Ohio Republican leaders are going all out to help state Sen. Sandra O’Brien turn back the challenge of state Rep. Mike Loychik in the GOP primary.

The Republican Senate Campaign Committee gave $254,616 to O’Brien’s campaign between Feb. 7 and Feb. 23 in in-kind contributions for commercials and campaign literature to get her reelected to a second four-year term in the 32nd Ohio Senate District. O’Brien’s campaign gave $40,000 to the campaign committee Feb. 15 to offset a portion of that expense.

The most prominent campaign committee commercial attacking Loychik contends he turned his back on veterans. Loychik, R-Bazetta, served in the U.S. Air Force for eight years and is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

O’Brien, R-Lenox, told me she tried to get Loychik to help her with her Veterans Information Act — requiring health care workers and caseworkers to inform veterans about the available health care benefits — and he ignored her. She also said Loychik ignores his constituents.

Loychik said the ads are “disturbing and disrespectful to all veterans” and that O’Brien aired them because her support among “my fellow veterans (is) abysmal.”

He also called the ads “a sad political maneuver” and “a new low for Sandra O’Brien.”

O’Brien’s latest campaign finance report runs to Feb. 28, so it’s likely the campaign committee has given her more financial resources since and will continue to do so right up to the end to help her win the Republican primary on March 19.

It’s the campaign committee’s job to support loyal Republican incumbents. The committee is the campaign arm of the Republican members of the Ohio Senate, helping its candidates with financial and strategic support.

O’Brien also received $78,735 in campaign contributions during the preprimary period, which runs between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28.

Her largest donation of $15,499 came from former state Sen. Frank Hoagland’s campaign committee. It basically cleaned out Hoagland’s campaign fund’s surplus as he had $22,642 in it as of Dec. 31. He resigned Dec. 1 from the state Senate.

O’Brien’s second largest contribution of $15,000 came from the Academy of Senior Health Services Inc., a Columbus-based trade association for the long-term care health industry.

O’Brien also received a $5,000 contribution from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and $2,500 from U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce’s campaign committee.

The ACT Ohio Foundation, a Columbus-based construction company trade association, gave $5,000 to O’Brien. Interestingly, ACT Ohio gave $10,500 to Loychik’s campaign on Oct. 27 — before he announced he would challenge O’Brien for her state Senate seat. It also gave him $4,650 on Jan. 17.

The Ohio Republican Party is doing what it can to make sure O’Brien wins a second four-year term and that the political career of Loychik, who is serving his second two-year term in the Ohio House, doesn’t go any further — at least, for now.

No one should have doubted Loychik would be a formidable candidate, particularly after he raised $82,599 in the second half of 2023 compared to $29,641 for O’Brien.

The Ohio Republican Party endorsed O’Brien on Jan. 27 for reelection.

The party censured Loychik in January 2023 — along with 21 other Ohio House Republicans — for voting for state Rep. Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, as House speaker.

A majority of House Republicans opposed Stephens as speaker, but he got the support of the members of his party — who were all later censured by the ORP — and all House Democrats on his way to capturing the coveted position.

“I’m not concerned with the ORP’s endorsement,” Loychik said. “Most of the voters don’t even know who the ORP is. I gain my endorsements when I’m on people’s doorsteps knocking on their door asking for their vote. There’s a lot of inner fighting going on with the ORP.”

The Senate district includes all of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties and most of Geauga County. It is considered a safe Republican district, favoring that party by about 10.5%, according to partisan statewide voting trends during the past decade.

The winner of the primary will face Democrat Michael Shrodek of Warren in the Nov. 5 general election.

Trumbull County is the district’s most-populous county and has more residents than Asthabula and Geauga counties combined.

Have an interesting story? Contact David Skolnick by email at dskolnick@vindy.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dskolnick.