That's not an unreasonable reaction but this one in Ohio is different in several ways.
1 The GOP super majority passed a lady abolishing August special elections that went into effect on January 2023. They are immediately ignoring this law and had to create a loophole to even hold this election.
2 It does not just raise the passing vote threshold. It mandates signatures from 100% of Ohio counties to even place a measure on the ballot. And it's not just 1 signature is a proportion of the counties population. Idk how well you know Ohio but that is almost effectively impossible.
3 The GOP are blatantly short cutting the November election and chose 60% because polling places support for the amendment enshrining abortion rights at about 58%.
4 This is a simple majority to pass but raises it for everything else which is hypocritical. Amendments of this Nature should have to pass at the threshold they are attempting to set.
Personally I don't like him but I would not be surprised if this was a move more because he views a D next to his name on the ballot as a bigger liability than an I. He's not a good let alone great asset but the reality is that he is head am shoulders better than whatever lunatic WV would elect from the GOP. The most important thing to have our of WV is someone Ds can work with and you know you aren't getting that from a R but you can work with Manchin.