Tag: Butler County GOP

It’s All About Family: Why Michael Ryan is Right for Butler County Commissioner

It was a successful fundraiser for Michael Ryan on the West Side of Hamilton, Ohio, where he has served as a vice mayor for several years.  Ryan is running for Butler County Commissioner, so a fundraiser was held at the Shooter’s Event Center, which was very well attended and well represented among donors, showing a great early sign for his campaign.  Under normal conditions, a person like Michael Ryan would be an easy one to vote for.  However, this campaign represents a significant shift in direction for the Republican Party, as two incumbent candidates are running for the same position.  Cindy Carpenter is already a commissioner, and it’s her seat that is up for election.  There are some serious issues with her that we’ll address specifically.  But as to who is best for this commissioner seat, Michael Ryan is the easy favorite.  Then there is the latecomer to the race, Roger Reynolds, whom I have supported a lot in the past.  For him, this is the wrong seat at the wrong time for a lot of reasons.  Things I’d rather not discuss, but he put himself out there for a public seat, so it’s going to get uncomfortable.  As for the Michael Ryan fundraiser and why he is the best pick for the seat, as well as the future of the Butler County Republican Party being best represented by him, there is no question.  The task will be to show the average voter the differences between those three Republicans in name.  It really comes down to how we define what the “Grand Old Party” is, and I would say its economic viability as best represented by the MAGA movement and political figures like J.D. Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, and locally, Michael Ryan.  They are all around the same age, and the young Republicans, who were well represented at Michael’s event, are looking toward the next generation.  Not the over-50 crowd.  Many people are seeking Republicans for a fresh start, and that is why Michael Ryan is the best candidate for consideration.

Lots of great options on High Street in Hamilton, Ohio

As I met Michael’s parents and his wife Amanda’s, I couldn’t help but notice a pattern in the kind of politician I most support, in virtually all cases.  They are good families with working relationships with their spouses.  One thing that really stands out about Michael is that his wife, Amanda, is very engaging, and they make a strong political couple, working together as a team to meet the needs of a political office.  For instance, there is a lot that goes into a political job that goes well beyond the function of doing the job itself.  Being a representative means talking to a lot of people all the time, and it is best when there is a supportive spouse to help with that task as a team.  And Amanda fits right into that role very well.  However, what’s also noticeable is that they both have very supportive and intact parents who are deeply involved in the process.  That’s great when it comes to Michael and Amanda, but it’s something I notice among all the political people I support.  They all have strong families that help them in the background, and for me, that is the first ingredient for success in a political position.  How can you offer yourself as a manager of the public trust if you can’t work with the trust within a family unit?  That is certainly the case with George and Debbie Lang, a compelling political couple who are supporting Michael Ryan’s campaign very early in the process.  George was supposed to attend the fundraiser, but was held up in Columbus and was running late. 

There were other notable couples present as well. Mark Welch has been very supportive, as a West Chester Trustee.  And Nancy Nix, who has a great relationship with her husband, Bob, ended up covering for George’s absence.  But what they all have in common, which I think a lot of, is that they have functional relationships with their spouses, which I would say is the foundation of any political office.  If you can’t work well together with your spouse, how can you work together with other people in the party, or the community as a whole?  Even more than that, I had a chance to talk to the Butler County Young Republicans, who were there to support Michael from Miami University, all dressed up in suits and ties. All of them were inclined toward that kind of life, including a healthy marriage, good personal decisions, and taking responsibility for themselves. Ben Nguyen, a very young man running for the Lakota school board, was there to support Michael Ryan as one of those young Republicans. He represents the new generation of hopeful people joining the Republican Party, which is very family-oriented. I am very encouraged by meeting them; they are part of the party that has emerged from Charlie Kirk’s efforts at Turning Point USA.  Gone are the days when the public would support scandalous figures who used a powerful political office to nurture sexual affairs and financial despondency by abusing the public trust.  No, these were all people who expect the best from those running for public office, and they are being judged on how well they handle their affairs, starting at home.

Downtown Hamilton is Thriving These Days

And whether it’s fair or not, for people to know what a good family is, it starts with having a good family, so it’s no surprise that Michael and Amanda Ryan both had their parents at this event, and they were very engaging.  They actually reminded me of a younger version of George and Debbie Lang, in terms of a couple who work well together.  When you deal with the public, you really need a good partner in life to help keep everything sorted out. Typically, that’s what I look for when supporting a political person: how well they maintain a relationship with their spouse.  If they are bouncing around between girlfriends or boyfriends and wearing gold rings on their pinky fingers, I likely won’t be endorsing them because, in my experience, those types of people don’t fare well in politics.  And ultimately, the measure of a good office holder is in what they have done, and for Michael, because he has a happy home life, that has translated into being an outstanding city council member who has helped build a good team that has brought excellent economic value to a city that has needed it.  Hamilton, Ohio, is on the uptick economically largely because Michael Ryan has been very effective at attracting investment interest to the town, and it all starts with being a good person who doesn’t get swept away by the tides of influence that often accompany such activity.  Having a good spouse to help keep everything grounded is a key to being successful when those pressures are applied.  And they are usually the difference between success and failure.  And upon meeting the family of Michael Ryan, it becomes obvious very quickly that the headlines that emerge from his public life will lean in the positive direction, rather than the negative, as people who lean into an office to fill a void inside them often do.  In my experience, to run a successful public office, you need a good private life with a supportive spouse as a partner.  And Michael Ryan certainly has that.

Rich Hoffman

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The Roger Reynolds Story: Politcal Revenge is a target rich environment

I supported Roger Reynolds, the old Butler County Auditor, when it wasn’t cool to do so.  And I must remind everyone that the story initially broke when Fox 19 in Cincinnati, Ohio, was looking to do a hit piece against the Republican Party of Butler County that started the whole mess.  So don’t be so surprised that they carried Roger’s story about a bloody dispute with the very popular Sheriff Jones and State Attorney General David Yost.  I get where Roger is; he wants to clear his name of any wrongdoing.  He wants to be back in politics.  I get the hurt feelings.  Many people did terrible things to each other, and the abuse of power that was on display is embarrassing and gives politics a bad name.  When David Yost, with the help of Sheriff Jones, tried to put Roger in jail for an improper interest in a public contract, we all knew that there was a lot more going on, and Roger found himself outside of a political party looking to cut him out of it.  And I was there for Roger in the worst of that.  But he wants revenge; they almost put him in jail and cost him a fortune to defend himself in court.  But changing people for who they are just isn’t going to happen.  If you want to be in politics, then you have to beat your enemies in politics, and don’t turn toward the courts, which those in power control, to do your business.  Get back on the horse, ride it, and play politics the way the game is played. 

