He’s so fucking awful:
U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel was asked to leave the Lakota school board meeting on Monday night after he attempted to speak to the board to “defend the moms and dads” regarding the district's mask mandate.
In August, Lakota Local Schools – Southwest Ohio’s largest suburban school system – changed its stance on masks, requiring its 16,800 students to wear them while in class.
Mandel, the state’s former treasurer and currently running for the Ohio Republican nomination in the Senate race, told the Lakota school board members they “are using kids as pawns in a political game.”
“Here in the Lakota District and throughout the state of Ohio, children should not be forced to wear masks,” Mandel said. “On top of that, children should not be forced to learn about to pick a gender or not pick a gender. Boys are boys, girls are girls.”
Here’s some more info:
Mandel walked up to the microphone and began by criticizing the district for not publicizing its finances on the Ohio Checkbook, a website created during his tenure as state treasurer that details spending by public institutions. Board president Kelley Casper interrupted Mandel and asked him to stop speaking.
As Mandel continued, Casper announced that the board would take a recess and the video cuts out.
"I'm just trying to stand up for kids," Mandel said in a video he posted on Twitter.
Public hearing participants must be residents of the Lakota Local School District, according to the board's bylaws, or "be the resident's designee and be introduced as such, and have a legitimate interest in the action of the Board."
Mandel, a Republican from the Cleveland area, is running in a crowded primary to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. He paints himself as a fighter who isn't afraid to disrupt the status quo and often uses social media as a platform for misinformation and controversial statements that attract attention.
"Forcing kids to wear masks in schools is a total trampling of the freedom and liberty of the kids and the parents," he said in an interview on Tuesday. "It is not the role of a school official or politician to tell moms and dads how to raise their kids."
Again, Mandel isn’t the only awful piece of shit running for the GOP nominee:
More and more communities across the nation are embracing the adoption of Indigenous Peoples Day to replace Columbus Day, citing the atrocities committed by Columbus on Indigenous peoples, and the centuries-long systems of Indigenous displacement and abuse his colonization began.
On Indigenous Peoples Day this past Monday, President Joe Biden became the first sitting President to proclaim it a holiday, saying:
"Our country was conceived on a promise of equality and opportunity for all people — a promise that, despite the extraordinary progress we have made through the years, we have never fully lived up to. That is especially true when it comes to upholding the rights and dignity of the Indigenous people who were here long before colonization of the Americas began."
Predictably, this hasn't sat well with a number of Republicans who insist that Columbus's introduction of white people to the land was noble enough to celebrate despite the documented abuse, enslavement, rape, and genocide of its first occupants.
Far-right Senate candidate J.D. Vance of Ohio is one of those Republicans.
He posted a Twitter thread decrying Indigenous Peoples Day as "divisive" because people like him object to it. Meanwhile, he praised Columbus Day, presenting Columbus as an example of "European" ingenuity.
Meanwhile, on Team Blue, Rep. Tim Ryan (D. OH-13) picked up a huge endorsement today:
Sen. Sherrod Brown announced Wednesday that he's backing Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio's Senate race, the latest sign that Democrats are coalescing around Ryan as they aim to flip a key seat.
In a statement, Brown said Ryan has fought to ensure Ohioans "get a fair shot" and would be a staunch ally for working people in the state.
"I know Tim, and I know whose side he's on," Brown said in a statement. "He's not in this for himself or for corporate special interests — he has dedicated his life to fighting for Ohioans, and their jobs and their wages and their communities."
Ryan is vying for the Democratic nomination against attorney Morgan Harper, a progressive who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Joyce Beatty in the 3rd Congressional District. Beatty and Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur also endorsed Ryan, and he's received support from a slew of state and local Democrats across Ohio.
Democracy and Health are on the ballot next year and we need to get ready to flip Ohio Blue.
Click below to donate and get involved with Ryan and his fellow Ohio Democrats campaigns:
Tim Ryan for Senate
Morgan Harper for Senate
Allison Russon for Congress
Danny O’Connor for Congress
Nan Whaley for Governor
John Cranley for Governor
Ohio Democratic Party
Jennifer Brunner for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice
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