Joshua Aaron Mandel (born September 27, 1977) is an American far-right politician who served as the 48th treasurer of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the Ohio State Representative for the 17th district from 2007 to 2011. He was the unsuccessful Republican challenger to Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in the 2012 U.S. Senate election.
In 2016, Mandel announced his intention to challenge Brown yet again in 2018, but later withdrew from the race. In 2022, he ran again for the Senate, but lost the primary nomination to author J. D. Vance.
Early life and education
Mandel was born to a Jewish family on September 27, 1977, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Rita (née Friedman) and Bruce Mandel. Mandel's maternal grandfather, Joe, is originally from Poland and is a Holocaust survivor, while his maternal grandmother, Fernanda, is originally from Italy and was hidden from the Nazis by Christian families during World War II. Mandel has a sister, Rachel. He attended Beachwood High School, where he was the quarterback of the football team.
Mandel earned a bachelor's degree from the Ohio State University. At Ohio State, he served two terms as the undergraduate student government president. After graduating from Ohio State in 2000, he earned a Juris Doctor from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Career
Military service
Mandel enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, where he served eight years as an intelligence specialist. His first tour was from February to November 2004, during which he was attached to a light armored reconnaissance battalion. He left for his second tour in September 2007. Attached to an infantry battalion, Mandel served in the city of Haditha.
Lyndhurst city council
Mandel was elected to the Lyndhurst, Ohio, city council in 2003. He was on the council's finance committee.
In January 2005, Mandel sent a letter to Lyndhurst residents, proposing a one-time tax rebate of $400, paying the postage for the letters from his campaign fund. Faced with opposition from fellow council members, Mandel introduced and advocated for a 2 mill property tax rollback, which would have saved the average homeowner $100 a year on a home valued at $160,000. On April 4, 2005, the Council passed a 1.5 mill rollback that saved the average homeowner $75 per year.
Ohio House of Representatives
Elections
Mandel was first elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in November 2006. He represented Ohio's 17th House district, consisting of 17 communities of various sizes in southeastern Cuyahoga County. Mandel was re-elected to a second term in 2008.
Tenure
Mandel's first piece of legislation as a State Representative, H.B. 151, was an initiative to force the multibillion-dollar Ohio pension funds to divest from companies doing business in Iran. He joined State Representative Shannon Jones (R) in an attempt to make Ohio the first state in the nation to divest from Iran, but the legislation was never signed into law due to a compromise between state pension executives and Ohio House leadership, agreed to by Mandel. Then-Speaker of the Ohio House Jon Husted brokered a deal to drop half of the state's investments in Iran and Sudan with the eventual goal of removing all investment from the two countries.
In the 128th Assembly, Mandel was one of 19 House members to vote against legislation to make cockfighting a felony. Mandel said that the legislation was not a pressing priority for the state and that the General Assembly should spend its time in other ways.
Also in the 128th Assembly, Mandel voted against legislation that "[p]rohibits discriminatory practices on the basis of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" under many of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) Law's existing prohibitions against various unlawful discriminatory practices.". The bill passed the Ohio House by a vote of 56 to 39.