As primary season heats up, former President Donald Trump has a busy week ahead of him, with trips to Nebraska and Ohio lined up over the next 10 days. The Ohio trip is up first, with the former president schedule to hold a rally at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Delaware, north of Columbus, on Saturday.
At the rally, Trump is expected to stump for U.S. House candidate Max Miller and U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance. Miller is the frontrunner in his race for Ohio’s 7th district, after incumbent Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) withdrew from the race earlier this month.
The Senate race, however, is a little more complicated. Leading candidates in a heated seven-way primary race had been angling for Trump’s endorsement for almost a year before he decided to back Vance. After that decision was made, dozens of Republican leaders in Ohio mounted a last-minute effort to urge Trump not to endorse Vance. He has come under fire for old audio and since-deleted tweets in which he called himself a “never-Trump guy,” called Trump an idiot, and said he might have to hold his nose and vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have see that in spades,” Trump said in a statement announcing his endorsement, according to a tweet from Trump spokesperson Natalie Harp. “He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race.”
After he’s done stumping for his Ohio primary endorsements, Trump is off to Nebraska, where he will hold a rally next Friday. At that rally, his is expected to stump for gubernatorial candidate Charles W. Herbster in a contested Republican primary.
Herbster is facing his own bit of controversy, after several women, including a GOP state lawmaker, alleged that he groped them at public events and forcibly kissed one woman. The accusations drew widespread condemnation from Herbster’s primary opponents, as well as Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R), whose seat is being filled.
“This is beyond horrible,” Gov. Ricketts said. “Charles W. Herbster should beg forgiveness of the women he has preyed upon and seek treatment.”
Herbster has denied the allegations, calling them a “dirty political trick” orchestrated by Ricketts and his preferred candidate Jim Pillen.
