Government investors miss out on a higher rate invest from A3

Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel gives his victory speech Tuesday, November 4, 2014. He announced on Wednesday that he will run to challenge U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2018.

(Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After months of signaling his interest in the race, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel on Wednesday announced he will once again run to attempt to unseat Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Mandel, a 39-year old Beachwood resident, announced his campaign to challenge Brown in 2018 in an online video posted to YouTube on Wednesday morning.

In an interview, Mandel said he is running to help transfer power from politicians to the people of Ohio.

"I think that's a message that resonates across the political spectrum, not just in Northeast Ohio but in every corner of the state," Mandel said. "And I think it's a message that coincides with the message of what President-Elect [Donald] Trump said he will bring to Washington."

Mandel is not the only Ohio Republican who has expressed interest in the race. U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, a more moderate Republican from the Columbus area who is close to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, also is considering a run and has been criss-crossing Ohio this year to lay the groundwork for a statewide campaign.

If Mandel were to make it through the Republican primary, he would set up a rematch of the 2012 senate race, which he lost to Brown, a Cleveland resident and a longtime elected official with a reputation as a liberal populist, by 6 points.

Pressed on why he is running for a seat that Ohioans already have rejected him for, Mandel said he will run on the record he has developed while serving six years a state treasurer. He pivoted to saying Brown's record makes him better-suited for more liberal states like California and Vermont. He said Brown has held elected office for 40 years, basically as long as Mandel has been alive.

"It's clear Sherrod Brown is out of step with Ohio values," Mandel said.

On paper, Mandel seemingly would be in a position to improve on his 2012 performance. Off-year elections in Ohio generally attract a more conservative electorate, although the electoral climate likely will be influenced by how Trump fares in the White House.

That's not the only way Trump will influence this race.

Lately, Mandel has taken more than a few pages from the Trump playbook, making conspicuous efforts recently on Twitter to tie immigration to Islamic terrorism, while criticizing "elites" and "political correctness." Mandel was quick to blame "Radical Islam" for a Nov. 28 car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University, at a time police were still sorting through facts, and details were still trickling through the media. Police shot and killed the attacker, an 18-year-old OSU student who arrived in the United States as a refugee from Somalia.

Looks like Radical Islamic terror came to my alma mater today. So sad what happened at OSU. We must remain vigilant against Radical Islam. — Josh Mandel (@JoshMandelOhio) November 28, 2016

"My training and experience from the Marine Corps and the intelligence community and two tours in Iraq told me that this attack was inspired by radical Islam," Mandel told cleveland.com.

And while serving as a warm-up speaker for Trump at a Dec. 2 rally in Cincinnati, Mandel said "crazy liberals" wanted to make Columbus into a sanctuary city, something he said would happen over his "dead body," according to multiple media reports.

In his announcement video, Mandel even used phrases -- "rigged system" and "drain the swamp" -- that Trump repeatedly used throughout his campaign. While other Ohio Republicans have approached Trump with varying levels of caution or reluctance, Mandel has been more outspoken in his support.

In short, Mandel likely is looking at the success Trump had here -- winning Ohio by about 9 points, a greater margin of victory than in any other swing state -- and hoping to emulate it. He also has the opportunity to run a campaign that contrasts with Tiberi, who refused to endorse Trump.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio endorsed Mandel's run on Wednesday shortly after the announcement. Mandel had chaired Rubio's presidential campaign in Ohio, but he switched his endorsement to Trump once Trump emerged as the party's nominee.

"Josh Mandel is always the first to fight when it comes to defending conservative principles, like lowering taxes and creating a more transparent government for the people of Ohio," Rubio said in a statement. "He is also the only candidate who can unify the Republican Party in Ohio to win the seat from the Democrats and send a strong message to any obstructionists who would stand in the way of the sea change underway in Washington."

After Mandel's announcement, Ohio Democrats issued a statement that in part re-heated attacks they used against him in the 2012 Senate race, and in the 2014 Ohio Treasurer's race, in which Mandel was re-elected.

"Since day one in the treasurer's office, Josh Mandel has always been more interested in furthering his own political career than doing his job," said the statement, issued by Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Jake Strassbeger. "From hiring his cronies and giving them raises, to exchanging access to the official treasurer's letterhead for $100,000 in campaign contributions, to using the Treasurer's office to talk about issues that have nothing to do with the job taxpayers pay him to do, Josh Mandel remains someone we can't trust."

Mandel is a Northeast Ohio native who first won elected office to Lyndhurst City Council in 2003, at the age of 28. He then was elected as a state representative in 2005, before winning the Ohio Treasurer's Office in 2010. He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He and his wife, Ilana, have three young children.

While in the treasurer's office, Mandel launched a still-expanding Ohio Checkbook program, which posts line-item level spending and salary data for local and state government. This year, his office launched a program that allows people with disabilities to set aside up to $14,000 a year to pay for college, housing and disability-related expenses. Mandel's office financed a Public Service Announcement that airs on local TV in which Mandel appears alongside OSU football coach Urban Meyer.