CLEVELAND – With Ohio’s general election just five weeks away, the two candidates running to represent the state in the U.S. Senate squared off in their first debate on Monday evening in the studios of WJW-TV in Cleveland. To call it “contentious” would be an understatement.
Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan - a Democrat who has long represented the Mahoning Valley in northeast Ohio - and J.D. Vance - a Republican venture capitalist previously best known for penning 2016’s autobiographical Hillbilly Elegy - are vying to win the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who announced, last year, that he would retire after more-than-30 years of service under six administrations.
Both candidates outlined a populist message that focused on the day-to-day struggles of working Ohioans while framing the other as out-of-touch with the people of the state. Vance called Ryan a “career politician” who has spent more time failing at his job in Washington D.C. than he has in the Buckeye State, in the past 20 years. Ryan accused Vance of leaving his home state in favor of “Silicon Valley” while investing heavily in Chinese companies and imports.
Ryan said he’s “running to represent the Exhausted Majority - Democrats, Republicans and Independents against extremists.” Vance countered that Ryan should be focused on the “price of groceries and the increase in crime in many of Ohio’s cities.”
Inflation and the Economy
Vance came out of the gate with an attack on President Joe Biden’s administration. “When you’re talking about $6 trillion, there’s a lot of money that isn’t well spent. And that’s fundamentally the problem with what we’ve seen out of the Biden administration,” said Vance, accusing Biden of throwing fuel on the fire of inflation and “going to war” with America’s energy sector. “They’re each bad ideas, but when you do them both at the same time, you’re going to get record inflation.”
Vance attempted to club Ryan with his record on fossil fuels, stating, “One of the reasons that China is stealing our jobs is because of the high cost of energy.” Vance also pointed to Ryan’s short-lived 2020 presidential campaign, during which Ryan took a hard stance on hydraulic fracturing in the state. “You supported banning fracking in general and on public lands. That crushes the Ohio energy sector.”
Ryan rebutted that Vance has been part of the problem that he says President Biden and his allies in Congress have been trying to fix. Ryan pointed to Vance’s record as a businessman, saying the economy is struggling, in part, “because of guys like you, J.D., who invest their money in China.”
The Congressman also pointed to his own efforts to bring jobs and opportunities to Ohio. “A bipartisan infrastructure bill that’s going to create 600,000 jobs here in Ohio. J.D. Vance is against that. Rob Portman, the senator who currently holds the seat - a Republican - helped put that deal together.” Ryan also pointed to multibillion dollar investments by Intel, natural gas energy developers and elective vehicle manufacturers as developments that he has helped to garner for the Buckeye State.
“Are we going to sit around for another 10 years and point fingers?” asked Ryan, before highlighting his work on the Inflation Reduction Act being debated in Congress. “Put money in people’s pockets! We can sit here and argue about why it’s here - it’s a global phenomenon, right now - we need to cut taxes for working people!”
Civil Liberties
Congressman Ryan stated one of his mantras multiple times, over the course of the debate: “We don’t want politicians in our bedrooms and politicians in our doctor’s offices.” Abortion access and marriage equality - and the areas in which they buy up against the debate on religious liberties - was front-and-center in Monday night’s debate.
Ryan urged the need for the legal precedent of Roe v. Wade. “That was established law for 50 years and we didn’t have all the chaos we’re having now.” Ryan accused Vance of extremism for the first of many times, during the debate, describing his opponent’s position as state-mandated pregnancies for rape victims. “This is the largest governmental overreach in our lifetime. A complete violation of personal freedom and liberty of women in our state.”
Ryan also addressed his change in opinion on the topic of abortion. Ryan, a Catholic, said that his faith was at odds with support for abortion for many years, but that conversations with women around Ohio changed his stance. “The government has no place in this matter. This needs to be left to the woman. This needs to be left to the doctor to make these decisions.”
Vance said that abortion should be a state-decided issue, but did voice support for a proposal by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham that would instate a nationwide, 15-week ban on all abortions. Vance said he is pro-life but added that young women don’t have a lot of options and “we need to fix that.” Vance added that he was raised by an old-school Democrat who believed abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.”
