Rob Portman says Cruz’s defiance of Trump is ‘understandable’
CLEVELAND — Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Thursday that it was “understandable” to him that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, did not endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during his convention speech.
Cruz “was in the fray,” Portman told Yahoo News in an interview. “It was a spirited primary to say the least, so it’s really the understandable part of this thing is that he was in the mix.”
But Portman — a former Bush administration budget chief who is in one of the most hotly contested U.S. Senate races — also felt that the resounding boos for Cruz in the convention hall helped Trump by uniting the delegates on his behalf.
“I thought in a way the reaction to him not explicitly endorsing Donald Trump probably unified the convention floor more than anything else that I’ve seen,” Portman said.
Portman said he was not surprised by Cruz’s audacious gamble, and looked for a silver lining, which he found in Cruz’s focus on supporting Republican candidates besides the one for president.
“He did say everybody ought to go vote, which I loved, because I’m one of those down-ballot state races. We’ve got to be sure that people show up and vote regardless of how they feel about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump,” Portman said.
Portman himself made clear he wished that another Republican had won the nomination and that he is making the best of a less than desirable situation with Trump at the top of the ticket.
“I supported John Kasich all through the presidential primary season. I had a different choice. I thought John would have been a better president,” Portman said. “And so, when John dropped out I did what I said I was going to do: support the Republican nominee. He won it fair and square.”
“But yeah, I was more comfortable embracing John Kasich,” Portman said. “But now Donald Trump is our nominee and the choice is between Hillary Clinton and another four years of a failed economy that has disappointed so many Ohioans, and a weaker America internationally, or Donald Trump, who has laid out a Republican agenda of tax reform, regulatory relief, building the military.”
“That’s to me a clear choice. So I would have preferred John Kasich,” he said.
Portman has walked a fine line this week, voicing support for Trump but giving him only a half-hearted embrace. He has been on the floor of the convention every night, but is not speaking and will not be in attendance Thursday night for Trump’s speech.
Instead, Portman will be in northeastern Ohio at a watch party with Republican activists and voters. He’ll be in Lake County, a swing county where 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney beat President Obama, 58,744 votes to 57,680.
Portman’s race this fall will help determine which party controls the Senate.
“We’ve got to talk about ‘How do you unify the country? How do you actually bring people into this who are in the middle, which is the group that’s going to make the difference in this election certainly in my state of Ohio and around the country,’” he said.
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