But as far as I’m concerned, this story ended when Roger was cleared of wrongdoing in the courts.  No political apparatus should be able to destroy other people with the court system, but we’ve seen several instances of that happening in Butler County over the last couple of years, and it wasn’t good on any measure.  But crying about its unfairness and hoping that public sentiment will restore your good fortune is not the way to solve these problems.  And spitting in the face of people who were most supportive of you along the way is a good way to make political enemies.  And by how things work, Roger Reynolds has made himself a political enemy to my way of thinking because of his actions in the wake of this mess, so he’s not doing himself any favors.  Regarding Butler County politics, from my perspective, if you get sideways with Nancy Nix, the new auditor, then I won’t have a lot of sympathy for you.  Nancy, I think, is what all politicians should aspire to be.  She’s a sincerely good person in a very cutthroat profession, and she manages to still be very good at her job.  And she is doing a great job in Butler County as she moved to fill in that auditor seat that Roger had to vacate due to the criminal prosecutions he had to endure.  Roger went immediately to try to get his old job back, which would have been damaging to Nancy Nix personally and the team she has built at the auditor’s office, to make Roger happy, and that’s not a good way to go about things.  And in the upcoming elections, Roger wants to either run against Nancy for his old job back, which puts him against the person who went to court for him in a supporting role and helped him get back on his feet during all this, and was a very loyal friend until he turned on her after these court proceedings.  Or he wants to run for Butler County Commissioner, which will put him against Michael Ryan, the person I have already endorsed, so that will make it so I have to campaign against Roger, which won’t be a good thing for anybody. 

But don’t think that the media of Fox 19 and Channel 5 with Karen Johnson are suddenly pro Roger Reynolds.  I was surprised they picked up his story where he did his article on what had happened to him.  I had done it before for him over the past couple of years and talked about who did what to whom.  But this was the mainstream media getting Roger’s story out from his own lips, which they caused to happen in the first place.  So they aren’t suddenly anybody’s friends.  They are the same malcontents that they always were.  But they see blood in the water of Butler County politics, and if they can use Roger to harm Sheriff Jones, or David Yost, they will undoubtedly do it, and they did during the first week of April of 2025.  I read Roger’s story about the political hit job against him, where he named names and got specific.  But to what end?  Sheriff Jones is getting up there in age and has been vulnerable, especially in this last election season, where he didn’t get a warm endorsement from the Central Committee, because of stories like this one.  He’s good with the immigration issue now that Trump is back in office, and I agree with him on many things.  But politically, if Roger wanted to be a tough guy, he’d go right for the horse and not turn on his once very good friend, Nancy Nix, for his political comeback. 

Then there is Attorney General David Yost.  He wants to run for Governor against Vivek Ramaswamy, the Trump-endorsed candidate.  Yost is very vulnerable to having his entire political career destroyed, especially after what he did to Roger.  If I wanted revenge by the game of politics, you attack where people most want to be, and that is where he should focus.  They are trying to get Roger back in the ring as opposition who wish to divide up whatever party unity has been built now that Trump has been re-elected.  He is only hurting himself by splitting the party into either supporting him over Nancy Nix, or attacking a good commissioner candidate, which would drain away votes for both of them, opening the door for a third-party Christian conservative to win with their typical 35 to 40%.  Meanwhile, these liberal media hacks, like Karen Johnson and Fox 19 in general, get what they want: a damaged Republican Party.  So that’s why I didn’t pick up the phone immediately when Roger called with his story.  I wasn’t ignoring him.  I like him still.  I’ve even met with him a few times to see if there was a way I could help him out.  But once he got sideways with Nancy Nix, that’s the line for me.  And that’s a shame, because if he wants to get tough in politics, we are dealing with a target-rich environment.  And if you wish to take revenge, there are many political ways to get it.  But we all know how politics works, you have to build teams.  You don’t destroy them.  And the media coverage of his story wasn’t for his benefit.  It was to harm the Republican Party using him as the vehicle to do it.  And if you don’t love the Party for what it can do for people, then why do anything?  And why destroy friendships that were very real?  Nancy Nix could only harm herself by going to court to support Roger during all this.  But she did it because she’s the real deal and didn’t want to see something terrible happen to her friend.  And that friend turned against her because he didn’t want to go after the bigger fish that brought him harm in the first place, which does not come out well in a primary consideration, that could become bloody for no good reason.  In these kinds of things, you have to fight the right fight, not the one that you think is easiest, and turning on friends isn’t very enduring.

Rich Hoffman

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The Gift of Debbie Lang: Americana to fill the hearts of free people crawling across the finish line of a tough political period

The flag at the GOP tent during the VOA Country Music Festival of 2024
Big stuff at a wonderfully patriotic night in Butler County, Ohio
This is the map of the election as it stands in August of 2024. The media wants everyone to think Harris has a better chance. She doesn’t have a path to victory.

I know there are a lot of scared people out there, and they are apprehensive about Kamala Harris and the Democrats of Doom.  And I keep telling people the truth behind the scenes so they don’t have to worry.  Yet, there is danger in that because while you’re trying to make everyone feel assured, you might take the energy out of the need we all have for them to show up and vote, to make this upcoming election too big to rig.  Most people live their lives daily and hope some decent people end up in the office to tend to their affairs.  But I am more than just a little involved in how things go on behind the scenes, and even I get a little tired of the constant pressure always to overcome some tyrant trying to take over the world, or as we have in the case of the Kamala Harris campaign, many tyrants who want communist all over the world to destroy our country and everything it stands for.  So I get a lot out of events like in West Chester, Ohio, in August of 2024 because it was undoubtedly a recharge as we head into these final days of the 2024 season.  Politics is complex, and it is a blood sport.  It’s tough to go out and raise money for all it takes to run for office and still be authentic to yourself and your promises to voters.  And it’s even more challenging when you have Central Committee appeasements to make, and you are in a primary with other Republicans running for the same office.  Things can get a little hot.  But let me just say this: it has been a challenging period from the time that Trump left the White House and the terror of a communist invasion into all our lives from the impending Biden administration, which Kamala Harris was a created sleeper cell terrorist nurtured along in that environment.  But I was very proud to see so many Butler County Republicans, several from Warren County, and many other places from all over the state, come together under a giant American flag to lead the way during the VOA Country Music Festival, where the entire weekend was packed with top musical artists putting on their best show to a massive crowd hungry for patriotism under the flag of the red, white and blue.

Thomas Hall, Matt Huffman, and Adam Mathews
The front of the GOP tent for Butler County. A foundation for the entire country.

I am unusually patriotic regarding the VOA park, where the Voice of America radio towers once stood.  As a kid, I could see them from my front yard about five or six miles west, and I loved that they broadcast American ideas to the world meant to topple communism and tyranny wherever they put their initiative forth.  Still, if truth be told, I go to the VOA Park almost every day for lunch and have read countless books on its park benches.  It has been my base of operations for this blog site for many years now, including right after Trump was removed from office, and I read from the Cleon Skousen book The Naked Communist the plots of what was happening in the world from a bench there in the park.  Running this blog from the VOA Park essentially was my way of keeping the spirit of that place alive for continued vigilance.  So I did not need much convincing to be invited to attend a GOP event under a nice airconditioned tent in the VIP area of such a magnificent occurrence.  At one end of a massive concert venue was the old broadcast building, which is now a wonderful museum where people can learn all there is to know about the magnificent Voice of America.  However, at the other end, where over 20,000 people had filled the space, was a large stage for several top country music acts that turned out to be an extraordinary reverence of Americana at its absolute best.  And I had a glimpse of what Making America Great Again could look like after these last several decades of political hell. 

