I wasn’t sure what to expect in the debate between Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan and political newcomer J.D. Vance in the campaign for the open Senate seat in Ohio. Ryan, who has been in Congress for nearly 20 years, has decades of debates under his belt, so I wondered if Vance would be able to keep up. I needn’t have worried. Not only was Vance well prepared for the debate, but he landed blow after blow after blow against Ryan, portraying him as an out-of-touch liberal who takes his marching order from the radical left—at the expense of his constituents in the state’s Rust Belt. Ryan was stiff and angry and focused on personal attacks—always a sign of a candidate who believes he’s losing.
The debate, which was hosted by Fox 8 in Cleveland, included questions about hot-button issues roiling the nation, including abortion, immigration, border security, and the fentanyl epidemic. The moderators asked Vance about the claim by his opponent that he was a Silicon Valley “vulture capitalist” who is out of touch with the needs of ordinary Ohioans.
“I was born and raised in the state, and the reason I left when I was 18 was to enlist in the United States Marine Corps,” Vance replied. “That was the first time I ever left the state of Ohio. I went to Ohio State University. I started a business here, I raised my three small children here.” Then, in what would become a pattern in Vance’s stellar debate performance, he turned the question around on Ryan: “This is a ridiculous accusation from a guy, by the way, 20 years in Washington, who has never actually had to employ people and has never actually created a single job.” He pointed out that Ryan represents a congressional district that has lost 50,000 jobs… Those of us who create jobs know what it’s like when you have bad policies, and we know what it’s like when you have good policies.”
Ryan responded by attacking Vance’s donors and accusing him of hiring foreign workers: “You think we’re stupid, J.D., and we’re not. I’m just telling you that you are from Silicon Valley. You don’t understand what’s going on here in Ohio… Now you want to parachute into Ohio, and you want to try to buy a Senate seat. It’s not gonna work because everybody can sniff it out.”
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On the abortion question, Ryan tried to paint Vance as a dangerous extremist, accusing him of advocating for “state-mandated pregnancies,” even for ten-year-old rape victims.
“I mean, look, I’ve got a nine-year-old baby girl at home,” Vance said. “I cannot imagine what that’s like for the girl or her family. God forbid something that like that would happen. I’ve said repeatedly, on the record, that I think that that girl should be able to get an abortion if she and her family so choose to do so.” Again, he turned the question around on Ryan with a searing response. “Why was a 10-year-old girl raped in our community, right in our state, in the first place. The thing is that the media and Congressman Ryan will talk about this all the time. The thing they never mention is that the poor girl was raped by an illegal alien, somebody that should have never been in this state in the first place. You voted so many times against border wall funding, so many times for amnesty. If you had done your job, she would have never been raped in the first place.”
Vance was asked whether he would support a bill sponsored by retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman that would codify same-sex marriage in Ohio law. Vance rightly pointed out that the point of the bill had nothing to do with legalizing same-sex marriage. “I’ve come out against this bill, and I don’t think it’s actually about gay marriage,” he said. “It’s not about same-sex marriage or same-sex equality” but rather about persecuting religious Americans.
“Look, gay marriage is the law of the land in this country. And I’m not trying to do anything to change that. But if you look at the specific bill that’s being proposed, it wouldn’t just codify something that’s already enacted in law, it would actually make it easier for both the government and a lot of private parties to persecute religious organizations if those religious organizations don’t comply with the dictates of the federal government.”
“I’m a devout Christian, and I think it’s important to protect religious liberty in this country. We remember about ten years ago when the Obama administration—I’m sure supported by Tim Ryan—went after a group of Catholic nuns because that Catholic nunnery wanted to run its organization the way that conforms with its religious beliefs.” He warned that the legislation could “unleash a wave of litigation against our churches, or religious organizations or mosques or synagogues.”
Rather than challenging Vance on the substance of his answer, Ryan touted his father’s involvement in the Catholic church (“he ran the beer tent!) and went through a litany of left-wing talking points, most of them inaccurate or dishonest. “This is what I’m trying to explain to Ohioans, that J.D. Vance is extreme on these issues,” he said. “No exceptions for rape or incest”—Vance had literally just said he supports some exceptions. “Right now, he says he’s not for same-sex marriage. He’s going right down the line with the absolute most extreme guys who want to ban books and everything else. Those are the guys you bring into the state to campaign for you, J.D.” He warned that Republicans are poised to make both same-sex marriage and birth control illegal. Ryan mocked Vance for saying that the bill wasn’t actually about same-sex marriage.
“One, I answered the question about same-sex marriage and identified, very specifically, a couple of problems with the legislation,” Vance shot back. “Tim didn’t address that. He just pretended that it didn’t exist because here’s the problem with Tim Ryan. He spent 20 years in Washington, D.C., and actually doesn’t care about the details of public policy. And I’m sure he didn’t even read the bill that he voted on.” Instead, he reads the “canned lines” provided to him by his consultants. “You could respond to the argument that I made, but instead, you decided to pretend again that I have views I don’t actually hold, so you can’t. Look, it’s insulting. Voters deserve somebody who actually respects their views and speaks honestly to them about the issues. That’s not what Tim is doing tonight.”
The debate lasted an hour, and the moderators did a fine job of giving both candidates time to speak while not allowing them to filibuster. A Yale Law School grad, Vance was confident and well-spoken while demonstrating his intelligence and public policy chops. Ryan was on defense throughout the debate, repeatedly resorting to personal attacks and lying about Vance’s positions. He fidgeted, sighed deeply—Al Gore style—and appeared to be angry during the debate. Vance was cool as a cucumber and wasn’t phased at all by the attacks—he had a credible, coherent answer for every challenge.
The race is currently in a virtual tie—the RealClearPolitics average shows a 1.4-point lead for Vance, but we all know that polling has been wildly inaccurate over the last few years, so it’s anyone’s race at this point. Vance’s strong performance on Monday night should give him a bump in the polls just a few weeks out from the midterm election.
Donald Trump Jr. was quick to praise Vance:
A second debate will be held on Oct. 17 in Youngstown—Ryan’s stomping ground. It will be interesting to see if Ryan changes his strategy when he faces off against Vance again.
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