Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Matt Borges
 |
The information about this individual was current as of the 2016 Republican National Convention. Please contact us with any updates. |
| Matt Borges | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | Republican Party of Ohio |
| Role: | Former chair |
| Location: | Ohio |
| Education: | •The Ohio State University (B.A., political science, 1994) |
Matt Borges is a former chair of the Republican Party of Ohio. He has been active in GOP politics since 1992. He works as the government relations director for the Roetzel & Andress law firm.[1]
Borges was an automatic delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Ohio. He was one of 66 delegates from Ohio pledged to support John Kasich at the convention. Kasich suspended his campaign on May 4, 2016. At the time, he had approximately 156 bound delegates. The winner of the Republican nomination needed the support of 1,237 delegates.
Career
Borges earned a B.A. in political science from The Ohio State University in 1994. He works as government relations director for Roetzel & Andress, a full-service law firm that has offices in Ohio, Florida, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.[2][3]
Political activity
Borges started working in Republican politics before finishing college. He was a local ward committeeman from 1992 to 2010. From 2001 to 2007, Borges worked with former Vice President Dick Cheney (R) as lead advance representative.[4]
In 2004, Borges "pleaded guilty in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized use of a public office for giving preferential treatment to certain brokers who contributed to Republican Ohio Treasurer Joe Deters’ re-election campaign." After paying a fine, Borges the court granted Borges' request to have his misdemeanor record expunged.[5]
He worked as chief of staff and campaign manager for former Ohio Treasurer Joseph Deters. In addition, Borges was a representative for Arizona Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.[4]
Borges served as executive director for the Kasich-Taylor New Day Inagural Committee, which planned the 2011 inauguration of Governor of Ohio John Kasich (R). He also worked as campaign manager for Dave Yost (R) when he ran successfully for the office of Ohio Auditor of State in 2010 and for Bob Gibbs (R) when he ran for Congress the same year.[4][6]
Republican Party of Ohio
- See also: Republican Party of Ohio
In May 2012, the Republican Party of Ohio named Borges as its executive director. According to The Columbus Dispatch, some conservative members of the party opposed Borges' appointment as executive director because of his past lobbying work with Equality Ohio on legislation dealing with "nondiscrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations." Equality Ohio is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that aims to "achieve fair treatment and equal opportunity for all Ohioans regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression."[5][7][8]
State party chair
Borges became chair of the Republican Party of Ohio in May 2013. Borges opposed Donald Trump and supported John Kasich during the contest for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.[4][9]
On January 6, 2017, the Republican Party of Ohio's state central committee voted to remove Borges as the state party chair and installed Jane Timken in the post. Committee members voted for Borges to remain in the party's leadership as the chairman emeritus, an uncompensated advisory role. President Donald Trump (R) had personally urged the committee members to oust Borges, an ally of Trump's 2016 Republican presidential primary opponent Ohio Governor John Kasich.[10][11][12]
"I couldn’t have imagined the up and downs and wildness of it all when I was first elected by this body in 2013," said Borges in a speech following the vote. "When you think about the statewide sweep in 2014, bringing the convention to Ohio for the first time in 80 years, hosting the first Republican debate, and then a statewide sweep again in 2016, I don’t know how I could have put any more of my heart and soul into succeeding and making sure that we elected Republicans and we moved this state and country in the right direction."[10]
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
Borges was an automatic delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Ohio. He was pledged to John Kasich.
Delegate rules
Each presidential candidate was required to submit a slate of at-large and district-level delegates to the Republican Party of Ohio. The candidate who received the most votes in the statewide primary had his or her slate of delegates elected to represent Ohio at the 2016 Republican National Convention. According to Brittany Warner, communications director for the state party, delegates from Ohio were bound on the first ballot at the national convention to support the winner of the statewide primary.[13]
Ohio primary results
- See also: Presidential election in Ohio, 2016
| Ohio Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
| Jeb Bush | 0.3% | 5,398 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 0.7% | 14,351 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.1% | 2,430 | 0 | |
| Ted Cruz | 13.3% | 264,640 | 0 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.1% | 2,112 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.2% | 4,941 | 0 | |
 John Kasich |
47% | 933,886 | 66 | |
| Marco Rubio | 2.3% | 46,478 | 0 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0.1% | 1,320 | 0 | |
| Donald Trump | 35.9% | 713,404 | 0 | |
| Totals | 1,988,960 | 66 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and Ohio Secretary of State | ||||
Delegate allocation
Ohio had 66 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 48 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's 16 congressional districts). Ohio's district delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis; the candidate who won a plurality of the statewide primary vote received all of the state's district delegates.[14][15]
Of the remaining 18 delegates, 15 served at large. Ohio's at-large delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis; the candidate who won a plurality of the statewide primary vote received all of the state's at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention. The RNC delegates were required to pledge their support to the winner of the state's primary.[14][15]
Top influencers by state
Influencers in American politics are power players who help get candidates elected, put through policy proposals, cause ideological changes, and affect popular perceptions. They can take on many forms: politicians, lobbyists, advisors, donors, corporations, industry groups, labor unions, single-issue organizations, nonprofits, to name a few.
In 2016, Ballotpedia identified Matt Borges as a top influencer by state. We identified top influencers across the country through several means, including the following:
- Local knowledge of our professional staff
- Surveys of activists, thought leaders and journalists from across the country and political spectrum
- Outreach to political journalists in each state who helped refine our lists
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Matt Borges Ohio. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Republican Party of Ohio, "State Committee," accessed March 24, 2016
- ↑ Roetzel & Andress, "About the Firm," accessed April 15, 2016
- ↑ Roetzel & Andress, "Matthew J. Borges," accessed April 15, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Republican Party, "Matt Borges," accessed April 15, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cleveland.com, "Matt Borges named Ohio Republican Party executive director (updated)," May 14, 2012
- ↑ The Highland County Press, "Kasich-Taylor New Day Committee releases schedule of public events celebrating the inauguration," December 7, 2010
- ↑ The Columbus Dispatch, "Lobbyist named new GOP director," May 23, 2012
- ↑ Equality Ohio, "Vision, Mission & Strategic Goals," accessed April 15, 2016
- ↑ ABC News, "Why Ohio Is Make-or-Break for the Republican Race," March 14, 2016
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Washington Times, "Trump gets payback againt Kasich with ouster of Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges," January 6, 2017
- ↑ Cleveland.com, "Donald Trump makes a personal pitch for a new Ohio GOP chair. But can he close the deal?" January 6, 2017
- ↑ The Columbus Dispatch, "Trump-backed Timken prevails as GOP chair over incumbent Borges," January 6, 2017
- ↑ Conservative Review, "Upon Exiting Race, Kasich's Ohio Delegates are Not Bound to Trump," March 24, 2016
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
| |||||||
