“Hunger Games”: Bruising Primary Competition For Trump’s Favor Already Playing Out For Republicans In Ohio

New reporting from POLITICO details how a divisive primary season defined by nasty infighting and an “all-consuming” pursuit of Donald Trump’s support is already playing out for Republicans in Ohio. A secret sit-down meeting between the former president and four Ohio Senate candidates this week devolved into the “Hunger Games” as Trump pitted the Republicans against each other as they attempted to out-Trump one another in a desperate audition for his endorsement.

The brutal scene embodied what has become the overwhelming dynamic in Senate races across the map: Republican candidates “jockeying, auditioning and fighting for the former president’s backing.” As new reports from the Washington Post and New York Times show, this dynamic of “zealously pro-Trump candidates” is increasingly becoming a major concern for Republicans who fear that this new political landscape could produce a “combative primary season,” create “early 2022 headaches” and “imperil key Senate seats.”

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 POLITICO: Trump’s secret sit-down with Ohio candidates turns into ‘Hunger Games’

• It was a scene right out of “The Apprentice.”

• Donald Trump was headlining a fundraiser on Wednesday night at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla. But before the dinner began, the former president had some business to take care of: He summoned four Republican Senate candidates vying for Ohio’s open Senate seat for a backroom meeting.

• What ensued was a 15-minute backroom backbiting session reminiscent of Trump’s reality TV show. Mandel said he was “crushing” Timken in polling. Timken touted her support on the ground thanks to her time as state party chair. Gibbons mentioned how he’d helped Trump’s campaign financially. Moreno noted that his daughter had worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign.

• The scene illustrated what has become a central dynamic in the nascent 2022 race. In virtually every Republican primary, candidates are jockeying, auditioning and fighting for the former president’s backing. Trump has received overtures from a multitude of candidates desperate for his endorsement, something that top Republicans say gives him all-encompassing power to make-or-break the outcome of primaries.

• And the former president, as was so often the case during his presidency, has seemed to relish pitting people against one another.

• One person familiar with what transpired in Wednesday evening’s huddle described it as “Hunger Games,” an awkward showdown that none of them were expecting.

• Multiple people familiar with what transpired during the meeting said most of the tension seemed to be between Timken and Mandel, and that it appeared they were trying to outdo one another.

• Trump has yet to endorse in the race, and during the meeting he made no indication that he was backing one candidate over another.
  

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