Craig Riedel wants Northwest Ohio voters to see him as a MAGA true believer. There’s just one problem: Donald Trump already told them he isn’t one.

Riedel, a former state representative from Defiance now seeking the Republican nomination for Ohio Senate District 1, released a new campaign ad positioning himself at the center of the MAGA movement. In the spot, he declares Northwest Ohio to be “MAGA country,” vows to “drain the swamp in Columbus, like President Trump is draining the swamp in D.C.,” and closes with a voiceover branding him “Conservative. Republican. MAGA.”

What the ad doesn’t mention is that in March 2024, Trump took to Truth Social to call Riedel exactly the opposite. Endorsing Riedel’s opponent in the Republican primary for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, Trump wrote that Riedel was “a RINO” — Republican in Name Only — and “no friend of MAGA.” Trump urged his supporters to back Derek Merrin instead, calling him “an incredible America First Patriot” and giving him his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”

Merrin won that primary. He went on to lose the November general election to incumbent Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

It was the second consecutive congressional primary defeat for Riedel. In 2022, he sought the same 9th District seat and lost to J.R. Majewski, who went on to lose to Kaptur in the general.

Now, rather than attempting a third run for Congress, Riedel has pivoted to the state Senate — and apparently to a brand-new political identity. His campaign declined to comment on the contrast between his current MAGA messaging and the label Trump applied to him less than two years ago.

That pivot is happening in a competitive primary field. Riedel faces state Rep. Jim Hoops of Napoleon in the May 5, 2026 Republican contest for the open seat being vacated by term-limited Senate President Rob McColley. The 1st Senate District spans 10 counties across Northwest Ohio, including Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert, and Williams, along with a portion of Logan County.

Hoops, who has served in the Ohio House since 2018 and previously from 1999 to 2006, entered the race with a significant organizational advantage. His campaign has reported $300,000 cash on hand and secured endorsements from more than 50 local elected officials. Unlike Riedel, Hoops has not staked his campaign on MAGA identity politics, running instead on a record of legislative accomplishment — including co-sponsoring the Ohio Self Defense Act, backing the original Heartbeat Bill, and authoring a property tax relief measure signed into law earlier in his current term.

The contrast between the two candidates illustrates a broader tension playing out in Republican primaries across Ohio: whether MAGA branding is a genuine electoral asset or an increasingly hollow label that candidates reach for when a more substantive record isn’t available — or when the record they do have got them labeled a RINO by the president they’re now claiming to champion.

Riedel spent 27 years in the steel industry at Nucor Vulcraft Group and served three terms in the Ohio House representing the 82nd District before his congressional runs. He has framed his Senate bid around eliminating Ohio’s state income tax, creating a state-level Department of Government Efficiency, and eradicating DEI programs from public institutions.

Whether Northwest Ohio Republican primary voters are willing to overlook Trump’s prior assessment of Riedel — or whether Hoops or another candidate uses it against him — remains to be seen ahead of the May 5 primary.