Former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci announces bid for governor (UPDATED)

A formal gubernatorial primary challenge was launched Wednesday by Medina County Republican Party Chairman Jim Renacci. The former U.S. representative, U.S. Senate candidate and mayor of Wadsworth has been a vocal critic of Gov. Mike DeWine's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as longer-standing job creation and retention issues. "Republicans like to always sit back and accept the incumbent even if the incumbent isn't doing a good job," Renacci told The Gazette on Wednesday. "They worry about damage in primary. The truth of it is, Republicans have had control for the governor's seat for almost 11 years now and we haven't been able to move Ohio forward." "We've fallen behind over the past 25 years," he added. "We rank in the bottom 10 in most categories like jobs. We're 50th today in drug overdoses and depression. These are issues where it's pretty easy to just look at statistical data and see that not only is Ohio losing jobs, we've lost I think more than 20,000 so far this year, we are the seventh most left state in the country. People are leaving." Asked about Renacci's run in a Thursday morning news conference, DeWine noted that it was rare in his lengthy political career that he didn't face a primary opponent. "I'll be laying out my vision for the state of Ohio going forward," DeWine said. We're putting the pandemic in the rear-view mirror, and I feel very very good with where we are. We made tough decisions early on. Because of those careful decisions, we are coming out of this strong." Renacci, 62, briefly ran for Ohio governor in 2018 before dropping out to vie for Cleveland Democrat Sherrod Brown's U.S. Senate seat, a venture that ended in a roughly 6-point defeat for the Republican. In June 2020, Renacci took over as chairman of the Medina County GOP. His name had also been recently mentioned in regard to a second U.S. Senate run since incumbent Ohio Republican Rob Portman, of Cincinnnati, announced he would not seek reelection. In addition to serving as the representative for Ohio's 16th U.S. Congressional District in 2011-19, Renacci is a former Wadsworth City Council president and two-term Wadsworth mayor. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Renacci frequently took part in the city of Wadsworth's pandemic recovery committee meetings to offer fiscal advice from a micro and macro perspective. He has worked in the private sector as a businessman and accountant. Some national feedback regarding Renacci's push for governor has characterized it as being to the right of DeWine's policy portfolio. "The biggest problem Gov. DeWine has is he's left of center," he said. "So it's not that difficult to run to the right of Gov. DeWine. You can be in the middle and be to the left of the governor. If that's the comment that people are making it's because it's not hard for me to do that." In 2019, Renacci established the Ohio's Future Foundation, a nonprofit focusing on a number of initiatives including repeal of Common Core standards in schools, municipal tax reform, vocational education, funding of new infrastructure, ways for businesses to address rising health care costs, and how to best use wind and solar energy along with resources such as coal and nuclear power. While DeWine's handling of the pandemic has drawn a significant amount of national praise, Renacci's complaints regarding the closing of businesses and rampant unemployment benefit fraud have been echoed by numerous Ohio Republican legislators. NBC News reported in May that Renacci was being advised in his consideration of a gubernatorial run by Brad Parscale, former President Donald Trump's one-time campaign manager. Renacci said Wednesday that his campaign plans to bring on additional Trump 2020 staff members. "Not only is (Parscale) advising me, but we're using most of the Trump campaign," Renacci said. "I'm embracing the policies that will change Ohio. Look at where we're at. Look at why we're there and look at what needs to be changed. This isn't about Trump policies. This is about policies that have failed. Gov. DeWine is a maintenance governor. He hasn't changed anything. He's just maintaining the status quo." "These policies haven't worked for 25 years," he added. "Democrats and Republicans have moved the state in the wrong direction. No one seems to want to change anything. My goal is to change that." Medina County Commissioner and former Ohio District 69 representative Steve Hambley backed Renacci during his brief 2018 run for governor and, while avoiding any sort of new endorsement, offered words of support Wednesday. "I think there is a large segment of the Republican Party that's not satisfied for a lot of different reasons," Hambley said. "Now it's up to Jim to make his point and show where he'd make improvements. It's about getting those voters to say 'We're finished with this leadership and we want to go in a different direction.' Certainly, Jim has not hidden his concerns and complaints. I backed him four years ago and I know running for governor has been a vision of his for a long time." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at 330-721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.