Trump and Ohio's GOP establishment clash on the eve of a rowdy Senate primary

COLUMBUS, Ohio — On the eve of an Ohio Republican Senate primary awash in resentment and rage, two leading candidates stuck close to their tribes Monday, reinforcing battle lines in a race that has become a referendum on former President Donald Trump.

Allies of Trump and his preferred candidate, Bernie Moreno, barnstormed the state, warning that a vote Tuesday for state Sen. Matt Dolan would deal a blow to their MAGA movement. Dolan, meanwhile, campaigned here with Gov. Mike DeWine, who despite feuding with the right-wing base has remained popular among moderates and independents key to Dolan’s coalition.

The last-minute rush followed a weekend rally that Trump headlined for Moreno and reflected a contest that many see as a tossup for the GOP nomination to face Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November. Polls have shown a two-way race between Moreno and Dolan, with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose falling back in the pack and large numbers of voters undecided.

“The person we nominate has to win in November,” DeWine, a mainstay of Ohio GOP politics who lost his Senate seat to Brown in 2006, told a crowd crammed into the backroom of a bar in Columbus’ German Village neighborhood. “This is not going to be an easy race, folks.”

“I’ve run against this man, so I can speak that it will not be easy, but it’s doable,” DeWine added. “Very, very doable. And of the three candidates, look, they all could win. But the person clearly has the best shot at winning in the fall is Matt Dolan. I think our common sense tells us that.”

DeWine's event with Dolan drew an after-work crowd of roughly 75 Republicans in the state capital, including several allies of former Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Kasich, an NBC News contributor, has been a