The GOP tent attached to VIP access to the main stage
A great way to see everything behind the scenes and good people hard at work
Sheriff Jones working the crowd
Bernie Moreno, taking a much needed break

To get a feel for the quality of the event, I have included lots of videos and pictures for those who didn’t get that opportunity to give people an idea of just how good the Butler County Republican Party is and the people in it who make everything happen.  Any disputes that we may have had during the primary season are now behind everyone.  The GOP tent was under a giant American flag hanging high with a spotlight on it all night.  I was there well past midnight, and that flag never stopped flying, and in the end, that’s what everyone at that event, and specifically under that flag in the Butler County GOP tent, were fighting for and fighting in every way that people have fought for that flag since its creation.  And I can say to everyone who is wondering.  Are the members of the GOP as committed to the cause of preserving American freedom as the people outside that VIP area who were there to watch great country music performances under a setting sun umbrellaed by a magnificent starry sky?  The answer is yes.  I spent the entire evening talking to almost everyone, and I can report that their heart is in it to win it, and the goal of their existence is to Make America Great Again with a second Trump presidency that is right there for us to win and benefit from. 

A very large crowd under a setting sun
MAGA America is growing. These are not Kamala voters

I’m not going to lie; I certainly do love George and Debbie Lang, who were the hosts of the Butler County GOP experience at the VOA Country Music Festival.  If Debbie asked me to be a part of anything, I would do it because it’s her and I think a lot of her family.  They are just good people, and the public doesn’t get to see them the way I do.  So, the public might not understand.  Our friendship started when George was going through a phony perjury trial due to his relationship with John Boehner during his Speaker of the House period.  George was targeted as a way to get to Boehner, and I thought George was tough through the whole experience.  He stood tough when most Republicans hadn’t learned how to yet.  So, I have had a great relationship with the Langs out of that respect for many years now.  And George gave an excellent speech at the tent that I think people will benefit from and I wanted to share it.  I included many others from people many voters may not get a chance to see without the fancy politics masking who they are, as everyday people are just as concerned about tomorrow as everyone else.  George wasn’t lost on the significance of the Voice of America, and his wife Debbie understood it, too.  And they put on a fantastic event that restored the spirit of many people as they were struggling to gasp for a bit more air ahead of a finish line in Ohio that would set a course for the rest of the country in the years to come.  I took a minute in the ambitions of the evening to stand under that big flag in the comfort of the VIP area because you could get away from the crowd a bit to think, and I could see clearly what we had all been fighting for.  Sheriff Jones was there and feeling it, too, and I had a chance to catch up to him before he went onto the big stage to address the crowd with some patriotic flair that everyone was hungry for.  And I could see victory for everyone coming in a way that we could only dream of a few years ago.  Yet there it was, right in front of our face, for us to grab and take to preserve the future.  And it took a lot of vision and tenacity to capture it in a bottle for all to see, which is a unique gift that Debbie Lang has.  She has been through a lot with her husband, and that they can host such an event with all that stood in the way was truly magnificent and worth the most challenging endeavors that could only be unleashed under a free people fighting to keep that American flag held high, for all to see as it was epically at the VOA Country Music Festival in Butler County, Ohio in August of 2024—a benchmark in American history.

We went on until after midnight. Talked to a lot of good people about many positive things coming in the months to come

Rich Hoffman

Debbie Lang, Speaker Johnson, and Senator Lang

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Sheriff Jones: A National Treasure of Butler County

I really like what Joe Statzer and others are doing in Butler County to get some official media to cover all the good officeholders concentrated in the northern suburbs.  With their new YouTube channel True Spoken GOP, Joe has collected several interviews with stars of the GOP and future stars.  And yes, I think stars is the right word because it takes a lot of guts to put themselves out there and work the ropes in ways many people have no idea about to make the world a little bit better.  We work hard in Butler County, Ohio, to make its government-run well, and at the top of that star-driven pyramid is Sheriff Jones, who is world-famous.  I am very proud to have him as our sheriff because if he wasn’t, it’s likely that things would have been much worse during these Covid overreaches that we have seen out of the DeWine administration and, ultimately, the Biden administration.  Sheriff Jones has held firm, and recently, he gave an excellent speech at Big Bul’s in Ross, Ohio that was a lot of fun.  I recorded a few sections of it for my article, but I had wanted to hear it again.  Thankfully, Joe and the great people operating True Spoken GOP captured it pretty much intact and put it up, which I think is worth sharing. It’s people like Sheriff Jones who will stand up to any communist infusion first coming from the Biden administration.  But over our shores and beyond our borders, there are schemes and plots from the Davos crowd working with China to overthrow America’s influence worldwide.  And it can look pretty scary, that is until you go to one of these GOP events and Sheriff Jones speaks.  When he does, suddenly, the world makes a lot more sense. 

Sheriff Jones Speaking at Big Bul’s in Butler County

I can’t get to every event, but I try to go to as many as possible.  I have been participating in more GOP events lately because there is a real political need to help in some of these areas, and I do what I do to help.  I see it as a community thing, in helping shape the kind of government we want.  Sometimes money isn’t enough, nor is it just volunteering. Occasionally other items are needed, and with the way things are right now, people are required to help make things better.  We can’t just sit around and complain about how we’d like things to be.  We need to help make them better, and as I say often, politics is like a blood sport.  Competition makes it better, but sometimes even with the heat of the pressure, there needs to be some strategy that everyone can agree on.  And sometimes, like that event at Big Bul’s, it’s just nice to sit back and let other people talk and to show everyone that there is more of a fighting chance at surviving the problems of the present without losing ourselves along the way.  That night Sheriff Jones opened up for a speech by Corey Lewandowski, and for the audience, it was something they needed.  Both speakers are part of the inner workings of the Trump campaign.  Sheriff Jones has been to the White House a few times and worked directly with Trump, and that night, people wanted to be close to Trump, and Sheriff Jones was a suitable representative.  It was a good night.

I remember the night well when things looked bad for Trump, a few days after the Access Hollywood  blast from the mainstreamers sought to kill Trump’s campaign right before the election in 2016.  I was at the US Bank Arena in Cincinnati, which was filled to the top with about 19,000 people.  I had to do an overseas meeting with some people I work with at the same time that Sheriff Jones was speaking before Trump arrived, and he was so loud I had a hard time finishing the call.  There was no place in US Bank Arena that I could go to where I could hear the other people.  Sheriff Jones was so loud that night.  But I wasn’t mad.  I managed through it.  I was more grateful that Jones had the guts to stick with Trump during a tough week.  It looked like our hopes of getting Trump was going to fall short and that we’d be stuck with Hillary Clinton.  But Sheriff Jones showed up with Rudy Giuliani, and they lit up the audience before the arrival of Trump.  And once Trump did arrive, after that evening, I felt that he was still going to win, no matter what the media was telling us.

