Obama, Biden Endorse Strickland in Senate Race

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Two weeks from Ohio’s March 15 primary, President Obama and Vice President Biden endorsed former Gov. Ted Strickland, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

Strickland, who served as governor from 2007 to 2011, is running against P.G. Sittenfeld, a Cincinnati city councilman. The winner will challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, in November.

Strickland campaigned for the Democratic ticket in 2008 — after Obama defeated Hillary Clinton, whom he backed for the Democratic nomination and won the Ohio primary — and again in 2012 when Obama ran for reelection.

“Ohioans have no greater friend than Ted Strickland,” Obama said in an email circulated by the Strickland campaign Wednesday morning.

The president characterized the former governor and U.S. congressman as “a passionate and proven champion for the middle class” who “will continue to be a tireless fighter for hardworking families” should he be elected.

Said Biden in his endorsement: “I know Ted: his story of struggles overcome and perseverance in the face of adversity has forged his deep commitment to working families. At every turn, Ted will stand up for working people because that’s where he’s from and those are the folks that he cares about.”

Strickland said he is honored to receive the endorsements.

Sittenfeld’s communications director, Dale Butland, responded that it is “no surprise that the Democratic establishment -— which has long been in Gov. Strickland’s corner — would be getting mighty nervous about the momentum that’s been building” around Sittenfeld’s campaign.

The endorsement engineered in Washington was “clearly designed” to counter recent endorsements by former Gov. Dick Celeste and this week’s endorsements of Sittenfeld from the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and (Akron) Beacon Journal.

“But no endorsement,” Butland continued, can change Strickland’s A+ rating from the National Rifle Association or that he voted against “background checks, a ban on assault weapons, and every other common sense gun safety measure that was ever put in front of him” when he served in Congress.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.