By Blake Brittain
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ohio’s Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel has ended his bid to unseat the state’s Democratic U.S. senator, Sherrod Brown, citing his wife’s health, Mandel said in a news release posted on the Cincinnati Enquirer website.
“We recently learned that my wife has a health issue that will require my time, attention and presence. In other words, I need to be there,” he said in the release.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report and a spokeswoman for the Mandel campaign was not immediately available for comment.
Brown, the most senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, was facing a tough challenge from Mandel after the traditional swing state went to Republican President Donald Trump in the 2016 national election.
Mandel unsuccessfully challenged Brown in 2012.
(Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert and Justin Mitchell; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
