There are no less than 11 Republicans on Tuesday's primary ballot, all seeking to replace soon-to-be-retired congressman Brad Wenstrup in Ohio's 2nd congressional district.
And one of them sticks out like a sore thumb.
Phil Heimlich, the former Cincinnati City Council member and Hamilton County commissioner, has carved out his own niche as the only candidate telling voters in the 15-county southern Ohio district that Donald Trump wasn't fit to be president in his first term and doesn't deserve another chance at the White House.
In a deeply Republican congressional district where Trump won by nearly 3-1 in 2016 and 2020, running as the lone anti-MAGA candidate is either an act of political courage or political insanity. Or maybe a little of both.
Maybe — just maybe —10 MAGA candidates could divide up the Trump vote so thoroughly as to create a path to the nomination for Heimlich with the votes of 2nd District Republicans who think it is time to move on from Trump.
A narrow pathway, but a pathway nonetheless.
"I wasn’t interested in doing this just to make an ideological statement," Heimlich said. "I got in it to win."
Heimlich makes no bones about his distaste for what is happening to his party.
He is anti-Trump and pro-democracy, all the way.
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"I think that if Ronald Reagan were here today, he would hang his head in shame at what has become of his Republican Party," Heimlich said. "It exists only to serve the needs of Donald Trump."
"The man who said, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall' in Berlin would be ashamed of a party that refuses to stand up against Putin in Ukraine, a country which is hanging on by a thread now."
All 10 of his Republican opponents are hardcore MAGA Republicans; and some of them have spent millions of dollars on TV ads full of images of Trump and pledges of eternal loyalty to the former president.
Some have even made the trip to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring in person.
Heimlich held a reception Thursday at a private club in Cincinnati where supporters gathered to hear Adam Kinzinger, the former Illinois congressman who was run out of office by the MAGA world because he served on the selection committee that investigated the violent Jan. 6 riot by thousands of Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol.
Kinzinger was scheduled to appear in person, but Heimlich said the former congressman's kids were sick and he appeared via Zoom.
"Adam Kinzinger said that if you are a pro-democracy Republican, this is the only game in town — really, in the whole country," Heimlich said. "I know of no other Republican candidate for Congress running on an anti-MAGA platform."
Kinzinger and his fellow Republican on the Jan. 6 committee, Liz Cheney, who was also run out of her Wyoming congressional seat because she is an outspoken Trump critic, "are profiles in courage," Heimlich said.
"I agree with the two of them that our party has been hijacked by Trump," Heimlich said.
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Heimlich said he has spoken at many of the Lincoln-Reagan Day dinners hosted by county parties in the district.
"Most of the folks at the dinners don't agree with me, but everyone has been very gracious," Heimlich said. "I haven't been booed off the stage.
"But I hope voters will think about this before they vote — that if we, as a party, aren't going to follow the example of Lincoln and Reagan, we probably shouldn't be naming dinners after them."
