Buckeye Reporter

GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Matt Dolan started his political career running as a Democrat.

If elected, he expects such instincts to come in handy in Washington, D.C.

The 59 year-old Chagrin Falls billionaire is promising Ohio GOP primary voters he would provide a check on a President Donald Trump, a moderating force who seeks to temper Trump’s “America First” policies.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is a Trump supporter, who has been criticized by Dolan over pushing pro-life measures. | https://www.ohiosos.gov/

It’s a risky proposition in a state Trump won by eight percentage points and some 500,000 votes in 2020. But Dolan is holding to it.

One example: Dolan has promised to back measures to “secure the border” and enforce existing illegal immigration law. 

But unlike Trump and Trump-supporting rival candidates Bernie Moreno and Frank LaRose, Dolan isn’t vowing to deport the millions of illegal aliens who have been allowed to scatter across the country by the administration of President Joe Biden.

Dolan also has criticized rival U.S. Senate candidate, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who doubled down on his support for Trump Saturday, tweeting that his visit to Dayton "is a reminder of the strength of America under his presidency."

LaRose, Dolan said, erred last summer in joining Ohio pro-life groups to oppose “Issue 1," which enshrined abortion into the Ohio State Constitution last year.

The measure prevents the state legislature from barring “partial birth” abortions, or requiring parents be notified before their children have abortions.

In 2018, while in the Ohio House, Dolan voted to preserve partial-birth abortion in the state, opposing a bill that would ban the practice once a baby’s heartbeat was detected.

Dolan has also argued Trump’s positions on gun owner rights are too extreme.

In 2020, he voted against strengthening Ohio’s “Stand your Ground” law, which allows would-be victims of crime to legally defend themselves against violent perpetrators.

Dolan called gun-rights groups “tone deaf,” arguing their position would offend suburban women who oppose individual gun ownership.

At a Saturday rally in Dayton, Trump assailed Dolan as a “weak RINO (Republican in name only)” who is “weak on borders, weak on crime,” also assailing him for changing the name of the Cleveland Indians to appease “woke left-wing lunatics.”

“He's trying to become the next Mitt Romney. I think Mitt Romney is his hero, Trump said.

“Unfit to be president”

Dolan hasn’t been shy about taking his own shots at Trump, openly expressing his disdain for the former president.

“I’m a Never-Trump guy. I never liked him,” Dolan told the Columbus Dispatch.

Dolan later told the Akron Beacon Journal Trump was “unfit to be President of the United States” and criticized him as backing  what Democrats have called an “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021.

He’s also criticized Trump’s public questioning of voter fraud in the 2020.

“(Dolan) has refused to say President Joe Biden's victory was tainted by widespread voter fraud,” CNN reported.

Dolan first ran for state representative as a Democrat, in 1994. 

But residing in Cleveland’s GOP-leaning eastern suburbs, he eventually had to switch parties, finally winning election to the Ohio House as a Republican in 2004.

Dolan is a lawyer by trade, a scion of one of Ohio’s wealthiest families.

The Dolan family’s wealth comes from his uncle, Charles, who founded HBO and Cablevision, which he sold for $17.7 billion in 2016.

Election Day is Tuesday, March 19.