As a Muslim, a retired veteran of the US Air Force and a proud Ohioan, I am sick and tired of Josh Mandel’s racist and Islamophobic behavior. He doesn’t deserve to serve the people of Ohio because he is no good for Ohio. But because he will do anything and everything to appease Ohio’s MAGA cult, one of the most robust in the nation, his chances of winning the US Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman in 2022 are strong.

Mandel is among a half dozen Republican and Democratic contenders vying for Portman’s Senate seat. Over the next 18 months he will try to be more Trumpian than any of the Republicans to appease MAGA Ohio.

Indeed, Mandel posted a poll on Twitter in March asking, “Of the various types of illegals flooding across the border, will more crimes be committed by,” with the options of “Muslim Terrorists” or “Mexican Gangbangers.”

There were hopes that Trump would slither away into obscurity, but his endorsement will be key to winning the GOP primary for the Senate seat. Trump summoned all four Republican candidates – Mandel, former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken, tech giant Bernie Moreno, and investment banker Mike Gibbons – to Florida for a sit down. “It was a scene right out of ‘The Apprentice,’” wrote Politico’s Alex Isenstadt. 

Mandel served as Ohio’s state treasurer from 2011 to 2019. A job that pays $110,000 a year, where he earned the nickname “No-Show Josh Mandel” for failing to attend work meetings. His performance on the job was rated poorly and he missed 14 board meetings during his first year.

His aspirations for power are well documented. In 2012, just two weeks on the job as state treasurer, he began campaigning for a US Senate seat by traveling for fundraising events. He eventually lost handily to Democrat Sherrod Brown.

Mandel, who is Jewish, is unpopular among Jews, Blacks, Muslims, Mexicans, and LGBTQ. He even blasted the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish civil rights group, and accused it of being a partisan witch-hunt targeting people for political beliefs.

Here are 10 things to know about Josh Mandel:

·      He calls for Ohio to eliminate coronavirus restrictions, which health experts say would cost thousands of lives.

·      He believes America was founded on Judeo-Christian values, not on Muslim, atheist or any other spiritual values.

·      As mentioned he believes Muslims are terrorists and Mexicans are gangbangers.

·      Migrants are a security risk.

·      The Palestinian-led BDS movement or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is antisemitic.

·      CAIR is a “front for terrorism.”

·      He stands against sanctuary cities.

·      The Iraq war was “justified & for a good cause.”

·      Mandel, former Marine and Iraq veteran, once said, “I was in Iraq to save innocent Iraqi lives.”According to Brown University over 182,000 civilians have died from direct war related violence caused by the US and its allies.

·      He voted to make it legal to discriminate against LGBT. 

What’s more, Mandel was censored by Twitter in early April after posting the poll about “Muslim Terrorists” or “Mexican Gangbangers.”

Ten days later, he was banned by Facebook for 30 days for breaking posting rules. Again, Mandel referred to Muslims and Mexicans in very derogatory terms.

During the pandemic and economic meltdown Mandel seems to have nothing better to do than attack Gov. Mike DeWine, Lebron James, and both US Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to name a few.He mocked Gov. DeWine by referring to him as a RINO (Republican in name only) Governor and called Dr. Amy Acton “Mini Fauci.”

I expressed my displeasure to him via his Facebook page and asked him to retract his statement and issue a sincere apology to all Muslims. Instead of acting like a real man, he chose to block me instead.

Even though we have had at least 45 mass shootings in the US since Atlanta shooting on March 16th, Mandel saw fit to only rant about the Boulder, Colorado shooting. Reason? The shooter was a Syrian-born American who came to the US at the age of three.

Mandel conveniently ignores all other tragedies and blasted Facebook for deleting the account of the Colorado shooter. At the same time, Muslim organizations were busy mourning and raising money for the victims of the bloody massacre.

After government websites in three states, including the websites of former Gov. John Kasich, were hacked in 2017 with pro-ISIS messages, Mandel, who was then state treasurer, went on a rampage by posting absurd and anti-Muslim messages on his Facebook wall. That was even before the FBI’s Ohio field office would confirm the identity of the hackers. His messages, “Wake up freedom-loving Americans” and “Radical Islam is infiltrating the heartland” without any evidence are nothing more than incitement and misinformation campaign against Muslims. It is amazing that a Jew such as Mandel has such a short memory about where such prejudice leads.

Mandel has a long history of anti-Muslim bias. Back in 2010, he used deceptive tactics during his race for state treasurer when he resorted to a fake and phony TV ad that suggested his opponent Kevin Boyce, an African-American Christian, was a Muslim.

It is worth noting here that Mandel never made a peep whenever hate crimes and ugly attacks were committed against Muslims and their institutions in Ohio and/or nationally.

After the verdict in the case of Derek Chauvin, many local and state leaders in Ohio reacted in statements or on social media, except US Senate candidate Josh Mandel. I wonder why? This is the man who always begs for media attention and was silent, but he had a Facebook post with an all-blue American flag on April 13 with the caption, “Blue lives matter.”

When it comes to current issues that affect our state and the nation, Josh Mandel is either absent or reluctant to voice clear and specific thoughts. It comes as no surprise that fact-checking website PolitiFact rated him 68% as dishonest.

Ohioans deserve the honesty and integrity of any office seeker. As an Ohioan and proud Muslim, I feel Josh Mandel is not good for Ohio and I would rather vote for SpongeBob than Josh Mandel.

Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian, a freelance writer and a retired USAF veteran. He could be reached at elyousseph6@yahoo.com