. Amy Acton, former director of the Ohio Department of Health, as a potential stumbling block for Ryan.
“She could steal that spotlight [from Ryan],” he said, “but it’s hard to imagine too many others that would have the immediate recognition that those two would have.”
Acton, a political novice, headed the state’s Department of Health during the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic but later resigned after public backlash to some of her more restrictive orders.
She took a position with a nonprofit after leaving the Department of Health, but resigned that position in early February to organize a potential run. Salzman said her experience in working with Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s administration would establish her as a more “centrist candidate,” as opposed to the more progressive ideals espoused by Ryan.
On the other side of the ticket, several big name Republicans have already stepped forward to vie for their party’s nomination, including former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, who announced her campaign in February.
Timken, who used Trump’s support to take control of the state’s Republican Party, resigned from her position as chair on Feb. 5, and said in a statement she would “happily accept Trump’s endorsement.”
Former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, 43, and a Marine veteran, announced his intention to run on Feb. 10, and is also hoping to get the former president’s endorsement.
Mandel said in an interview that the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump “got my blood boiling” and convinced him to take another shot at Portman’s seat, following unsuccessful campaigns in 2012 and 2018.
Mandel quickly established himself as a candidate cut from the same cloth as the former president. He was temporarily banned from Twitter in March after he posted a poll about “the various types of illegals flooding across the border.”
Despite his loss in the 2020 presidential election, it is clear the specter of Trump looms over the Buckeye State. Salzman emphasized that DeWine will be able to convince more moderate Republicans to vote on party lines regardless of the candidates.
“DeWine is going to be able to pull back Republicans into the fold,” the professor said. “None of these [Republican] candidates … would say or do the bombastic things that would turn people off and cause defections from the Republican Party, especially if you have Mike DeWine there backing the nominee.”
The circumstances seem to offer a bleak outlook for Ryan, should he win his party’s nomination, but his positions on U.S. trade policies and rebuilding the middle class could provide a springboard to victory.
Ryan is co-chairman of the Congressional Manufacturing Caucus and claims on his website to be the “leading advocate in the House to impose sanctions on unfair Chinese currency manipulation.” Whether economic policies are enough to shift votes towards a Democrat in an increasingly red Ohio, however, remains to be seen.
“I think that Ryan can appeal to independents,” Salzman said, “[but] I’m not confident he can appeal to moderate Republicans.”
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