‘Readers Want Us to Stand for Something’

The Plain Dealer decides to make an endorsement. Plus: Handing Trump a win, and cataloguing his family’s corruption.

In August, Chris Quinn, the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, announced that the paper would no longer endorse candidates in Ohio’s Senate and governor’s races. The decision came after Quinn, who sends a daily text message to more than four thousand subscribers, asked those readers if they still found value in endorsements. The respondents overwhelmingly said they did, but with a caveat: they wanted less focus on high-profile contests—for the US Senate or the governor’s seat—and more information and perspective on downballot races.

But this week, the Plain Dealer rightly reversed course, endorsing Amy Acton, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and denouncing Vivek Ramaswamy, her Republican opponent, for releasing an appalling attack ad featuring Donna Arthur, Acton’s mother, accusing her daughter of being a “liar” who “lies about her past.” (Acton has been estranged from Arthur for nearly fifty years; her mother had stood by Acton’s stepfather when he was charged with raping Acton, who was then twelve.)