"If there's anybody who stands for free trade, it's Rob Portman."

Press Release

As we saw today in Ohio, Trump is guaranteeing that Senator Portman's decades long, unabashed record of championing unfair trade deals that have outsourced hundreds of thousands of Ohio jobs will be front and center during this election.

See two new stories illustrating this point below, and this never-before released video of Senator Portman advocating for the TPP.

By the way, does anyone know where Senator Portman was during Trump's rally -- and can he spend the whole election hiding from his own party's toxic nominee when Trump comes to Ohio?

Washington Times Headline: Pro-free trade GOP senators facing tough re-election bids.

"Republican Sens. Rob Portman... have been forceful advocates for free trade agreements during their careers in Washington -- making their re-election bids all the tougher this year, when they'll need to count on the very anti-free trade voters being courted by their party's new leader, Donald Trump."

"Mr. Portman, finishing his first term as senator from Ohio, and Mr. Toomey, completing his first term from Pennsylvania, both supported normalizing trade relations with China during previous stints in the House. Mr. Portman also voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement."

"Paul A. Beck, professor of political science at Ohio State University, said Mr. Trump also poses a challenge for Mr. Portman, who served as the Bush administration's top trade representative and is facing a stiff challenge from former Gov. Ted Strickland. "There is probably no one more identified in the Republican Party with free trade than Portman, certainly given his time as the Bush administration's trade representative,' Mr. Beck said. "He has been very consistently in favor of free trade his whole life.'"

Cleveland.com: "If there's anybody who stands for free trade, it's Rob Portman."

"If there's anybody who stands for free trade, it's Rob Portman," said Ohio State University political scientist Paul Beck. "So there's a huge, huge contradiction between the people who will be the top two people on the ballot this November on the Republican side."

"Trump has said the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement is a "disaster'; as congressmen, Portman voted for NAFTA, while Strickland voted against it."

"Portman voted to "fast-track" TPP -- which allowed President Obama to submit the final deal to Congress for a vote without any chance for amendments."

Source