It's A Former NFL Player Vs. A Donald Trump Acolyte In A Battle For The Soul Of The Republican Party

BuzzFeed News ^ | March 25, 2018, at 9:55 a.m. | Henry J. Gomez

[Zhang Fei]

But by the standards of the Trump era — where style and identity overshadow ideology and policy, and where the lengths you go to to present yourself as a Trump loyalist often matter more than your voting record — there are sharp differences between Anthony Gonzalez and Christina Hagan.

Gonzalez, 33, was a star wide receiver at Ohio State and a first-round draft pick in the NFL, where he caught passes from Peyton Manning. He later earned an MBA from Stanford and worked as a top executive with an education technology company in Silicon Valley.

His first television ad? Packed with reminders of his football career. A recent fundraiser? Headlined by Jim Tressel, the former Buckeyes head coach who remains beloved and influential in the state. Gonzalez is counting on this hometown hero image to carry him against his more-seasoned opponent and to make up for his dry and cerebral personality on the campaign trail. (“I was told once never to give process answers,” he confessed to an audience recently, before launching into a process answer to a question about the national debt.)

Hagan, 29, has been a state lawmaker since her senior year at Malone, a tiny Christian university just outside the district. She holds her father’s old seat, was married in a statehouse ceremony, and has fast become a career politician despite positioning herself as an outsider in Trump’s mold. She emphasizes her family’s small plumbing and heating business and serves up other homespun anecdotes — peeling potatoes in the back of a local diner, waiting tables even after winning a seat in the legislature — as proof of her working-class cred.

[Towpath]

Are you sure about that?
He joined a frat at Stanford in his late 20s while working on his MBA? Aren’t frats for undergrads?

[Towpath]

He will win easily.
Popular, former Ohio State football star who was a high school football star at Cleveland St. Ignatius.
His name has been known in the Cleveland media since he was a teenager and his TV ads show him making a legendary catch against Michigan in 2005. Can’t underestimate how well that plays in NE Ohio.

His ads are all over TV. Haven’t seen much of hers.

[Zhang Fei]

“But we gambled that he would actually do some good things. We are pleasantly surprised that his actions exceed his promises... quite the opposite from Bush I and II.”

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As I’ve noted earlier, we’ve had plenty of Boy Scout types who are loyal to their families and screw the people who voted for them. It’s great to finally have a president who, whatever his personal foibles, hasn’t outright stuck it to us to the extent Bush I and II did. Obviously GOP pols run for office to enact their programs, not ours. But it’s good to see that Trump’s program is, in practice and not just in the heat of the campaign, more similar to ours than so many of his challengers.

[WayneS]

Hagan, 29, has been a state lawmaker since her senior year at Malone, a tiny Christian university just outside the district.

So then, she has never had a real job?