That’s how it felt at Big Bul’s during that speech that Sheriff Jones gave there.  He went around the audience beforehand and shook everyone’s hand.  I had a chance to talk to him a bit.  We both love our cowboy hats, and I had just picked up a new one from a recent trip out west to Jackson Hole, which he noticed.  And I just felt proud at that moment to have Jones in our corner within Butler County.  Some brutal battles have been fought over the years, and he’s always a reminder that good does beat evil. That’s how I felt before the speech.  After the speech, I felt even more confident than I did after the US Bank Arena speech that we would win this modern tragedy involving the Biden administration and a global cabal who wants to destroy everything it means to be American.  That night at Big Bul’s, the real Americans showed up on a steamy evening in August of 2021 and drew a line in the sand.  We weren’t going to be conquered by the progressive left.  We were going to stand up to them and do what we had to do.  But for a moment in time, we’d crack some jokes, shake hands with one another, then we’d pull down our hats and do what had to be done. 

Sheriff Jones has been a great warrior in Butler County.  I hope to have him for a sixth term, or perhaps even a seventh.  I hope we have him for sheriff for many more years.  But I am grateful for the times we have had.  It’s mainly because of him that we do have good officeholders in Butler County. He’s done an excellent job of leading by example and exerting influence leadership in the blood sport of politics.  Because in the end, we have won a lot more than we’ve lost, and we have survived to tell stories about it.  And I have a feeling even many years from now; there will still be stories of Sheriff Jones and the leadership he provided when the community needed it most, as hope looked like it was fading.  Only for us to realize that we were only a joke or two from beating back the progressive advances of a maleficent force of antagonists who want to destroy everything we stand for.  But not so fast, not at Big Bul’s in Ross, Ohio with our white-hatted sheriff, a direct connection to President Trump who has been exiled from the White House, only to return, with all our help, to retake our country and push out the thieves caught trying to steal it.  Revenge is coming, but that doesn’t mean we have to take things too seriously.  There will be time for that later.  Now, while the time comes near, it’s the mark of a good leader to know how to ease people’s minds with a bit of laughter and camaraderie.

Rich Hoffman

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I Can’t Wait to Vote for Mark Welch: Sad to hear, Jennifer Gross has been a Never Trumper

After watching the debate performance at the West Chester Tea Party Candidate Forum between my pick for the 52nd House seat in Ohio Mark Welch, and his rival Jennifer Gross I was very impressed with both of their answers on the 2nd Amendment. I have known Mark for many years, before he ever ran for any office, so I know clearly where he stands on things and he has not been a disappointment. He’s had some temptations come his way as the West Chester Trustee who worked with George Lang to bring so much prosperity to the area and I know that I can trust him in Columbus where things get quite a bit more difficult. My comment to Jennifer was that I wish she wasn’t running against Mark because I’d love to vote for her for some other position. For me she was a bright spot of the evening and I enjoyed talking to her. Apparently, our paths have crossed in the past on projects and so talking to her after that event was a real pleasure. However, as an employer getting ready to vote for a new hire for an important House seat that means a great deal to our area, Mark is still my guy without question. And here are the reasons.

There is a lot of talk in this election about the establishment being some kind of maniacal force that must be overthrown, especially from Candice Keller. But I could write several books about all the work that has gone on behind the scenes with great leaders like George Lang, and Ann Becker to push out the RINO Republicans and build an Ohio Republican Party that is firm behind President Trump’s administration. That is why we recently had a big party for Trump in West Chester that drew a large crowd and Lara Trump herself came to Jungle Jim’s in Fairfield recently to help raise money for the Butler County GOP. Todd Hall as Chairman has done a great job in shaping the current GOP along with Sheriff Jones. I have done my fair share to help shape the kind of people we wanted in those positions and I am very proud of the result, of the people who are now office holders that would never have been if we didn’t start working to get real conservatives on the Central Committees. If there is anything really good that came out of the Tea Party movement, it was that, and the result is that we now have options at high office in the Statehouse like George Lang and Mark Welch, who were born out of the Tea Party movement and are now part of the Trump Administration as far as policy at the local level. So the establishment isn’t so bad anymore, I would say its actually quite good and I have no problem naming myself as a proud, Trump Republican.

In fact, I was never anything but a staunch Republican, no matter how much disagreement we may have had within the party, success does unite people in a great way and Mark Welch was there when it wasn’t cool, and he has done all the right things, and learned all the hard lessons to run that 52nd District seat wonderfully. But after checking out Jennifer’s background, I am not so sure about her yet. I’d need to see her vetted a bit before I’d vote for her in a key spot, something like a trustee seat, or even the school board. I really like her, she is a good personality and a sincere person, but her history as a Never Trumper concerns me greatly as indicated by some of her online postings shown within this article. I’m certainly never one to push away a potential friend or partner, even from former rivals. People learn things in their own way, and I am not rigid in accepting people who have seen the light into being part of a solution in the future. There were a lot of people who were Ted Cruz supporters in the last election that had a problem with Trump. There are of course the Ron Paul types whom I never was a blind supporter. I have never called myself a “libertarian.” I am a Republican in the purest form of it and likely always will be. But I don’t expect everyone to have those firm convictions.

That brings up my other issue with Jennifer, with all that said, she has made comments that she doesn’t associate with being a Republican which is a deal killer for me. It’s not just about party, but its about values. She obviously by some of her messages has some strong feelings about Mark Welch who is my friend because he has many of my shared values. Mark will clearly represent my Republican sentiments in Columbus the way I want to see. But since Jennifer doesn’t care much for Mark and obviously has stated that she no longer identifies as a “Republican” it breaks my heart to see that she’s not where I’d like her to be in life so I could give her a vote. Because I think she has the talent, certainly the charisma. But I’m not sure she can hold a note under pressure on the big stage. I’d need to see her support this current Republican Party and survive some pitfalls first. I understand that sentiments change and with success under Trump, things are much clearer than they were for people coming out of 2016. But I’ve always thought the same things and I know Mark Welch has too. He’s never been a different person. My experience with him is that he holds back a lot, he’s more a man of action than of talk so he doesn’t sell himself enough. But he’s relatively new to this political game himself. He started off as a trustee and has worked his way to where he’s now poised for a more complicated office. And its not about just straight up votes, its about team building for bill passage, and that means that you need to know how to work with the party in charge and not be some outcast that screws everything up. It’s a tough business and it takes a very likeable, and charismatic person deeply rooted in their own belief system to navigate the lobbyists, the pressures in the hall outside the chamber and the constant stream of negative emails because you didn’t vote this way or that. It always takes knowing how not to stumble over the media when they are trying to twist every word you say to play the gotcha game. I know Mark can play that game. Jennifer in my thoughts needs some practice.

