CINCINNATI — Vice President JD Vance is hoping his native ties to Ohio can help save Republican candidates in the state’s most competitive races.
During a three-stop swing through the Buckeye State on Wednesday, which included a surprise, private drop-in to a Cincinnati Bengals practice session at Paycor Stadium, Vance provided a forceful defense of Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy.
Two weeks before Election Day, Ramaswamy, who, on average, is in a margin-of-error race with Democratic opponent Amy Acton in the polls, has come under fire for his decision to spend $4 million on a deeply personal attack ad against Acton featuring Acton’s estranged mother calling her a “liar.”
The ad does not mention that Acton has not had a relationship with her mother since she was 12, after she was removed from her mother’s custody following her stepfather’s indictment over allegations he raped her.
“I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America,” Vance told reporters during his first stop on Wednesday, a press conference at the Cincinnati FBI Field Office in Kenwood for the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.
“So I would say to Ohio Republicans: Do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do,” he said. “Do you actually think that [former Democratic Sen.] Sherrod Brown should not be given a 50th year in public service to ship American jobs overseas and to bring men into women’s sports? Because I do.”
The strategy surrounding Vance and Ohio is grounded in the argument that the vice president can appeal to people in his home state, after he grew up in Middletown, with voters recognizing themselves in him, having home-state pride in him, or simply considering him a trusted messenger.
Vance’s average favorability rating is also 10 percentage points higher than Trump’s, according to RealClearPolitics.
When asked by the Washington Examiner how he can specifically help Ramaswamy and Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) in Ohio, Vance said he has “a lot of friends here, a lot of people who I love and who love me.”
“I do think I understand this state probably instinctively better than I understand most states because of my connection to it,” Vance told the Washington Examiner during the press conference. “And I just do not think the state of Ohio wants to give Sherrod Brown a 50th year when he didn’t do anything with his first 49 years in public service. I don’t think that they want to give the governorship over to a person who lies about every single one of her positions, who pretends that she’s a reasonable moderate when her entire life in public service she’s been a far-left Democrat. So I think I could make that argument in a pretty compelling way.”
Vance added he has a “very simple” message to the people of Ohio: compare Republicans and Democrats.
“The far-left has run and taken over the Democratic Party,” he said. “Don’t give these people power. They’re going to cause more of the very problems that we’ve been fighting against. That’s going to be my message, and I think ultimately it’s going to carry the day in the state of Ohio.”
On the sidelines of his second stop, a midterm election rally for Ramaswamy, with whom Vance went to Yale Law School, and Husted at Cincinnati’s Sharonville Convention Center, Derek White, 63, agreed that “everyone loves JD.”
“He’s our favorite son,” the Cincinnati resident, who works in sales, told the Washington Examiner.
For Sheila Salyer, 70, whose children went to school with Vance in Middletown, the vice president “means what he says.”
“He worked really hard,” the now-West Chester retiree told the Washington Examiner. “He took every opportunity, and that’s the problem with people today. They don’t want to work for the opportunity.”
Vance’s appeal, however, is not universal, with Republican-turned-independent Sue Bradley telling the Washington Examiner after a voter town hall organized by Democratic congressional candidate Brian Poindexter in Ashland that the vice president is “a liar” and “flips his opinion.”
“I liked him before when he said, ‘I was a Never Trump guy,’” the Ashland County retiree, 62, said. “Now he’s pretty much for it. So he completely changed his viewpoint from one way to the other. So to me, he’s just untrustworthy.”
But with only days before polls close, the Ramaswamy and Husted campaigns are now concentrating on turnout as opposed to persuasion amid concerns, even expressed by Vance, that Republicans may not be motivated to vote on Nov. 3.
“It’s important for everybody to remember that sometimes these polls actually have this demotivating effect on our voters,” Vance told reporters as he departed Cincinnati. “I talk to people, and I do think they have the effect of demotivating our voters, which is why I encourage people ignore the polls, run like we’re down, and try to make the best case that we can.”
White, one of the Vance rally attendees, conceded that “there’s a lot of people still there on the fence.”
“I think the war in Iran has something to do with it,” he said. “The gas prices. People are tired of that. I’m tired of that. But I also realize it’s probably short-term, and the long-term benefit is going to be worth it.”
Bev Moore, who also attended the Vance rally, told the Washington Examiner that she, too, knew of people who are “swaying” toward Democrats.
“I think mainly the economy and the inflation [are swaying voters],” the Liberty Township retiree, 74, said. “I’d rather pay a little bit more at the gas pump. I want my freedom and to be safe.”
Criticism of Ramaswamy has simultaneously increased, with Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) on Thursday calling for the tech billionaire to take down the Acton ad.
“The ad, on its face, is deeply, deeply troubling,” DeWine told reporters. “It’s wrong to run this ad.”
Husted earlier told the Associated Press: “I would not have run that ad.”
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Regardless, White remained optimistic about Ramaswamy and Husted’s prospects before Trump is expected to return to Ohio next Wednesday, his third trip to the Buckeye State in as many weeks, in an attempt to help as well.
“I’m still confident that they can pull it out,” he said.