Failed U.S. Senate candidate Renacci blasts Washington in new book

Aug. 20--Jim Renacci, the former Ohio congressmen who lost to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2018, has quietly released a book about his time in Congress that blasts members of his own party for not doing more with their eight-year House majority.

"The GOP's Lost Decade: An Inside View of Why Washington Doesn't Work" hit online shelves Aug. 8 and was formally announced Tuesday.

The self-published book, released less than a year after he left office, focuses on how "the GOP really lost an opportunity to change the direction of our country in the last decade, not only on the federal side, but on the state side," Mr. Renacci said.

The book also discusses what he learned in business over the decades leading up to his time in Congress, he said.

Mr. Renacci was motivated to run for office after losing his Chevy dealership during General Motors' 2009 bankruptcy reorganization. Elected in 2010, he was among the wave of disaffected Republicans who retook the House during President Barack Obama's first term.

He launched a campaign for Ohio governor in 2017 before switching to the Senate race. His last House term ended in January, 2019.

The former congressman argues that while he was in Congress, the GOP squandered opportunities to enact reform on health care, infrastructure, and immigration because of ineffective leadership while the party held the House majority between 2011 and 2018.

"All of those things, we had the majority. We should have been putting out a roadmap, but what you'll find in the book is we were so concerned about losing the majority that we didn't make those changes that I believe we should have done, and then we lost the majority anyway," he said.

The book takes aim at former GOP House speakers John Boehner of Ohio and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. There's also a chapter dedicated to former Republican Gov. John Kasich.

"I talk about John Kasich's run for president being more important than really changing the state," said Mr. Renacci, who after his failed Senate bid launched a political nonprofit, Ohio's Future Foundation.

The GOP businessman, 60, who has owned nursing homes and sports teams and was one of the richest members of Congress, represented northeast Ohio's 16th Congressional District. He ran against Mr. Brown as a conservative, Trump-endorsed Republican, and loaned his campaign millions of his own dollars.

Several months removed from Congress and campaigning, Mr. Renacci said he still supports the man who personally drafted him into his doomed Senate bid.

"Do I like some of the things [Trump] says or tweets? No. But the results are important," he said.

Despite backing from the White House, Mr. Renacci struggled to gain support from national Republicans. While his party swept Ohio's midterms, Mr. Renacci lost the Senate race by 6 percentage points.

Mr. Brown's win against Mr. Renacci on a strong night for the GOP raised his national profile, leading him to weigh a presidential bid.

"The GOP's Lost Decade" is available on Amazon.com.

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