When the smoke from this primary on March 17th is over, I hope to see more of Jennifer. I’d like to see her work herself into a party endorsement and to start building some bridges which is what a republic style of government requires. It wouldn’t take much to make me vote for her, just consistency and to fit into the team that has been building in Butler County in the GOP. While individualism is the key to representative government the passing of laws and the art of representation requires those extra team building skills, just as every corporate environment demands. Being a solid individual is needed to fend off the wolves who want to turn every politician into a corrupt specimen. But you must be able to win people over to your way of thinking in a republic and that isn’t easy under the best of circumstances. Its wonderful to say we should never have party politics, but in Columbus we have majorities and minorities and that is needed for all kinds of checks and balances, and that is the framework that anybody going for a State seat must navigate to do the good work that needs to be done. I can’t wait to vote for Mark Welch, he has worked hard and deserves it. And I look forward to getting behind Jennifer Gross at some future opportunity if such a chance presents itself.

Rich Hoffman

Why Nancy Nix of Butler County is one of the Best: EdChoice and how Ohio needs a better funding model

I just want to say after seeing her at a number of political events recently, especially at places where George Lang and Mark Welch are present that Butler County is very lucky to have such a great treasurer in Nancy Nix on her third term. She is so good at what she does that I’d like to see her on her 100th term in the future. It is always wonderful to meet competent people who understand the details and Nancy Nix does. She is part of the puzzle that has come together so nicely in Butler County Ohio politics where a really good management team has risen to the occasion of our times to bring residents the best services possible that government could hope ever to provide. She has been on my mind a lot lately not just because she is a supporter of George Lang and Mark Welch, but because of something she said a few years ago about public school levies that are very relevant to the current challenge of EdChoice forcing local school systems to change the way they look at their funding.

Let’s face it, the whole progressive concept of attaching state money to a school located in a physical real estate concept was dumb from the beginning. It was just another brick in the road that has led to a pathway to hell. A lot of older people, like Bill Cunningham on WLW radio are struggling with this whole EdChoice concept because they only know of school systems being attached as the center of a community complete with sports programs and sentiments of school days long ago ended. These are the types of people where class reunions mean something, so it is painful for them to even consider that a child might want to pick up and move to another school across town and to take their state funding with them if that school isn’t very good. So far the focus of the argument is that the state report cards are unfair, but the bottom line is really in consumer confidence, do parents want to send their children to that particular school and how can the school market themselves in a way to make whatever the state report card says be the destination of hope for a parent and their child. In the future of education, it will take more than winning football programs, kids will actually have to learn things and be places that are good. A good school should not be determined by good real estate, it should be because the school managed itself well, spent their money wisely, and produced a superior product in a free market fashion.

Nancy has experience both at US Bank and as a Plant Controller so she gets money and how it’s a measure of value. I have worked with a lot of controllers and they are normally very boring personally, but beautiful people because their minds are very mathematical. Nancy has all the traits of the best of controllers, but she isn’t boring. She has a real passion for accounting and it radiates from her in such positive ways, so it surprised me when she came out publicly taking a position against several local government schools on their attempts to pass another school levy for what they were saying were, “safety needs.” Nancy stated, “Our homeowners are already heavily taxed, and its very difficult for many residents to make ends meet. My office receives handwritten letters daily from taxpayers needing help keeping up with their real estate taxes. Those who get too far behind can lose their home. Our county has passed 40 or so levies in the last 10 years and I’d argue some were for far more than they needed.” I found that very refreshing coming from a county treasurer who was looking at the big picture for a change and I’ve loved her ever since.

Her statements on that levy issue have come back to me now that all these lazy superintendents of some of the major government schools in the area, like Mason and Lakota have been complaining about losing their state funding due to EdChoice. What do they think is going to happen, that they are going to ask for more levies to cover their ridiculously bad management? Every controller I’ve ever dealt with would look at the way ANY public school is ran and demand an instant layoff to balance the books because the income is not conducive to proper balancing of the books. In fact, if Lakota had a proper accounting “controller” they’d have a shit fit on their hands due to the insane perception of what value is for the scope of the product, the education of the students based on state and local tax revenue chained to them like some masochist in a bondage chamber. The relationship with the community is about as dysfunctional financially as is conceivably possible and whenever it gets questioned the school hides behind the children imprisoned there due to their lack of choice in the matter—because the system gives money to the school, not the student. Government schools as Nancy pointed out, ask for too much too often. And I would add that they do it not because they need the money but because they know they are so inefficient that they take more money from people to manage their inefficiencies. Nancy has seen the backend of that problem when people write her to say their taxes are too high, and in too many cases, they lose their homes because the taxes are so terrible.

At the center of the problem is the perception of what the state should be giving to students, which is why Bill Cunningham’s troubles over the EdChoice issue is so comedic. The value of the education is just assumed as it has been set by the chaos of the government schools joined together by their collective bargaining agreements and the state is supposed to come up with a model that just rubber stamps that sum—whether its $6000 per student or $12,000. The numbers are inflated by these school districts to cover the high cost of their government employees and not the needs of the child. This is because of Parkinsen’s Law which states that the sum of needed money fills to the supply of funds. If a school levy passes and there is a cash infusion, then the union contracts will fill to consume the entire amount. Yet the kids are still coming out as bad as if they went to a third rate school, they can’t read, they can’t think, and they take on too many social beliefs rooted in liberalism. That’s not what we should be paying for. I would argue that if the state supplied only $2000 and schools had to compete for business that is in the marketplace, that the price to educate children would go down dramatically. That is when the state could provide a proper, constitutional, funding model.

Its just good to know that there are people like Nancy out there supporting other good Republicans like George Lang and Mark Welch, and many, many others. Good people tend to gravitate toward each other and she is one of the great ones. I appreciate that she is the treasurer of my county, and that our finances are in as good of hands as they could be. Most accounting types are alike in that they see beauty in numbers and can utilize that talent where needed. But Nancy has a different gear where she doesn’t just get lost behind some wire rimmed glasses and a big desk separating her from the world. She is connected and approachable, but more than anything, she does her work for all the right reasons and I’m glad she’s around.

Rich Hoffman

What I Like about George Lang: He’s the perfect compliment to the Trump administration at the state level, and takes the Dirt out of Politics

One aspect of this modern Republican Party that has evolved over the last decade in Butler County is that it is very effective and surprisingly unified. I had been thinking about it for a while, but the matter became quite clear for me at the launch event for George Lang’s run for senate in Ohio. While there I found myself associating in a friendly way with many people, I would have called rivals years ago. Suddenly they were friends largely because the party had united so well behind the Trump administration. Ten years ago, we called more liberal Republicans RINOs while I ran more with the Tea Party Crowd. Then during the primaries, everyone had their various picks. Some liked Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, or his dad Ron. Others liked the way the Bush family ran things. I was from the very beginning a Trump supporter, so there were obvious disagreements when Republicans came together for something like a public announcement by a great politician like George Lang. But at this most recent event I couldn’t help but notice how unified everyone was and it was good to see.

After George made his announcement and many politicians came forth to give their endorsement and tell stories of why they supported George through testimonials, seen in the video above, Sherriff Jones and I reminisced a bit about the last ten years while walking through the parking lot of Miami University’s Hamilton campus. As we talked it became obvious to me that the Trump presidency, which has deep roots into Butler County, had gone a long way to uniting Republicans in a way I could have only dreamed of. And it was only natural that a person like George Lang could build bridges in a positive way with all the different types of people that were in the Republican Party and get so many people to come forward to say such nice things. The Trump administration in all its genius had united Republicans in ways that just weren’t possible prior to 2016 and I was very happy to see it.

