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FIRST ON FOX: One of the main Republican candidates in Ohio’s open Senate seat race is spotlighting inflation and taking aim at President Biden’s “energy agenda” in a new ad blitz.
Ohio Senate contender Matt Dolan vows in a new campaign commercial that was shared first with Fox News Digital on Thursday that he’ll “fight Joe Biden’s energy agenda because this war on energy is really an attack your wallet.”
Dolan, a state senator from Cleveland and a former county chief assistant prosecutor and state assistant attorney general, is seen in his spot standing outside an oil refinery in East Toledo, Ohio, which he argues is “ground zero in the Democrats’ war on energy.”
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“On Day One, Joe Biden canceled pipelines and banned oil exploration. Energy prices skyrocketed, causing the worst inflation in 40 years on everything from gas to groceries,” Dolan emphasizes in his commercial. And pointing to his rivals in Ohio’s Senate race, he claims that “my opponents aren’t able to confront today’s crisis; I am.”
Dolan’s campaign told Fox News Digital they’re spending $1.5 million to run the new spot statewide. The candidate, whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, has pledged to spend $8 million in ad spending through Ohio’s May 3 primary.
In a campaign release accompanying the new commercial, Dolan points to Line 5, a nearly 70-year-old pipeline that moves oil through Wisconsin and Michigan to refineries in Ontario, Canada and Midwestern states such as Ohio, including the refinery in East Toledo. Republicans have heavily criticized the Biden administration and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of neighboring Michigan for considering shutting down the pipeline due to environmental concerns.
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The dispute over the pipeline has grabbed national attention in recent months amid the spike in energy prices and the overall steep rise in inflation.
Dolan warned in a statement that if Line 5 is shut down, “thousands of Ohio jobs could be lost, prices on everyday consumer goods would skyrocket, and billions of dollars in economic activity will be in jeopardy.”
Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan, who’s running for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in Ohio, campaigns in Independence, Ohio on Dec. 1, 2021.
(Matt Dolan campaign )
Dolan is one of eight GOP candidates running in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman. The crowded and contentious primary field also includes 2018 Ohio Republican Senate candidate Mike Gibbons, a Cleveland entrepreneur, real estate developer and investment banker; former Ohio treasurer and former two-time Senate candidate Josh Mandel; venture capitalist and bestselling author J.D. Vance, and former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken.
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Dolan currently stands in single digits in a recent Fox News Poll on Ohio’s Republican primary. Gibbons and Mandel lead the pack in the survey, which was conducted in early March. But nearly a quarter of those surveyed were undecided and plenty of respondents who were backing a candidate indicated they could change their mind.
Dolan’s large buy backing his new commercial is the latest sign that in a primary race where nearly all the major contenders have plenty of personal wealth, or are backed by well-financed outside groups, ad spending is soaring.
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According to figures from the national ad tracking firm AdImpact, $44.8 million had been spent through Tuesday by the campaigns and super PACs to run ads in the Ohio Senate race, with nearly all the spending coming in the GOP primary. Dolan is the second-biggest ad spending in the race, behind Gibbons.
Mike Gibbons, a Republican Senate candidate for Ohio, speaks to supporters as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., looks on during a campaign rally in Maineville, Ohio, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022.
(AP Photo/Jeff Dean)
According to AdImpact, the Ohio Senate race to date is the second most expensive in the country this cycle, behind the showdown in the neighboring battleground state of Pennsylvania for another GOP-held open seat.
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The winner of the May 3 Republican primary may face off against longtime Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, of northeastern Ohio. Ryan is considered the favorite for the Democratic nomination in race that also includes progressive Morgan Harper, a former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau senior adviser and 2020 congressional candidate.
