A parody of politics in the Republican primary for Ohio’s 9th U.S. Congressional district

The U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Lynne Terry / Oregon Capital Chronicle, States Newsroom.)

A parody of Republican politics, circa 2024, is what a GOP U.S. Congressional primary race in northwest, Ohio has become. The candidates vying to retire Ohio’s 9 th District incumbent Democrat Marcy Kaptur, the longest serving woman in Congress, mimic the shambolic, all-over-the-map antics of their (once serious) party. Their campaigns spoof Republican chaos and crazy, infighting and cultist idolatry.

You can catch this farce from now until March 19 in the newly configured, Republican-leaning gerrymandered district — previously deemed unconstitutional — that covers most of the northwestern quadrant of the state and much of the southern coast of Lake Erie. The GOP primary sketch in this contest does not lack for absurdity and awfulness as manifested in campaigns that are on-again, off-again, endorsed, unendorsed and tanked by slurs.

The Republican who ran against Kaptur in 2022 and got trounced — after he apparently lied repeatedly about his (nonexistent) combat deployment in Afghanistan — took another shot at cringeworthy this year. J.R. Majewski, whose initial claim to fame was a giant Trump banner he painted in his front yard, also garnered notoriety for his reported social media posts littered with QAnon conspiracies and braggadocio about being at, if not in, the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6.

But it was passing himself off as a combat zone veteran — who never saw combat — that sunk Majewski’s first campaign for Congress. This time the wingnut did himself in again by disparaging Special Olympic athletes. Majewski compared arguing online to competing in Olympic-style sports for people with intellectual disabilities. “No matter how good you perform,” he said, “you still have…you’re still (expletive) retarded at the end of the day.”

Majewski’s mouth made him radioactive as a GOP primary contender in the Toledo-area House district. Republican rivals and local party leaders wanted him out yesterday. The MAGA embarrassment waffled, blamed the “Deep State” for his self-inflicted wound, and vacillated between defiance and dropping out. Days before suspending his campaign, Majewski declared, “I’m not going anywhere.” When he dropped out Saturday that changed to, “It’s been a great ride folks.”

So much for quality candidates, right Mitch McConnell? The pool of Republicans campaigning for the right to challenge Kaptur is minus one. But the endorsed MAGA favorite of U.S. House Republicans, former Defiance-area state representative Craig Riedel, was still in the game — until he was caught on tape being honest about Donald Trump.

“I think he is arrogant,” said the former state lawmaker in the audio leaked in December. “I don’t like the way he calls people names. I just don’t think that’s very becoming of a president.”

House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik, who had high praise for her Ohio pick as “the conservative fighter we need” quickly rescinded her “complete and total endorsement” of Riedel in a huff.

“I was very disappointed in his inappropriate comments regarding President Trump,” the craven Trump sycophant tweeted after taking back her complete and total endorsement. Even though Riedel rushed to make amends and bow to Trump, the five-minute fav of the Republican brass was immediately abandoned. God forbid any Republican with half a brain says the quiet part out loud about the malignant narcissist/criminal defendant who tried to steal a presidential election he lost and vowed retribution as a White House dictator from Day One.

In collective sycophancy and spinelessness, Trumpian puppets, including Ohio car tycoon and Trump-backed senatorial candidate Bernie Moreno, dumped Riedel and threw their support to the MAGA superfan who had mowed Trump’s face into his lawn. Ohio’s premier Trump toady in the U.S. Senate, J.D. Vance, tried to beat everybody to the punch with a quick pivot to Team Majewski — only to see his gamble implode and candidate close shop.

Meanwhile, national Republicans, who had ditched their first choice in the 9 th District primary for saying mean things about a vile ex-president, scrambled to find a replacement. GOP establishment appears to have settled on a sore loser state rep who led an intraparty revolt in the Ohio House last year when he lost an election for speaker. (you can’t make stuff up).

Rep. Derek Merrin, R-Monclova Township. (Statehouse photo.)

Term-limited Monclova Township Republican Derek Merrin, who still maintains he’s the rightful legislative leader and refuses to cede authority to the legitimate speakership (sound familiar??) also seems to carry significant baggage from the worst public corruption scandal in Ohio history. The far right 37-year-old was a committed ally of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder — who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison on a $60 million bribery scheme.

Before that pay-to-play First Energy case broke wide open, according to The Daily Beast , Merrin had pocketed thousands from Householder’s dark money PAC and official committee and showed his gratitude by voting not to expel the speaker even after his arrest. Yet this is the guy U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed “as a demonstrated leader with a backbone” — except when Merrin reverts to a demonstrated toddler in the Ohio House where his tantrums to obstruct and undermine Republican Speaker Jason Stephens are a vindictive mainstay.

So, a chaos-maker with a grudge consumed with party in-fighting in the Statehouse who can’t accept defeat like a big boy is the great GOP hope to flip Marcy Kaptur’s House seat? Honestly, the running Republican primary debacle in this northwest Ohio district lampoons itself.

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