COLUMBUS, Ohio – Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland says his run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Rob Portman will focus on expanding job and educational opportunities for average people.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
“We need to create living-wage jobs and invest in the kind of infrastructure projects that benefit our communities,” read a post on his campaign website. “We need to make college more accessible and affordable so that our young people can get an education, get a job, and start saving to buy a home, support their families and retire with a sense of dignity and security. We need to make smart choices on fair trade that reward the worker instead of the wealthy.”
The Democrat announced the run, as expected, on Wednesday. His entry adds a formidable statewide name to what is expected to be one of the most watched and expensive of next year’s Senate races.
Portman says voting for Strickland would be a step backward. Republicans have widely attacked him for presiding over heavy job losses.
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“The coming months will give Ohioans an opportunity to contrast my vision for a better future for Ohio workers with his past tenure as governor when hundreds of thousands of jobs disappeared from our state,” said Portman in a statement. “Ohio families deserve a senator who will fight for their future and they can’t afford to go backward with Governor Strickland.”
Strickland’s announcement comes a little over a week after he left his position leading the political arm of the progressive Center for America Progress in Washington, D.C., and was one of the worst-kept secrets in politics.
According to a report in The Columbus Dispatch, he has spent the last few weeks contacting supporters and donors, and has assembled a team of key consultants, including spokesman Dennis Willard, Aaron Pickrell, who led both of Strickland’s campaigns for governor and who helped President Barack Obama win Ohio in 2008 and 2012 and John Haseley, who served as Strickland’s chief of staff when he was governor.
The Ohio Republican Party was ready, with a video and website titled “Ted Failed Ohio,” unveiled within minutes of Strickland’s announcement.
Strickland won the governor’s race in 2006 but lost re-election four years later to Republican Gov. John Kasich by 2 percentage points.
Strickland would face 30-year-old Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld in a Democratic primary.