Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the longest serving woman in Congress, has become the most prominent Democratic member to break with Joe Biden over his trade policy with Communist China.
The 20-term congresswoman released a campaign ad heavily criticizing Biden for “letting Ohio solar manufacturers be undercut by China .” The ad claims that she’s been working with retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to protect jobs.
Kaptur’s attacks on Biden are newsworthy because of her enthusiastic praise for Biden in the past. But Biden’s numbers in Ohio are underwater by double digits, and Democrats are running away from the president as fast as their legs will carry them.
Just a few weeks ago, Kaptur welcomed Biden as he stepped off of Air Force One at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport for his sixth visit to the state since taking office, beaming in one photograph as the president held her hand to his mouth and kissed it.
In an interview with NBC before Biden’s arrival, the congresswoman declared, “I mean, this man is going to go down in history as a great president.”
However, some prominent Ohio Democrats were out of sight during the visit, including Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), who, in his quest to flip a Republican Senate seat, has been sharply critical of Biden.
Kaptur is no closet conservative. She endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in 2016, and her record shows she has voted with Biden 100% of the time.
The Democratic president, who has come under fire for his handling of Trump-era tariffs on solar energy imports, has not yet revealed his decision on whether to lift former President Donald Trump’s stiff China tariffs .
Trump twice carried the state, though Kaptur’s district bordering Lake Erie has long leaned Democrat.
The reason Kaptur has a newfound enmity for Joe Biden may have something to do with the way Republicans redrew her congressional district and changed its political prognostications from a D+9 to an R+3 rating. Biden won her former district by 19 points in 2020, but Trump would have easily carried her new district.
So it’s not so much a change of heart that has Kaptur dissing her party leader. It’s a matter of political survival. Despite what we’re hearing from the media that the Democrats are on the comeback trail and Biden’s numbers are recovering, at ground level — where it counts the most — Republicans still hold a decisive edge.
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