Obscene song ‘The Loophole’ overshadows Ohio Senate candidate Frank LaRose’s campaign launch
WASHINGTON – The good Lord would definitely not want it that way.
As Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose launched his campaign for Senate with a Monday call to his supporters, a pornographic parody song served as embarrassing entrance music.
As campaign staffers unmuted LaRose to make his big announcement, “The Loophole” by comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates rang out over the line with the decidedly unconservative lyrics: “F—k me in the a— ’cause I love Jesus.”
The 2015 tune, which pokes fun at conservative Christians who choose sodomy over sex to preserve their virginities, continued to play as campaign workers attempted to mute latecomers to the call.
Sample lyrics: “The good Lord would want it that way/Gimme that sweet sensation of a throbbing rationalization/It’s just between you and me/’Cause everyone knows it’s the sex that God can’t see.”
The song continued playing for about a minute as one campaign staffer described the disturbance as “mild technical difficulties.”
“Just give us one minute here, I’m so sorry about this,” he said.
LaRose then interjected: “I’m unmuted, but we need everyone else to mute their lines here.”
“We have muted everyone else, I think, but umm–” the staffer responded, before the call was placed on hold for about 40 seconds.
LaRose, a pro-life candidate who touts his Catholic faith, then resumed the call, noting that “several hundred” local GOP leaders were on the line.
But the chaos was not over yet. The tune’s explicit chorus rang out again about 20 seconds into LaRose’s speech as he referenced county Republican Party leaders and “grassroots Republican activists.”
“You guys are the beating heart of the Republican Party and the conservative movement in the state of Ohio,” he said, as the raunchy song played in the background. “And so I just wanted to make sure that you heard directly for me that I’m proud to announce today that I’m running for the United States Senate.”
“This has been a lot of thought and a lot of prayer that’s gone into this, and I’m ready to get things going,” he added, as the song abruptly stopped.
It was unclear whether the explicit intrusion was made by mistake, but campaign spokesman Ben Kindel told The Post on Tuesday that the the culprit was “probably” a supporter one of LaRose’s rivals who obtained dial-in information on the semi-private call with state GOP leaders.
“We don’t really know [how the interruption happened]. It really could have been anything. It was really just a minor thing at the beginning, and Secretary LaRose went on to talk to his outpouring of supporters,” Kindel said, adding that he did not believe the source of the music was “some sophisticated hacker.”
Asked whether he felt the Monday incident was an attack on LaRose’s religious beliefs due to the song’s premise, Kindel said he hoped “somebody isn’t targeting him because of his faith.”
The call continued another 9 minutes without further interruption, with LaRose laying out why he chose to enter the already-contentious 2024 Ohio Senate race.
“I’ve been really concerned about the direction of our country. It’s pretty clear that Biden and [Sen. Sherrod] Brown (D-Ohio) are taking our country, fundamentally dangerous direction. And we need to turn the tide,” he said on the call. “It’s everything from this woke ideology that’s coming between parents and their children.
“I can tell you, my wife and I refuse to co-parent with the government. We want our values taught to our children. And this is something that is going to require leadership to fix this issue,” LaRose added.
A Green Beret and Army reservist, LaRose is the third Republican candidate to join the race for Brown’s seat. Car dealership owner Bernie Moreno and state Sen. Matt Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, entered the race earlier this year.
Despite LaRose’s awkward entrance to the race, the first poll released since the secretary’s announcement shows him tied with Brown, with both candidates receiving roughly 45% support, according to RealClearPolitics.
While Moreno and Dolan’s self-funded campaigns offer an advantage over LaRose, the secretary has a stronger statewide profile than his opponents.
“I feel that I’ve got the strongest shot of being able to defeat Sherrod Brown,” LaRose told Politico last week. “We need a candidate who has strong statewide name ID. I’m the only one that has that.”
Moreno made headlines in April after suggesting during a campaign event that the white descendants of northern Civil War soldiers should be eligible for compensation if black descendants of slaves deserve reparations.
