Commentary

If you were J.D. Vance, about to face Rep. Tim Ryan to take the seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman, you couldn’t ask for weaker opposition.

We’ve heard about Vance, being endorsed by former President Trump and heavily supported financially by Peter Thiel, however, information about Ryan, his Democrat opposition, has been sparse.

I’ve been following Ryan’s career since he challenged Nancy Pelosi’s leadership in 2016, and lost the vote among fellow House Democrats, garnering just 63 votes to Pelosi’s 134.

I’ll shed a bit of light on Ryan here for you.

Ryan, 48, was elected to the House in 2002, and has won reelection nine times, and serves only on the Appropriations Committee.  His leadership experience is limited to being co-chair of the Manufacturing Caucus.

His challenge of Pelosi was the result of the hit the House took when Trump won in 2016.  “Under our current leadership,” he said, “Democrats have been reduced to our smallest congressional minority since 1929,” while predicting more defeat in future elections.  It was considered a symbolic bid to unseat Pelosi.

“We need to create America 2.0 – a multicultural, progressive, and innovative country that fights every day for ordinary people,” he told his colleagues.

On April 4, 2019, Ryan announced his candidacy for president of the United States on ABC’s “The View”, of all places, saying, “I am a progressive who knows how to talk to working class people.  I know how to get elected in working class districts at the end of the day, the progressive agenda is what is best for working families.”

Really, Tim?

Ryan became one of 19 Democrat candidates, but was hardly noticed.  Tim who? Certainly, he knew he had no chance of succeeding. In September, unable to muster sufficient support to stay on the debate stage, he said he would remain in the race, but he was forced to drop out of the campaign on October 24, 2019. Instead, he decided to run for reelection to his House seat.

“Another big dropout in the presidential race … Tim Ryan and Rep. Swalwell,” tweeted Trump.  “They stood for nothing, and the voters couldn’t stand by them.”

Even candidate Kamala Harris, who was considered a top-tier candidate, was forced to drop out of the race prior to the Iowa caucuses due to a lack of financial resources. That translates to the fact that she didn’t have a message she could sell.

In Ryan’s case, his courting of heartland voters in industrial Ohio alienated him from progressive colleagues more interested in the east and west coasts.

Ryan has reportedly visited all of Ohio’s 88 counties, but his meetings in local coffee shops are usually with less than ten people interested in what he has to say.  During those visits, he asks them to help him by going door to door in their communities, but they’re finding that the left’s record is difficult to defend.

He has been a supporter of President Biden’s Build Back Better bill but has shown frustration with the administration’s messaging.

During an interview with Fox’s Bret Baier on Wednesday, Ryan hesitated when asked if he would like to have the sitting Democrat president of the United States campaign for him in Ohio, suggesting that his was a campaign of $100 donors.

While Ryan is seeking to win votes among Ohio’s white working class with his message of returning manufacturing to his state and voicing concern over China, he continues to push the left’s issues on gun control, climate change and abortion.

When he got into the race for president, he said he did so “to really give voice to the forgotten people of our country.”  Unfortunately, the Democrat party had forgotten them far too long.

While Ohio voters strongly supported Trump over Biden in 2020 and support for the Republican party continuing to grow there, they’re not going to forget Ryan’s 2016 pledge to “fight the intolerance and dangers that President-elect Trump represents.”

Nor will they forget Ryan’s belief that Trump “incited violence” on January 6 and voted to impeach him.

Vance won the GOP primary with 32 percent of the votes.  It is assumed that the majority of supporters of Mandel (24 percent) and Dolan (23) will now back Vance.

As much as the Democrat Party would like control of the Senate, they aren’t likely  to spend money on Ryan in Ohio, considered to be third-tier candidate, compared to those in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire.

Ryan must also be concerned with Biden’s dismal approval ratings, which cannot help him if they continue to dip over the next six months.

FINNALY, as I prepared to publish, I learned that Bill Kristol sent Ryan “a modest contribution,” further proof that Vance is the man we need to support.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America