Buckeye Brawl: “Trashing Ohioans,” “Cavalier And Reckless” And “Clowns”: How Republican #OHSEN Candidates Spent The Week Attacking Each Other
April 29, 2022
April 29, 2022
Happy Friday, and welcome to “Buckeye Brawl,” a weekly newsletter from the Ohio Democratic Party highlighting the nasty, chaotic, and expensive Republican primary for Senate. This out-of-control primary is making conservatives “deeply worried” about the prospects of Republicans losing this seat.
In the home stretch of one of the ugliest nominating contests in the country, these GOP candidates are injecting even more nasty personal attacks, more chaos and more money into this race. We’re here to help you keep track of all of it.
There was a lot of chaos this week, so here’s what you may have missed:
WHO’S A FRAUD? The Club for Growth and J.D. Vance and his allies are at “total war” with each other following Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Vance. This week, Club for Growth aired a new ad slamming Vance for his anti-Trump comments and saying Trump “is getting it wrong with J.D. Vance” and calling Vance a fraud. After new reporting from The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns revealed Josh Mandel admitted to establishment Republicans (including Mitch McConnell’s allies) he was parroting Trump’s absurd rhetoric to court Trump and his voters, Don Jr. renewed his attacks on Mandel, calling him a “establishment RINO fraud.” If all of this sounds familiar, it’s probably because Vance spent last year talking about how he would have to “suck it up and support Trump” – and was actually recruited by Mitch McConnell to run for U.S. Senate in 2018. To paraphrase Cleveland.com columnist Brent Larkin, the only time the GOP Senate candidates are correct is when they are attacking each other.
TRASHING OHIOANS. The pro-Mandel USA Freedom Fund released a new attack ad calling J.D. Vance’s comment that he “[doesn’t] really care what happens in Ukraine” is “music to Putin’s ears.” The ad then reminds Ohioans that Vance “wrote a book trashing Ohioans as hillbillies, then sold his story to Hollywood.” Vance is also facing scrutiny for his comments in Hillbilly Elegy blaming Ohioans for their jobs being outsourced to China. Coastal elite J.D. Vance sure can’t escape his past comments.
CAVALIER AND RECKLESS. A new radio ad from Patriotic Veterans Inc. went for the jugular with Vance’s Ukraine comments. The ad says, “Well, J.D. Vance, Americans do care about what happens in Ukraine. Women being raped, children being killed, five million refugees… Your cavalier and reckless comments about the war in Ukraine show you are not ready for the U.S. Senate.” The business ties to Russia don’t help either.
FAILED CAREER POLITICIAN SQUISH. The Pro-Vance Protect Ohio Values PAC aired a new ad lambasting Mandel as a “failed career politician squish,” attacking Mandel as a “two-time loser who will sell us out” who once campaigned with the likes of Kasich, Romney, and McCain (?). The ad conveniently omits that Vance called himself a Never Trumper and was courted by Mitch McConnell to run for U.S. Senate.
CLOWNS. Political shapeshifter Silicon Valley Vance said without a single shred of self-awareness, “You never try to be someone else. You’ve got to be yourself. I think that’s one of the mistakes, by the way, that a lot of these clowns make against me in the primary. They haven’t learned anything from the substance (of) how Trump governed. They try to act like Trump, but you’re not Trump.” J.D. Vance grew a beard and changed his entire personality from Never-Trumper to Trump acolyte to further his own political career. All we can say is, takes one to know one.
GET MYSELF CANCELED. Jane Timken, somehow still running for Senate, continues to nip at the heels of the rest of the U.S. Senate candidates (bless her heart). She told Dayton 24/7 News, “I’m not going to Washington DC to try to get myself canceled on social media or make a name for myself.” True – she won’t be going to Washington D.C. at all as a U.S. Senator from Ohio!
Thanks for reading along – that’s all for the Buckeye Brawl this week. If you have questions, my email is [email protected]. Have a great weekend!
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