Winteregg was heavily backed by tea party organizations and came in second to Boehner in the GOP primary in 2014 for the 8th Ohio Congressional District race. Boehner won the race with 71 percent. Winteregg received 23 percent, and Liberty Twp. resident and Butler County businessman Eric Gurr — who told the Journal-News he will not attempt another shot at the office — garnered 6 percent of the vote.
Winteregg announced this week his second attempt at unseating the 25-year member of the U.S. House, who has never failed to receive at least 60 percent of the vote since his first re-election bid in 1992.
Winteregg said he had “a lot of reflection” after his first attempt for the office.
“I questioned whether or not I should just focus on the local level of politics. Then there were practical matters to consider,” Winteregg wrote in an email to the Journal-News.
His plan after the election was to “continue to build solid relationships in the district” and be involved at the local level “and establish a strong coalition of support in advance of a potential run for elective office down the road.”
Winteregg said Boehner publicly promised to “fight tooth and nail against Obama’s radical agenda.”
“Then I watched him cave on “cromnibus” and executive amnesty and, to add insult to injury, openly declare war on House colleagues who simply wanted him to listen to his constituents, defend the Constitution and put an end to ill-conceived and counterproductive Leftist policies,” Winteregg said. “We need a representative who, once elected, will govern as he campaigned.”
Winteregg said after his loss, he “learned quite a bit” on what worked and what didn’t work.
“I now have a much better sense of what I need to do to mount a successful challenge,” he said. “We’ve done our own polling and the numbers tell us that the Speaker is much more vulnerable than he was in 2014.”
The Journal-News reached out to Boehner’s campaign office, but did not receive a response by press time.
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