Senate GOP privately roots against Trump in Ohio primary

Senate Republicans are privately rooting for President Trump to fail in Ohio and wouldn’t be at all disappointed if someone other than his endorsed candidate, J.D. Vance, wins the Ohio’s Senate Republican primary Tuesday.

Not all Senate Republicans are rooting for someone other than Vance to win the primary. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), for example, is an outspoken advocate for Vance, a fellow Yale Law School graduate.

But GOP lawmakers see the wide-open race as a key test of Trump’s political influence in Republican primaries and in next year’s Senate GOP conference, which will have a different flavor after the retirements of Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).