One GOP candidate in the U.S. Senate race for Ohio has apparently decided that he has nothing left to lose in being even worse than Josh Mandel.
During a Nov. 11 Senate candidate forum in Columbus, Republican Mark Pukita boasted that he was not vaccinated against COVID-19, something the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and epidemiologists and medical experts around the world say is vital to controlling and even ending the coronavirus pandemic that's been raging since early 2020 and has caused more than 750,000 deaths within the United States.
The debate moderator had asked all candidates, "For the record, please share your views on this situation, and where you stand on government vaccinations and medical freedom," Newsweek reports. Pukita, who has loudly been opposed to governments or employers requiring COVID-19 vaccinations, said that he was the only candidate on stage who hadn't been vaccinated.
"It's one thing to talk, it's another to act," Pukita reportedly said, indicating that other candidates had not been protesting COVID-19 safety protocols with him. He specifically called out fellow candidate Josh Mandel for not revealing his own vaccination status during a previous debate.
"Josh, do you wanna answer tonight?" Pukita asked.
Mandel went to the lectern and began his response, Newsweek reports, saying, "My personal feeling is, it is not right for the government or the media or anyone to ask us if we're vaccinated." But Pukita then interrupted him, seemingly to reclaim his own response time before hitting the time limit.
Mandel, who is considered the leading Republican candidate, according to experts, has been cagey about his vaccination status on the campaign trail. He did not definitively say Thursday if he had been vaccinated against COVID-19.
A number of right-wing politicians and media hosts have finally endorsed COVID-19 vaccinations after initially being against them, largely due to contracting the virus themselves.
The CDC labels all counties within Ohio as "high risk" for COVID-19 transmission — a designation that has been in place for months since the Delta variant's summer and early-fall surge. As of last week, only about 56% of Ohio's population had started a COVID-19 vaccine series, and only 52% had been fully vaccinated (two doses for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, one dose for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine). More than 1,075,000 additional doses have been doled out within the state. Experts say that communities should vaccinate more than 80% of their population before the United States can approach herd immunity or a safer endemic state.
But Pukita wasn't quite finished with Mandel yet, insisting that voters consider Mandel's Jewish faith in their election calculations.
Pukita recently had aired an advertisement chastising Mandel for seeking votes from Evangelical Christians, Politico reports. "Are we seriously supposed to believe the most Christian-values Senate candidate is Jewish?" Pukita’s ad asked. "I am so sick of these phony caricatures."
The debate moderator asked Pukita to respond to claims that he -- and his ad -- was "antisemitic and intentionally divisive and inflammatory."
"In terms of antisemitism, all I did in an ad was pointed out that Josh is going around saying he's got the Bible in one hand and the constitution in the other. But he's Jewish. Everybody should know that though, right?" Pukita said.
Bernie Moreno, another candidate for Ohio's Senate seat, stepped in. "Josh, nobody should question your faith. That's not right," Politico reports Moreno as saying. "The Jewish religion, the Bible is the Bible. That was hard to hear. I'm sorry about that. That's not right. We're better than that, guys."
Both Pukita and Mandel are courting Evangelical church-goers, modeling many of their campaign messages after former President Donald Trump, who falsely claimed that he -- and not current U.S. President Joe Biden -- had won the November 2020 general election. Their words on their campaign websites and in the media focus on "personal liberty," gun rights and embryos. Mandel's words have frequently devolved into anti-Muslim propaganda.
In early June, Mandel was among a group of Republicans who burned their facial masks — which were and still are recommended by doctors and scientists as protection from coronavirus — as Ohio's COVID-19 health orders expired. In April, Mandel claimed that public health practices were like "Nazi Germany." Mandel routinely tries to attract attention through sensational means, such as creating giant "freedom" text art on social media and then claiming that social media platforms are censoring him.
Candidates are looking to fill the seat that Rob Portman will vacate in 2022. The field is crowded, and at one point, even Trump's friend and Cleveland resident Geraldo Rivera had considered joining the fray.
Senate candidate, Middletown native, opponent of child-free people, Trump tolerator, and venture-capitalist-turned-inauthentic-Appalachia author JD Vance did not attend last week's debate.
For COVID-19 vaccine administration locations and information, visit coronavirus.ohio.gov in Ohio or kycovid19.ky.gov in Kentucky.
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