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Politics Chat: Dan Hils Leaves GOP Hanging

Image via WVXU news partner WCPO

Cincinnati FOP President Dan Hils was a Republican candidate for Hamilton County commissioner for about a week before he abruptly ended his candidacy this Tuesday.

WVXU Senior Political Analyst Howard Wilkinson told WVXU's Jay Hanselman that the likely reason is that members of the police union were not pleased with their union president becoming a partisan political candidate. Hils' withdrawal has left the GOP scrambling for a new candidate to run against Democratic incumbent Denise Driehaus this fall. The filing deadline is coming up next Wednesday.

Have a listen to their full conversation:

Copyright 2021 91.7 WVXU. To see more, visit 91.7 WVXU.

Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU News Team after 30 years of covering local and state politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio governor’s race since 1974 as well as 12 presidential nominating conventions. His streak continued by covering both the 2012 Republican and Democratic conventions for 91.7 WVXU. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots; the Lucasville Prison riot in 1993; the Air Canada plane crash at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983; and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. The Cincinnati Reds are his passion. "I've been listening to WVXU and public radio for many years, and I couldn't be more pleased at the opportunity to be part of it,” he says.