On the topic of LGBTQ+ rights, Vance said that he cannot support the Marriage Equality Act co-sponsored by fellow Republican Rob Portman because he believes it gives the government the right to sue religious organizations if they don’t comply. In an incredulous retort, Ryan said, “Only J.D. Vance can say that the law that would codify same-sex marriage isn’t about same-sex marriage.
In discussing a high-profile case in which a 10-year-old Ohio girl was forced to travel to Indiana to receive an abortion, after being raped, Vance said that girl was “raped by an illegal alien” and blamed Ryan’s lax stance on immigration as the cause of many sexual assaults across the country.
Foreign Policy
Congressman Ryan was full-throated in his support of intervening in conflicts in Ukraine and Taiwan, particularly if the threat of nuclear warfare escalates - but he also said that he didn’t believe that moment was yet upon us. Ryan said that he’s met with Ukrainian refugees in Cleveland and Parma and has heard, first-hand, about the atrocities being committed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Vance would let [Putin] roll right through Ukraine.”
Ryan also hammered Vance on his record of investing in Chinese companies . “While he’s investing in China and making money, I’m trying to fight these guys.” Ryan also said that the U.S. should defend Taiwan in its struggle for independence from China, stating, “We do not want to be at war with China, but we have commitments.”
Vance was weak-throated in his defense of Ukraine, stating that “nobody knows what we should do” about the human rights violations taking place there. Vance countered, “I want a foreign policy establishment that puts our citizens first” and accused President Biden of “sleepwalking into a nuclear war.”
Vance did take a stronger position on the defense of Taiwan, stating the nation’s economic importance to the U.S. “They make so many of the world’s semiconductors that, without them, the global economy would collapse.”
Party Lines
Both Ryan and Vance spent a significant amount of their time trying to differentiate themselves from the status quo in Washington D.C. Vance framed Ryan as toeing the party line. “Every time he gets the chance to stand up for Ohioans, he bends the knee to his own party.”
Ryan countered that he aligned himself with former President Donald Trump on issues of trade and while sometimes making himself “a pain in the ass” of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden. And he doubled down on his previous assertion that President Biden should not run for president again in 2024, pushing for a generational change in leadership on both sides of the aisle.
Time and again, Ryan accused Vance of aligning himself with far-right factions of the Republican Party, including those who rioted in the U.S. Capitol in January of last year. Ryan highlighted a campaign rally at which Trump stumped for Vance in which Trump said, of Vance, “All you do is kiss my ass to get my support.” Ryan also pointed to contributions to Vance’s campaign by venture capitalist Peter Thiel and a Super PAC organized by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Vance countered that Ryan had been spending campaign time “kissing up” to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. He also framed Ryan as a failed, career politician who can’t back up his stated accomplishments. “He has been failing at his basic job for 20 years. Talks a big game but the record of accomplishment just isn’t there.”
Vance also pushed back on Ryan’s characterization of him as a California resident first-and-foremost, arguing that Ryan has spent less time in Ohio than he has in the past 20 years. Vance said he’s more in-touch with everyday Ohioans by employing nearly 1,000 Ohioans and stated that “Youngstown would be much better off if Tim Ryan had to go back…and work in the private sector instead of spending all of his time in Washington D.C.”
Civil Discourse?
At the best of times, both Ryan and Vance ignored time limits set forth in the debate and spoke over one another and the moderators. At the worst of times, the hour devolved into barbs and name calling.
From Vance: “We’re close to Halloween and Tim Ryan has put on a costume, where he pretends to be a reasonable moderate.”
From Ryan: “Ohio needs an ass-kicker, not an ass-kisser.”
From Vance: “Tim does something that my toddlers do, which is blame me for something they’re guilty of themselves.”
The tension palpable on the debate stage is indicative of how tight the race has become, over the past several months. According to a new survey from Emerson College Polling and The Hill, Ryan and Vance are locked in a dead heat as early voting begins in Ohio. The poll found 46 percent of voters said they planned to back Vance, while 45 percent said the same about Ryan, falling well within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Another 9 percent said they were undecided.
While the race was previously considered red-leaning, Ryan has run a strong fundraising and ground operation in the state, which former President Trump won by 8 points in 2016 and 2020.
A second debate between Ryan and Vance is scheduled for Oct. 17. The general election will be held on Nov. 8. ◇