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Ohio GOP Chief Borges Faces a Challenge from Stark County's Timken

photo of Borges and Sen. Rob Portman
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Borges and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman at the RNC, where the Ohio delegation went unanimously for Gov. John Kasich.

The head of the Ohio Republican Party is likely to have a challenger to his re-election to that position next month. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.

Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges raised concerns about Donald Trump several times, and Trump’s campaign had blasted Borges personally at one point. Former Ohio Republican Party chair Kevin DeWine hinted a few weeks ago that Borges could be in trouble.

“It’s kind of hard when there appears to be such an adversarial relationship between the president-elect and the state party it seems like maybe change is in the offing.”

Now the vice chair of the Stark County Republican Party, Jane Murphy Timken, says she’ll challenge Borges. Timken says Borges is responsible for division within the party. And Timken claims she’s talked to Trump himself and he’s agreed a change in leadership is needed.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.