Ohio Republican Senate hopeful Jane Timken reportedly declared she was 'done with Trump' at an RNC meeting after January 6
- One of Ohio's Republican Senate hopefuls reportedly soured on Trump after the January 6 riot.
- "I'm done with Trump," she told an attendee at an RNC meeting soon afterwards, according to a book.
One-time Trump loyalist Jane Timken declared that she was "done with Trump" just days after MAGA supporters swarmed Washington at his behest.
The breaking point for the former chair of Ohio's Republican Party, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns wrote in political tell-all "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," was the deadly January 6, 2021 siege of the US Capitol.
Timken told one other Republican about the break during a Republican National Committee meeting in North Florida the weekend after the riot, the book says.
"I'm done with Trump," Timken told one Republican attendee.
Timken campaign spokeswoman Mandi Merritt refuted the NYT's account. "This is the epitome of fake news reporting and is totally false," she told Insider.
Others at the event would speak out against Trump that weekend, but Timken's defiance was striking, given she'd ridden Trump's coattails a few years earlier.
Timken got the job as party chair in 2017 largely because Trump disliked her predecessor, Matt Borges. In October 2016 the Trump campaign formally cut ties with Borges, accusing the then-state party chair of "undermining Trump's efforts to win in Ohio in order to advance his own candidacy to replace Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus."
Timken is one of the seven GOP hopefuls vying to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman this fall. While Portman has tapped her as his chosen replacement, Trump endorsed "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance earlier this month.
Other contenders in the GOP primary, which is scheduled for May 3, include former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan, and businessman Mike Gibbons.
Timken, Mandel, and Gibbons tried — and failed — to win Trump over a year earlier, subjecting themselves to an "Apprentice-like" sparring session at Trump's West Palm Beach golf club in March 2021.