What Portman’s Retirement Means for 2022 Senate Fight (Podcast)

Bloomberg Government’s Kyle Trygstad and Greg Giroux discussed Sen. Rob Portman‘s surprising retirement announcement and where the race to replace him fits among 2022’s most competitive contests.

Portman (R-Ohio) is the third Senate Republican to announce he won’t seek re-election. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates two of the open seats — Richard Burr‘s in North Carolina and Pat Toomey‘s in Pennsylvania — as Tossups, while Portman’s seat is rated Lean Republican.

President Joe Biden lost Ohio by 8 percentage points, but Democrats — who already have one senator from the state, Sherrod Brown — are hopeful a candidate such as Rep. Tim Ryan (D) can seriously compete for the seat.

Doing so would increase their odds of securing control of the Senate, currently split 50-50, for another term.

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Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) made a surprise announcement last week that he’s walking away from Congress at the end of his term.

To contact the hosts: Greg Giroux in Washington at ggiroux@bgov.com; Kyle Trygstad in Washington at ktrygstad@bgov.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Loren Duggan at lduggan@bgov.com