Deirdre Shesgreen

dshesgreen@usatoday.com

WASHINGTON - In a sharp reversal, Sen. Rob Portman said Saturday that he would no longer support Donald Trump for president because of the GOP nominee’s lewd comments about kissing and groping women without consent.

“While I continue to respect those who still support Donald Trump, I can no longer support him,” Portman, R-Ohio, said in a statement sent at 9:30 p.m. Saturday night. “I continue to believe our country cannot afford a Hillary Clinton presidency. I will be voting for Mike Pence for President."

Portman’s statement came after more than a dozen other sitting House and Senate Republicans bailed on the GOP contender—including a member of the Senate GOP leadership and several other vulnerable Senate Republican incumbents facing tough re-election races.

Portman's announcement was also an about-face from his position on Friday, when a video first emerged of Trump engaging in a graphic exchange about with Billy Bush, a former "Access Hollywood" host now with NBC's "Today" show. In that conversation, Trump talks about hitting on a married woman.

"I did try and f--- her," Trump tells Bush in reference to a married woman, while acknowledging he was unsuccessful. "I moved on her like a b---- but I couldn't get there," Trump says.

Then he boasts about using his celebrity to hit on women. “I don’t even wait,” he said. "And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything — grab them by the p----."

On Friday, Portman issued a statement condemning Trump but he did not give any indication that he would un-endorse the controversial GOP nominee.

"The comments were offensive and wrong and he was right to apologize," Portman said then.

On Saturday, as a cascade of other GOP House and Senate lawmakers said they could no longer support Trump, Portman’s campaign manager and spokeswoman ignored repeated phone calls, emails, and text messages asking if the GOP senator stood by his support for Trump.

Then, at 9:30 p.m., came Portman’s change of heart.

“I had hoped to support the candidate my party nominated in the primary process,” Portman said. “I thought it was appropriate to respect the millions of voters across the country who chose Donald Trump as the Republican Party nominee.”

Portman's Democratic foe in the Senate race, ex-Gov. Ted Strickland, said the GOP incumbent's late-night switch was pure political calculation.

"Senator Portman is engaging in a desperate and transparent attempt to save his own political skin because he knows that his unabashed record of supporting Trump has put him badly out of step with the values that Ohioans believe in," said David Bergstein, Strickland's spokesman. "For months, Senator Portman has stood by and propped up Trump as he has engaged in a campaign of hate and division.”

When this election season began, Portman was tagged as one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in 2016. But he outraised and outmaneuvered Strickland, and the most recent polls show him with a double-digit lead. Throughout the campaign, Portman also deftly managed Trump, an erratic and unpopular nominee who threatened to be a drag on down-ballot Republicans.

As other vulnerable GOP senators in Illinois and Pennsylvania refused to endorse Trump, Portman has walked a careful line of supporting the nominee while rejecting his most incendiary statements. Trump has found more support in Ohio than in other key battleground states--and Portman has been loath to alienate Trump's enthusiastic base. So while he has never campaigned with Trump, he hasn't ruled out that possibility either.

Now, a joint appearance is probably off-the-table, although Portman's statement did not address that question.

One remaining conundrum: It’s not clear if Portman could vote for Pence, as he promised in his Saturday statement. Pence is Trump’s vice presidential nominee, and several other Republicans have suggested that Trump step aside and let Pence lead the ticket.

But Ohio’s Republican Party Chairman, Matt Borges, has said that is not feasible.

"These issues were looked at after the convention," Borges said. "There's no process. There's no recourse. There's no path for that to even occur."

Portman could write-in Pence's name but it's not clear if such a vote would count under Ohio law.

Enquirer reporters Chrissie Thompson and Jessie Balmert contributed to this story.