At a party for Vance supporters in Cincinnati, Keith Andrews said he was confident in his choice.

“I love the guy, he’s humble yet brilliant at the same time,” Andrews, 52, said. “I went to one of JD’s town halls and he nailed it. I mean, everything he said was right on.”

Another Trump supporter, Thomas Cheesman, however, said he voted for Dolan despite Trump’s endorsement of Vance.

“I had somebody else in mind before that, and I stuck with that choice,” he said. “He didn’t sway me.”

Nonpartisan election analysts favour Republicans’ chances of winning the final match-up.

Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates this year, including about a dozen key picks.

His involvement will help determine whether Republicans, as expected, reverse their slim deficit in the House and also possibly take control of the Senate, which is split 50-50 with Democrats owning the tie-breaking vote.

A loss of control of either chamber would allow Republicans to block Democratic President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and also to pepper his administration with distracting and potentially politically damaging investigations.

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Not all party members are falling in line behind Trump’s lead. As in Ohio, Trump-backed candidates for US Senate in Pennsylvania and North Carolina face well-funded Republican challengers.

Some worry that Trump’s picks, like former football star Herschel Walker in Georgia, could prove too controversial to prevail against Democrats in November, imperilling their bid for Senate control.

Vance, a former Trump critic, was not the choice of many party leaders in Ohio, and some have grumbled publicly about Trump’s decision. The Club for Growth, a powerful conservative advocacy group, broadcast ads bashing Vance and stuck by its pick in the race, the unabashedly pro-Trump Mandel.

Reuters with staff

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