During all this contemplation I was thinking about why I liked George Lang so much and had for such a long time. I was very happy to hear that he was running for a senate seat, but I wasn’t sure why until after his announcement event. It wasn’t just that I liked him as a person, it was for another reason, a more important one. I have been involved in politics at many different levels for several decades, and it has been my choice to stay on the outside as much as possible to avoid too much corrosive contact. But I have never felt that way about George, whom I have now known for well over a decade. Even in the hardest of times George has always been a solid person and loyal to free market ideas, especially when they weren’t all that popular. Yet to my eyes he has always been constantly a good person, and that was rare in politics.

A lot of my reason for staying on the outside looking in, even when the door was wide open to step inside, was that I have always viewed politics as a dirty business and honestly, I don’t like the dirt. I’m happy to sling mud when challenged, but personally, I’d rather think about big things and find ways to bring about larger concepts to people. So politics just wasn’t conducive to that kind of thing. However, over time, George has pounded away his own kind of honesty in politics and it has shown to be a different way of doing business as a politician. George can still go out and raise the money it takes to run big campaigns, and associate with people all along the very fine edge of the political spectrum without becoming so disagreeable that relationships are no longer possible. George had found a way to work within the political spectrum of Republican politics at the local and state level without losing himself along the way and to me that is enormously encouraging.

Political enemies of George might want to roll their eyes at my assessment, but I have been with George through some perilous times and I know the guy well. I know his family and a dishonest person just can’t cut it with those kinds of relationships. George is an honest person who stands by the people close to him through thick and thin and oozes sincerity. Sure, there is always someone out there who wants him to do something that he doesn’t want to do, or that he disagrees with, but he never seeks to make an enemy out of them. Yet he has a tendency to stand resolute and that does make enemies. But that’s part of the territory. You can know a person by the way they are when the cameras are not around and nobody else is looking. And in those conditions, George Lang is the same good person. That ultimately is why I like George Lang so much; he takes the dirt out of politics.

George was going to be successful in politics whether or not President Trump ever entered the White House, but due to the current political circumstances, a politician and businessman like George Lang is poised to do much greater things than ever before. Under the Trump administration good people like Lang have far more clout than the back-room dealers of yesteryear and that was as much of a relief to the other Republicans giving testimony about George’s qualifications for higher office as it was me. Truly we are experiencing a new day in politics, something that none of us had ever seen. Trump’s presidency had like a vacuum sucked up all the disjointed disagreements and plotting for power that used to go on for the sake of obtaining any elected office and replaced it with a sincere effort to be a part of a greatness in keeping America great now that it has been built that way once again.

There is tremendous room in the years to come to make Ohio one of the great economic powerhouses of the world and George Lang sees it, he has always seen it. I remember a very dark time when he and I stood in the parking lot of a restaurant and contemplated the universe and how unfair it seemed at the time. Neither of us thought we’d be able to do much to help it. But George has always been the same person, from that hard time to the opulent present, he’s had the kind of integrity that is contagious to other people and a real desire to help people reach their full potential in life. And for George, that is as a senator doing great work now that the Trump administration has set the pace for allowing such audacious dreams to happen.

You can tell a lot about a person by the type of people who will actually come forward and provide an endorsement, and on that day a wide range of people who have been in public office for a long time came forward and said nice things about George, and the event was a great unifier. If one little event can show that kind of solidarity toward purpose, just think what a senate term in the Ohio Statehouse could provide. The prospect is very exciting and is something we can all look forward to with George Lang as the 4th District Senator in Ohio.

Rich Hoffman

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I Fully endorse George Lang for the Senate District 4 seat in Ohio

I was quite excited to learn that George Lang was running for the Senate seat that Bill Coley had been occupying in Ohio for several years. The seat itself was terming out and George let me know that on Monday at noon he was going to announce his run for it, and it brought a lot of joy to me. I first learned of his candidacy while on vacation with my family in Charleston, South Carolina touring sites that many were reviewing as the best in the world. I kept hearing while on my weeklong stay in Charleston that this neighborhood, this beach, this restaurant, this shipping lane, this and that were the best anywhere. I had to admit that everything was very nice. Property values were certainly great, and shipping vessels seemed to come into the harbor every 30 minutes loaded to their max. Even at 3 in the morning from our Mt Pleasant home I could hear the cranes working and I found all that economic activity very exciting. Yet the town of Mt Pleasant across the harbor from downtown Charleston was quiet and very chic at that time of night, just as it was all other hours of the day. The people there were prosperous and happy, no crime was in sight. Prosperity tends to do that to a community. So I was a little sad to leave and come home, but then for comparison as my family hit Cincinnati starting at Florence then going up I-71 to avoid the traffic on I-75 it was a startling comparison which culminated into our last moments of the journey travelling down Butler County Regional Highway where for as far as the eye could see, there was prosperity, especially in West Chester. After coming from an extremely wealthy area full of vibrant economic activity, it was obvious that my hometown of Butler County, Ohio was even greater and that is something the rest of the nation hasn’t been talking about. And for the last twenty years, it was my friend George Lang who has had a tremendous hand in that success, which was why I was elated that he was running for that Ohio Senate seat.

It goes without saying then that I endorse George Lang for the Senate District 4 seat in Ohio, fully. I could tell stories all day about why he’s qualified, but the best part of his resume is in this opening paragraph. I had spent a week in one of America’s most prosperous communities and coming directly home to West Chester, where I work, and Liberty Township where I live it becomes obvious that we have it better than most anywhere else in the country and that is due to the very pro-business environment that Lang has championed for many years starting as a trustee in West Chester. Even when Lang was outvoted 2 to 1 on most issues in West Chester by the much more liberal trustees who were there at the time, Lee Wong being one of them, George managed to be a change agent for the betterment of business and the results are obvious today, and the spill over has poured over into neighboring Liberty Township and other regions connected directly to West Chester very positively.

I remember well when George benefited from Mark Welch getting elected into that second trustee seat knocking out a longtime incumbent so that a second vote could be obtained, and real growth could occur for business. For a few years George Lang and Mark Welch opened West Chester to a very positive pro-business culture that is now carrying over into our current conditions which rival any of the best in the entire country and now George wants to bring that culture to all of Ohio. When George was elected into the 52nd House of Representative seat, this was his ultimate goal which he has been working toward. However, as a Senator, he will have much greater leverage to make that pro-business platform more prominent and to take it above the noise of all the other political matters that permeate the state.

