I understand that conservatives in Ohio this year are angry at the Republican party, owing to a raft of scandals and failed government in Columbus. But I strongly urge everyone in the Buckeye State to put that rancor aside when they look at the U.S. Senate race—because that contest offers a clear choice between competing political visions. Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown is a doctrinaire lefty who has voted for huge tax increases and partial-birth abortion. (The liberal group Americans for Democratic Action gives him a rating of 100 percent—same as Dennis Kucinich. NARAL, too, rates him 100 percent.) Mike DeWine, on the other hand, is a 100-percent pro-lifer who is strong on national defense and wants to extend the Bush tax cuts.
All of these issue positions would be enough to convince me to vote for DeWine—but I have the added advantage of knowing him personally. Years before becoming literary editor of National Review, I served on his staff in Washington, D.C.—and I know that he’s a genuinely good man, principled and public-spirited. Please, Ohio, vote for a man who is a credit to our state; I say “our,” because I was born in Youngstown and still have family in Cleveland. Don’t punish the Republicans by inflicting a Senator Sherrod Brown on yourselves–and on America.