Time now for our weekend briefing with just over three weeks to go
until the midterm elections are focused this evening is on Ohio,
a state that has been shifting to the right over the past few election
cycles. But the U. S Senate race this year has been fiercely competitive
with Republican Senator Rob Portman. Retiring Democratic Congressman
Tim Ryan is locked in a dead heat against Republican J. D. Vance
to fill the seat. Karen Casler of Ohio Public Radio and television
joins us now to share her insights. It's great to have
Have you here? It's great to be here, Jeff. Thanks.
And Karen. I will tell you in speaking with Democratic officials
here in Washington, they have said all along that they could not
have asked for a better candidate than Tim Ryan to run in Ohio. He
has this blue collar image. He tends to be more of a moderate. He's
raising a ton of money. J. D. Vance, though, has really struggled
to raise money, and he also seemed to take the summer off from campaigning.
The difference, though, is that national Republicans stepped into
the race. They poured millions of dollars into that race to help
J. D. Vance. But National Democrats aren't doing the same thing for
Tim Ryan. What's going on? I think some of that comes from that Ohio
went for former President Trump in 2016 and 2020 by eight points.
I mean, Trump won Ohio.
By more than 475,000 votes in 2020. And so there were some Democrats.
I think who kind of wrote off Ohio as being a state that really wasn't
going to embrace having potentially two Democratic senators. Ohio
has one in Sherrod Brown, who was re elected in 2018. So the question
then becomes who could be the potential Democratic candidate, Tim
Ryan had talked about it for a while, he talked about running for
governor.
But as you said, this was kind of a year that looked tailor made
for him, because while he does have a very strong record in voting
with Democrats, he does have that populist dial that Sherrod Brown
and others have seen as being more moderate. And so I think that
that's made this race competitive, and certainly Ryan has been going
after the same voters that J. D. Vance has been going after J. D.
Vance came out of an expensive Republican campaign in the primary
had
A lot of money had to do a lot of campaigning there.
And so that may have
Set him up in a different way than Tim Bryan, who had a less competitive
primary that he had to survive. Hmm. Does the Trump Aligned Republican
Base in Ohio View J. D. Vance and I asked the question because, as
you well know, when Donald Trump endorsed Vance, it was a bit of
a surprise because back in 2016 J. D. Vance said that Donald Trump
was reprehensible. He said that he was cultural heroin.
There were a few other phrases that were even worse than that. But
when Vance decided to run for the Senate, there was this full embrace
of Donald Trump. Does he have credibility among the GOP base there
in Ohio? There was a lot of frustration. I think among Republicans
when Trump endorsed band, it was a bit of a surprise because there
have been kind of this as a political put it a hunger games competition
among Republican candidates to try to get that coveted Trump endorsement.
And so when Trump
Did endorse fans. He did have a rally. Not too long after that, and
you saw Republican candidates come out to that rally and show their
support for Trump's endorsement advanced. But there were still some
far right Conservatives in Ohio who really didn't like those comments,
advanced made and really didn't feel that Vance was the right candidate
for Trump to endorse didn't matter.
Bands ended up winning. He actually beat the one candidate who had
not thought Donald Trump endorsement State Senator Matt Dolan by
only a small margin and then beat the rest of the very Trump Aligned
Field. But there are still I think some conservatives who are concerned
but have certainly fully embraced the trump endorsement. Uh, one
of my colleagues here at our Statehouse news bureau went out on the
road with J. D. Vance and Tim Ryan as well and found that there were
a lot of people who still view date. J. D. Vance is kind of a celebrity.
30. They bring his book hillbilly elegy and asked him to sign it.
And so that really tracks along with the Trump brand, where he does
tend to endorse people who have a lot of name recognition or have
some sensitive celebrity among the people. He's trying to get The
vote well, Tim Ryan and J. D. Vance faced off in a debate last week,
which you covered
And there was this moment where Ryan tried to tie Vance to Donald
Trump and cast them both as a threat to democracy. Take a look. He's
called into question the presidential election that's a threat to
our democracy and running around with people who want to ban books
and get the government in our bedroom and in our doctor's offices,
But I tell you what I think.
Politically is a huge threat to our democracy, and and that's guys
that don't have the guts to stand up to their own party.
Is that an argument that's resonating in this race? What do Ohio
voters care about?
I think J. D. Vance tried to hide him Ryan strongly to Democrats
by saying he votes with Democrats and President Biden 100% of the
time. There's truth to that. But certainly Ryan has been really pushing
his record of running against Nancy Pelosi as speaker and really
trying to support Trump voters. He doesn't use the word Democrat
in his ads. He talks about how he has support them of Trump's policies.
And so he's really been going after the same kind of voters that
J. D. Vance has been. And so it really sets up a very interesting
competition because there are moderate voters in Ohio who really
want to have another option. Besides Trump Source candidate the Democrats
in Ohio certainly want to have a candidate that vacant endorse, and
it is set up. How close this race has become. Absolutely. Karen Casler,
Ohio public radio and television helping us break down the Senate