EATON — State Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party Alex Triantafilou spoke at a Tuesday, March 14, Preble County Republican meeting, sharing his thoughts on the current state of the Republican Party in Ohio, and ideas for improving it.

“I know that the responsibility of being our state chairman is great. And I take it seriously. It’s the passion of my life to lead Republicans and conservatives. I care a lot about the principles of our party. I care a lot about winning elections, and I hope that I can bring whatever skills I developed as a campaign operative and as a county chairman to our state party to improve the state of our state party and to continue the success that our party has enjoyed statewide,” Triantafilou said.

He went on to share what he said is his vision for the party.

“There are two big things that I see on the horizon for the Republican Party here in Ohio as the 2024. I call it the ‘B and B’ problem.

“We have two big problems. We’ve got a liberal senator who is way out of touch with Ohio, a guy who votes with Joe Biden 98.5 percent of the time, a guy whose voting record looks more like Kamala Harris’s than Joe Manchin’s, a guy who voted against the Keystone Pipeline and for the Green New Deal, and plays footsies with AOC, not with the working people of Ohio. That’s Sherrod Brown. So our number one task really, is to make sure that we defeat Sherrod Brown in 2024 and return a Senate seat back to the Republican party where it rightfully belongs,” he said.

“What are we going to do, to do that? Well, I’m going to speak candidly. We’re probably going to have a little bit of a primary on our way to getting the nominees. You know, primaries can be okay,” he said. “We’re going to do what we can from the state party to try to keep it civil. I’d like to maybe have a little bit of a party role in the debate process just to put some guardrails on the debate so we stay focused on the real goal — and that is to defeat the socialist that is Sherrod Brown.

“But I’m going to be honest, it’s going to be tough” he added. “He has won election in the state several times. He has high name identification and will have a big fundraising head start. So we’ve got our work cut out for us to beat Sherrod Brown.

“The other part of the problem is the other B. And that’s Biden. We have to keep this state red. We have to — we cannot take for granted that the state’s going to be red. We have to do all the things that we’ve done even more — organizing the suburbs, do a better job with suburban college educated women, and make sure that we’re churning out a massive number of votes in every community, including places like Preble County,” Triantafilou said. “If we elect a Republican senate and restore a Republican presidency, it really changes a lot of things, the dynamic, how we handle China, how we handle trade, how we handle foreign wars, all the things that Biden has done that have been a catastrophic failure, we can play a role. We can play a role by electing better, we can play a role by defeating Joe Biden and keeping the state nice and red for whoever the Republican nominee is for President. So those are the two big tasks.”

“What are the ideas that we have here at the state party to move things along? Well, we’re full of ideas and sometimes I show up in the office and the mountain seems kind of tall. Because there’s a lot of ideas that we have. We certainly have to raise the significant funds necessary to do the things we want to do, and that’s a major part of my task,” Triantafilou said. “One of the ideas we really want to implement is a greater engagement with county party organizations.”

The other focus is on early voting, something at which Triantafilou said the Republicans get beaten.

“So, it helps every single candidate if you get your ballot early. You go to Google, you go to wherever. But most importantly, go to the Ohio GOP website. Look at the slate. We’re going to urge people to get out and vote early. And we’re going to say the following thing: ‘It’s okay to vote that way!’” he said.

“I want to just leave you with this one thought: The Republican brand gets beat up a lot by talking heads on TV, trying to make money, etc.,” Triantafilou said. “But we’re the best vehicle on the best avenue to defeat the socialist crowd that’s in Washington. We’re the way to do it. People vote in America based on name ID. First, they love the name. And then they do love their party. People in this country, at this moment in history, migrate to a party, so I’m going to try desperately to shine up the Republican Party’s brand in Ohio so people feel proud to vote for the Republican Party and proud to vote for our candidates.”

Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on Twitter @emowenjr.