George really doesn’t have any competition for this spot, his rivals during the upcoming primary are Candice Keller out of Middletown, who I think is a wonderful person. But when it comes to experience, George has many of the same positions as her on conservative ideas, but his understanding of business and his pro-business platform just puts him on a higher level. Then as I’ve said about Lee Wong, he’s the kind of guy who is a liberal in a conservative area. He has no choice but to run as a Republican. His policy decisions are very much that of a Democrat. If he were running for office in Hamilton County or even Dayton, he’d be a Democrat without question. It was Lee who stood in the way of many of the growth ideas that George wanted to implement in West Chester. I seem to remember Wong’s campaign slogan was that you “Couldn’t go wrong with Wong.” Well, yes you can, in a big way. He’s a nice guy but he’s not on the level of Lang, in any category. In many ways Lee stood in the way of growth, it was George and Mark who broke through his resistance to give West Chester the great prosperity that it sees today.

So, if there is a theme to all this, management does matter and who we elect into these positions has a major impact on all our lives. Obviously in Charleston South Carolina they have a lot of good things going on. Essentially there they have a deep and rich history to draw from which has put politics on the efforts of preserving that history, and not getting in the way of businesses wanting to capitalize off that deep history. In West Chester, Ohio the situation was harder, while Butler County does have a great history going back to before the Revolution, just as Charleston does, we had to be good the old-fashioned way, in the middle of the country with great highway access. We needed our politicians to make the most of those advantages with low cost compliance and protections on upfront investment for businesses. In West Chester, George Lang alone for a long time, then later with a good support staff from a very good Republican Party presence, have created an economic boom that plugs straight into the Trump administration. There is a reason that President Trump enjoys coming to the southern Ohio area so much, and George Lang is more a part of that success than just about anybody. Not in what he has done, but in what he hasn’t.

Most politicians measure their success by what bills they sponsor and ultimately by how much they grow government. In George’s case, it’s the opposite, he measures his success by how much he can get government out of the way of business, allowing them to spend their time and energy on being profitable, which then allows a high quality of living for everyone. For people who have lived in the Butler County area for many years, its easy to take for granted just how good it is. But if you have traveled, the benefits are obvious in comparison. I am very excited to see George Lang do for Ohio as a Senator what he has done for West Chester. I personally think Ohio has an opportunity to become one of the great economic powerhouses of the world and it will take people like George to make it happen. So he has my endorsement and then some. I simply can’t wait to get him in that seat so he can start the work, for which we will all benefit.

 

Rich Hoffman

 

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Talking Tough isn’t the Same as Being Tough: My appearence on Laura Ingrahm’s Podcast

It was very disappointing to see Sheriff Jones from Butler County put out his Tweet that ended up in the anti-Trump Washington Post calling for Obama and George W. Bush to come together to stop the party bickering that is currently going on. When I first saw it I thought about saying something to him about it, because what ended up happening was precisely what I knew would happen, the national media would key on it as a top Trump supporter who was reaching back to “traditional” politics for help in solving today’s problems in America between Republicans and Democrats. I’m sure Jones thought he was being cute and that he was trying to show leadership in solving the problem from a public relations standpoint, as his role in government as a sheriff and leader of the Republican party in Butler County, Ohio. But it ended up looking like just another two-faced Trump supporter getting cold feet when the President needed him most, and it was embarrassing. Ironically around the same time that Sheriff Jones was conducting his political insurgency Laura Ingraham’s producer was asking me to be on her podcast to talk about the Covington Catholic issue that involved Nick Sandman and the Indian activist Nathan Phillips. You can hear my comments at the 24-minute mark at the following link.

https://www.podcastone.com/episode/Covington-Catholic-Students-Respond-to-the-Social-Media-Mob-Radical-Pro-Abortion-Legislation-in-New-York-and-the-Truth-About-The-Dangers-of-Marijuana-

Essentially the contents of that Laura Ingraham broadcast was to display why the two political sides cannot work together, it was the opposite of what Sheriff Jones was asking for which ended up in The Washington Post. My comments were to state simply, the kids of Covington Catholic went to Washington D.C. to go on a field trip. They bought their MAGA hats and shirts at street venders who frequent the area they were visiting, and the point of the trip was to have fun. It was a free and open market and if other political parties had a message the young people were interested in they might have bought hats and shirts from those as well, but Trump represents something in American politics that is above the line in its thinking and the Democrats want desperately to avoid it, they want to keep the nation in a below the line condition, meaning they want victimization and turmoil for which they can apply government resources to in an indirect way to maintain their power. Trumps’ message of “Make America Great Again” is a powerful message of optimism and leads to above the line thought. Democrats needing to keep the political discussion below the line need to make everything about fairness and racism, not opportunity and growth. That is where the political divide exists and there is no way to negotiate with it.

https://local12.com/news/local/butler-co-sheriff-calls-on-former-presidents-obama-hw-bush-to-help-country-unify

By listening to Laura’s broadcast, you can hear clearly, she understands the situation. The political left wants to go to war and if they have to ruin the lives of kids like Nick Sandman to do so, they will gladly. That is what we are dealing with. There is no way to make peace with that. The political left had all the dominos set up to topple at any little thing and all it took was the professional activist Nathan Phillips to step up to a group of under aged kids and challenge them with all the plotlines the left had created to engage the targets and start a political dialogue of below the line thinking. When Phillips said in an interview that “these were indigenous lands” he was simply supporting years of progressive statements to apply to the here and now for tactical implementation. The Democrats in this case had set the table and all it took was one of their activists to strike a hit on some unsuspecting Catholic kids from Northern Kentucky. The kids weren’t the target, it was Trump’s border wall, but the political left had no problem exploiting them, or even destroying them to enact their cause.

Sheriff Jones should know better, and I really think he has good intentions. But he doesn’t know the game really. Neither does his WLW buddy Bill Cunningham. Jones has a good relationship with the media. When he says something, they usually run with it. He plays his game safe by making suggestions that look bipartisan and logical. Sure it gets him on WLW. I used to be on WLW all the time too, but the media in Cincinnati decided I was too radical for them. Its been a while for me to appear on a national show like Laura’s. But the truth is that I stayed the course, I am saying the same things now in the same way I said them many years ago when Cunningham and Jones were painting me as a local radical who was instigating trouble instead of building bridges with the other side. So I’ll say it again for them and everyone else, you can’t build a bridge to Hell and expect not to get burned on the other side. Only good-natured Republicans are even willing to do such a thing, liberals are actively looking to take over the world with their ideas. Barack Obama isn’t going to help make peace in the world, especially in America. This is the America he helped create. It is Trump who has the best chance at bringing peace, by cutting all the bridges to Hell.

I like Sheriff Jones, quite a lot actually. And I have listened to Bill Cunningham on and off for years. Not much since 2012, I’ll never get over the way he sided with the Lakota teachers on that issue that cause a tax increase indirectly in West Chester and Liberty Township. But those guys are old and out of touch. Sheriff Jones has great cowboy pictures in his office and his morality ultimately comes from those movies from his youth which I think is great. But these times are not those times. The enemy doesn’t want to make peace or avoid the gunfight in the street to establish moral order. They want to kill conservatives completely and ultimately. They want to destroy talk radio. They want to destroy law and order and they want to eradicate the American family, the Constitution, and all semblance of American lifestyle. They don’t care if they destroy children, adults, men or women, and they don’t care what color someone is. If the conservative who is challenging them is black, or is a woman, they would just as soon destroy that person as anybody. They have no interest in peace, they want to destroy conservativism and those are the facts.

