In a lengthy and occasionally heated meeting, the Ohio Republican Party’s state central committee voted to endorse Gov. Mike DeWine for re-election — but it wasn’t overwhelming and not without criticism.

The committee voted 36-26 in favor of endorsing DeWine and the rest of the executive branch incumbents: Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Attorney General Dave Yost, Auditor Keith Faber and Treasurer Robert Sprague. The latter three are running unopposed.

The party didn’t endorse in the U.S. Senate primary during Friday’s meeting and doesn’t plan to do that.

The issue with some committee members was DeWine and, to a lesser extent, LaRose.

It led to several secret ballots on procedural issues during a meeting that lasted three hours and 45 minutes.

One of those issues was the party’s efforts to endorse the slate as a whole rather than by each candidate. The vote to proceed with an endorsement of all five incumbents passed 32-29.

A number of committee members asked the party not to endorse either DeWine or LaRose, but a majority chose to vote in both of their races.

While four candidates are running for the Republican nomination for governor, only DeWine and former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, who lost a 2018 Senate race, sought the endorsement.

Ex-state Rep. Ron Hood, who represented Mahoning County in the Ohio House from 1995 to 2000 and then two other districts, as well as farmer Joe Blystone, an East Liverpool native, are Republican governor candidates, but declined to seek the party’s endorsement.

During the meeting, some committee members made critical comments about DeWine, particularly how he has handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brenton Temple, DeWine’s campaign manager, said: “We are grateful for the support of the Ohio Republican Party and their recognition of Gov. DeWine and Lt. Gov. (Jon) Husted’s strong, conservative record.”

Tom Weyand, Renacci’s campaign spokesman, said the 10-vote win by DeWine doesn’t bode well for the incumbent.

“It was five votes away from being a tie,” Weyand said. “It’s clearly not a mandate or a huge margin of victory” coming from the state central committee, which is usually loyal to incumbents.

Weyand said there’s been “conversations over the last several months” with the other Republicans challenging DeWine about coalescing around Renacci.

“There’s no reason for Jim to get out of the race,” Weyand said.

If Blystone and Hood withdrew, “that definitely helps us for sure,” he said.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Paduchik said: “I appreciate the leadership and spirited conversation from all of our committee members during” the meeting.

The endorsement of LaRose also faced opposition. He is being challenged in the Republican primary by ex-state Rep. John Adams.

Party Vice Chairman Bryan Williams, who is also the Summit County Republican Party chairman, unsuccessfully sought to stop the LaRose endorsement. LaRose had tried to get Williams removed from his county’s board of elections.