Matt Dolan

This isn't Matt Dolan's first time making a run at Congress.

If the junior senator from Ohio becomes vice president, it will be up to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to choose a replacement, at least temporarily.

The final polling in the Ohio GOP Senate primary shows Matt Dolan, the mainstream candidate, with a small lead over Bernie Moreno, the Trump-endorsed candidate.

Following an Alabama Supreme Court decision, Matt Dolan, Frank LaRose and Bernie Moreno issued statements saying they support IVF as a means of fertility treatment. Democrats and others pointed out, correctly, that all three opposed Issue 1 last fall.

In a debate broadcast statewide Monday night — though not in Cincinnati — the three candidates for the GOP Senate nomination spent at least as much time attacking each other as talking about issues.

The three-candidate race for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Ohio has been nasty from the start. It's only getting worse.

All three Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate — Frank LaRose, Matt Dolan and Bernie Moreno — oppose abortion. One of them will face Sherrod Brown next fall in a state that clearly supports abortion rights.

The way Republican candidates for the 2024 Senate nomination deal with the omnipresent specter of Donald Trump runs the gamut from total avoidance to full embrace.

"There is certainly a whiff of opportunity in the air, which tends to draw a crowd," said David Niven, professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

With many Republicans who were elected last year term-limited from statewide office, Dolan is likely to not be the only GOP candidate to challenge Brown.