Laura has always been good at what she does but lately she has taken a turn toward the kind of moral stand that I’m talking about. Sheriff Jones might think its cute to be an advocate for peace and bridge building, but that is exactly how Republicans have constantly ended up on the short end of these tactical engagements over all these years. You have to understand the nature of the people you are fighting. In this case Laura gets it, but Sheriff Jones doesn’t. What the media and Democrats in general were willing to do to Nick Sandman show to what extent they are willing to destroy others to win their game. And if that effort isn’t matched with equal force, then one side will continue to win everything while the other continues to lose moral ground inch by inch. Those cowboy pictures on Sheriff Jones wall used to define America. Not any more, that is because the image was stronger than the action. The fight we are in now requires our action to be stronger than our image, and when pressed, we must be willing to do what needs to be done. And that is the moral of this story, which will only have a happy ending if conservatives get with the program and come to terms with the condition of the battle field. Both sides can’t live together, as much as people would like to believe. This is a war and it requires both sides to fight it out for a defined victory. There is no other way at this point.

Rich Hoffman

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What Makes President Trump So Special: A magic night in Lebanon, Ohio

There were some deeply touching moments in the Trump rally in Lebanon, Ohio which I partially expected. But we’re talking about a sitting president stumping for some midterm candidates here, politics is not supposed to be this exciting and people normally don’t show up five, six and seven hours early to stand in the cold and in the rain to watch a 72-year-old man talk. This is a human phenomenon that is unsurpassed in the history of the world, I don’t even think the great Winston Churchill could have brought out the crowd that greeted President Trump at the Warren County Fair Grounds on Friday October 12, 2018. I was just a little stunned by the event. I had a feeling that there would be a large crowd, but the sheer magnitude of it was just jaw dropping. There was a collision of Americana present that was obvious and inspiring and I thought John London from Channel 5 News in Cincinnati put his finger on it perfectly in his summation of the night.

There is a lot to unpack from this event and it will certainly take more than one article to cover it all but for the sake of brevity here I have to thank the people who gave my daughter and I the opportunity to witness this spectacle from the comfort of the V.I.P. section. Yes it was freezing cold and we got rained on and we did stand most of the time. But at least we had a seat and a good vantage point to watch this unusual moment in history.

I always feel sorry for people who don’t have that kind of access to these big Trump events, but as I looked at people’s faces on the floor, many who had been standing under the roof for more than four hours—before President Trump even arrived—they were happy people just willing to be near the star of the show if even for a moment. People were packed everywhere that people could put themselves for as far as the eye could see and it was quite something to witness. It was inspiring to say the least. If these people were willing to show up in the cold and rain of an October in Ohio, they would surely show up to vote for Republicans Trump endorsed in the upcoming election.

This was my oldest daughter’s first time to go to one of these events with me and she was very touched by it. She is a professional photographer and shares with me a tendency to like to view the world through big picture vantage points. The event organizers couldn’t have put us in a better spot for that particular venue, we had the top row of the bleachers just behind the president. I’ve watched President Trump speak many times so it was good to be behind him because my interest was mostly the crowd. The media never does justice to what the crowds look like from Trump’s point of view and we were fortunate to see the whole thing more from the president’s perspective even watching the motorcade role in to drop him off, and turn around all the vehicles to take him back to Lunken afterwards. President Trump does many very subtle things that only a polished pro like him can do on such large operations with many moving parts coming together seamlessly. He is super smart, from where I was standing I could see him staging up his entry onto the stage to match perfectly the various cable news top of the hour broadcasts, and he ended everything right on time like such a seasoned performer. But he’s of course juggling much more than that just in the complexities of his job. Yet while Steve Chabot was talking the President could get a sense that the crowd was drifting. People not under the roof of that magnificent structure on the fairgrounds were getting soaked, including my daughter and I. People next to us were starting to head for the exit. Trump was watching and he ever so subtly tapped Steve in the middle of the back to change things up a bit. Chabot took the cue and sped up his speech and Trump seamlessly changed gears and held the audience to his next twenty minutes of oration. Most people might not even see the value in such a thing, but that is one of the very raw distinctions that Trump has over everyone else in the world. He is literally a master communicator and he knows exactly what he is doing all the time. I continue to be impressed by President Trump every time I see him live, I don’t think I’d ever get sick of it.

After the event was over and people headed out to the parking lot, which used to be the old horse racing track that was moved to Miami Valley gaming several miles to the west my daughter and I lingered around watching the press. I literally stood next to an AP writer and watched her write the news feed of the event, which she mostly got all wrong. But she was shivering and tapping her feet viciously trying to stay warm. For people who haven’t been to these types of things before the media are always given a spot near the back of a rally to photograph from, and behind that raised camera platform is usually rows of tables so that writers can get their stories out. Mostly these reporters are like anybody else, they just want to get their jobs done and get home. Once the Trump supporters had left for their cars the reporters could relax a bit and get their stories out to their employers to meet their deadlines. Most of those reporters didn’t go to the trouble that John London did at Channel 5. They see hundreds of these types of rallies so there is no magic in them that they can see, they only care about the surface stuff. But one thing that everyone missed from a reporter’s standpoint that was very clear to me was how Trump handled the weather.

Remember when Obama had to have a military official hold an umbrella over him while he gave a speech in the Rose Garden? Well in these times of high insurance rates and overly cautious appraisals of everything I didn’t think Trump’s people would let him take the stage because it had been raining so long. The stage was soaked. Part of the stage entry was raised and ran outside of the roof that most of the rally was under, so it was exposed to the weather. Rain had clearly soaked it after many hours. But Trump did the right thing when he arrived. Some of his security wiped off the platform with towels and Trump walked out across it without any concern for his safety which these days was highly unusual. Lesser people would have called the whole thing off, but not this president.

Trump shows up to talk to his supporters under any condition, and that is part of his appeal. But when he left the rain had been coming down even harder. The safe thing would have been for Trump to take the steps down into the pit and stay under the roof, but no, he went back out the way he came in and the ramp wasn’t dried off at all. Trump walked across it like a seasoned pro not even worrying about slipping and falling. Trump isn’t afraid of little things like that and that is part of what distinguishes him from everyone else. It’s a subtle little thing, but those add up and they make Trump and all those he endorses that much more appealing.

Trump has made the Republican Party much, much better. I’ve always identified myself as a Republican, but I have never been prouder to be affiliated with it. Trump is a superstar, he was before he ever ran for president, yet he’s not so pretentious that he’s afraid of rain, or hard work. And nobody works harder than President Trump.

These rallies may cost a fortune to put on, and may be traffic nightmares, but one thing that comes out of them is that Trump talks directly to people who support him. He doesn’t hide out in the White House enjoying the luxury of the office. He works, and he works hard—and he’s willing to endure the cold and the rain if his supporters are. And that is what makes Donald J. Trump special, and why the Republican Party has a new life because of him. The Democrats don’t have anybody even close and they likely never will.

Rich Hoffman

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