GOP leader: Party should reject Trump

A local GOP leader who has chaired three presidential campaigns in Hamilton County says he won't back Donald Trump if he's the Republican nominee and wants the rest of the party to reject him, too.

Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann said Trump's angry rhetoric and controversial comments about Muslims, Hispanics, immigrants, women and the disabled doesn't represent the values of the Republican Party or of America at large.

He said it's time for his party to stand up and say so.

"He stands for a lot of things I don't stand for, including alienating every minority group," Hartmann said Wednesday. "He's the most offensive public figure I've seen, and people need to start saying that."

Hartmann, a former county chairman of the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, is the only Ohio Republican leader surveyed by The Enquirer this week to say he wouldn't support Trump, although a few declined to answer. Hartmann initially said he probably would support Trump in a race against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, but he changed his mind Wednesday.

He said Trump's recent comments about banning all Muslims from entering the country were the last straw. He said Trump's previous comments about Hispanic immigrants and other minorities already had cast Republicans in a negative light.

Until Republicans speak out against him, Hartmann said, the entire party will suffer from his candidacy. He said Trump would be a poor president and would likely lose in a landslide if he got the nomination, dragging other Republican candidates down with him.

"Who our presidential nominee is says a lot about who we are as a party," Hartmann said. "I couldn't support him. I don't support anything he says."

Hartmann said if Trump is the nominee and faces Clinton in the general election, he wouldn't vote for either.

He also questioned Trump's Republican credentials, noting his bankruptcies and his previous support for issues many Republicans oppose.

"He just doesn't support my values," he said. "Not to mention I don't think he's even a Republican."

Hamilton County is Ohio's 3rd largest county and a key battleground in one of the most important states during any presidential election.