On Monday, Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance (R) and Rep. Tim Ryan (D) engaged in heated exchanges on topics ranging from abortion to foreign policy in their first debate in Cleveland.
According to the Washington Examiner, the race in Ohio is neck-and-neck as both candidates are running to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R) in the state that has trended red in recent years. As Ryan has closed the gap in the polls, GOP outside groups are heavily spending to give Vance, a venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy, a boost in the final stretch.
During the debate, it was both candidates’ intention to appeal to swing voters by portraying their opponents as extremists.
JD Vance pointed out that his opponent represents a congressional district that has lost 50,000 jobs just in his time in office.
Vance also called Ryan out for how focused he is on January 6th while his constituents are having trouble buying groceries, paying for gas, and more due to policies coming out of his own democrat party.
And, in response to Ryan’s point that an underage girl raped had to travel to Indiana for the abortion procedure, Vance turned to slam Ryan’s record on border security, arguing that stronger borders would have prevented the tragedy because the girl was raped by an illegal alien.
During the debate, Ryan tried to paint himself to be an “ass kicker”, however, RNC Research quickly jumped on his comment and created a montage of him saying how much he loves Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and that he “sucks up” to them.
Also, Ryan claimed that he has, “been a natural gas proponent since [he’s] been in Congress,” however, another montage circulating on Twitter proved that to be a lie as well.
