Janet Folger Porter has been fighting for families for four decades. She is the architect of the pro-life Heartbeat Bill, which has passed in her home state of Ohio and 13 other states. Now she has been rated a "verified conservative" in the iVoterGuide as she seeks the Republican Party nomination for Ohio's 13th Congressional District seat on May 3. She is one of only three candidates in competitive Ohio primaries who have received that rating.
"What iVoter Guide does is they do the research. They actually dig a little deeper," Porter tells AFN. "So, I'm very honored to have the only 'verified conservative' ranking in the [13th District] race.
The iVoterGuide defines a verified conservative as a candidate it is at least 95% confident will vote conservatively.
"I believe that I've earned that [rating] just by years of proving just what it is I believe," she continues. "It's actions that matter – and everything else is an empty slogan."
Porter, however, hasn't received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump – but she's okay with that.
"I respect the president. I certainly want to see his policies continue," says the GOP hopeful. "But I don't know if he's got the best advisors when it comes to those endorsements as two of the three verified conservatives [in Ohio races] were not endorsed by the president."
Like Porter, Josh Mandel (who is running for the U.S. Senate) wasn't endorsed by the former president; however, incumbent Warren Davidson (who is running for the U.S. House, District 8) was. Both were rated as verified conservative by iVoteGuide.
Porter has been endorsed by other conservative leaders, among them former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, WallBuilders founder David Barton, and several current and former Republican members of the House.
Who's who in Hoosier country
Tuesday is also GOP primary day just across the border in Indiana, where much of the interest will be focused at the State House where a group known as Liberty Defense PAC is running about two dozen candidates, mostly to challenge establishment Republican incumbents.
Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, says the PAC has already made quite a splash in forcing the Indiana GOP to address issues important to pro-family voters.
"A lot of these candidates have gotten the message out on the life issue [and] on critical race theory – and [that] has really caused a lot of incumbent Republican House members … to address these issues that otherwise may not have been addressed," says the family advocate.
But Clark finds it unfortunate that Liberty Defense PAC hasn't gotten involved in any State Senate races.
"They specifically targeted the House to give some of their allies more support in the House," he explains. "I kind of wish they had targeted some state senators because a lot of our good legislation got killed by the State Senate."
According to Clark, the State Senate has been "a real disappointment" for pro-family Hoosiers over the past year.
