U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, has put an end to speculation that he might run for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination by saying he will run for a second term in the Senate.
Portman, the 59-year-old first term senator from Terrace Park, had been mulling over the possibility of a 2016 run for the presidency for months, encouraged by political advisers and major GOP campaign contributors.
Portman told WVXU Tuesday that he is looking forward to being part of the new Republican majority in the Senate - a majority he helped create as the Senate GOP's chief fundraiser in 2014.
"I had a chance to visit with my family over Thanksgiving and they're 100 percent supportive of whatever I want to do, but it's just a better fit for me to stay in the Senate to be able to continue to represent Ohio and make progress on some of these issues that have been stalled far too long,'' Portman told WVXU.
Portman announced his decision Monday in a meeting at his Washington office with Ohio reporters who cover Capitol Hill.
The Terrace Park Republican told WVXU Tuesday that he believes with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, President Obama will be more likely to work with the GOP leadership.
"He wants to leave a legacy too,'' Portman said.
Under Ohio election, Portman could have been both a candidate for president and for re-election to the Senate, but he said all along that he would not do that – that he would choose one or the other.
“I don’t think I can run for president and be an effective senator at the same time,” Portman said in a written statement released Tuesday morning.
Many Republican Party leaders believed Portman had one of the best resumes of any of the host of potential GOP presidential candidates.
He served in the U.S. House from 1993 to 2005, representing southern Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District. He left the House to become President George W. Bush’s trade representative; and later worked in the Bush White House as budget director.
Portman was out of office after leaving the Bush White House in 2007, but, in 2007, he ran for the Senate seat left open by the retirement of Republican George Voinovich. In the general election, he easily defeated Democrat Lee Fisher, taking 57 percent of the vote.
Having Portman on the presidential ticket – either as the presidential or vice presidential candidate – may have enhanced the GOP’s chances of winning the key battleground state of Ohio in 2016, which went for Barack Obama in the past two presidential elections.
Portman was on the short list of potential vice presidential candidate for both John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012, but was passed over.
Portman told WVXU told WVXU he has no interest in the second spot on the 2016 GOP ticket.
"I'm not interested in it; I'm not going to pursue it,'' Portman told WVXU. "It's not something you can or should pursue. You do the best job you can. I'm really excited about representing Ohio in the U.S. Senate for the next two years in an environment where we can finally make progress."
Alex Triantafilou, the Hamilton County Republican Party chairman, said he believes Portman “would have had a shot” at winning the GOP presidential nomination, but said he is glad he will run to continue representing Ohio in the Senate.
“We love Rob Portman here; the guy is fantastic,’’ Triantafilou said. “You just look at him and say, he’s definitely presidential timber. But it will be good to have him in the Senate from Ohio.”
Portman is a prodigious fundraiser – he already has about $5.5 million in his Senate campaign re-election fund.
Portman caused a stir in GOP circles last year when he came out in support of same sex marriage – a position he said he came to after learning that his son Will was gay. Social conservative groups have vowed to run a candidate against him for the Senate in Ohio’s 2016 GOP Senate primary.
Nearly all of the GOP incumbents who ran this year had primary opponents, Portman told WVXU, and said he expects that will happen in his case as well.
