WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican lawmaker Jim Jordan will not run to fill retiring Ohio Senator Rob Portman’s seat in 2022 and will instead run for re-election in the House of Representatives, a campaign spokesperson said on Thursday.
“He is solely focused on representing the great people of Ohio’s Fourth District, and will not be running to fill the seat of retiring Senator Rob Portman,” the spokesperson said.
Portman, a moderate Republican who had urged former President Donald Trump to denounce the violence of his supporters, announced on Monday he would not be seeking reelection for his seat.
Portman said when he announced his looming departure that political divisions have made it “harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress.”
Jordan, an outspoken Trump ally and a member of the conservative group of lawmakers known as the House Freedom Caucus, was considered to be a favorite to replace Portman.
Democratic lawmaker Tim Ryan said earlier this week he is considering running for Portman’s seat. He represents the district in and around Youngstown, Ohio, where automobile and steel manufacturing jobs have suffered.
The majority of voters in Ohio have backed Republican candidates in the past two presidential elections, but its other senator, Sherrod Brown, is a Democrat who was reelected to his seat in 2018.
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Dan Grebler and Alistair Bell)
