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Columbus, OH – This week, J.D. Vance finally visited Ohio – the state he supposedly wants to represent in the U.S. Senate – amidst a week of brutal stories about how terrible of a campaign he is running.

Here’s what they are saying about Vance’s abysmal operation:

• “They are burning bridges faster than they can build them.” –Republican operative to NBC News’ Henry Gomez
• Vance “better get off his ass.” –Ron Verb to Daily Beast
• “The Republican faithful are telling me they can’t find J.D. Vance with a search warrant.” –Bill Cunningham to Daily Beast
• “I think he’s running the worst campaign you could possibly run.” –Ron Verb to Daily Beast
• “When the fundraising numbers came out, it’s full-on panic now.” –One GOP Ohio source to Daily Beast
• “J.D. Vance is laying very low. We really have not seen him. No major campaign events, no TV ads, and it turns out he’s not raising that much money…” –Mike Thompson, Host of Columbus On The Record
• “But members of his [Vance’s] own party have become increasingly concerned that he’s not campaigning hard enough, while his opponent – U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan – dominates the airwaves and holds events across the state.” -Cincinnati Enquirer’s Haley BeMiller
• “Vance has not returned calls for comment. In fact, Vance isn’t speaking out in public forums in Ohio much these days.” –Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles

Here’s some brutal headlines Vance has faced just this week:

• Vice: JD Vance Suggests People in ‘Violent’ Marriages Shouldn’t Get Divorced
• CNN: Ohio GOP Senate candidate argues ‘violent’, ‘unhappy’ marriages shouldn’t end in divorce
• WKRC: Video of Vance shows him making argument unhappy, even violent, marriages shouldn’t end
• Vanity Fair: GOP Senate Candidate J.D. Vance: If People Love Their Kids, They’ll Stay in Violent Marriages
• WCPO: J.D. Vance denies supporting abusive marriages after viral comments
• HuffPost: J.D. Vance: People Should Stay In ‘Violent’ Marriages For The Sake Of The Kids
• People Magazine: Ohio Senate Candidate J.D. Vance Explains Comments About People Staying in Unhappy, ‘Even Violent’ Marriages
• The Independent: JD Vance suggested women in violent relationships should not get divorced for the sake of children
• Newsweek: J.D. Vance Slammed for Suggesting Women Stay in Violent Marriages
• Statehouse News Bureau: Black Ohio Democratic lawmakers criticize Vance over comments about abortion
• Ohio Capital Journal: Black state lawmakers take aim at Vance over comments likening abortion to slavery
• The Root: J.D. Vance Compares Slavery to Abortion
• Daily Beast: Inside the GOP Freakout Over J.D. Vance’s Senate Campaign
• Cincinnati.com: Ohio Senate race: JD Vance critics say he’s not campaigning enough
• Ohio Capital Journal: Vance would vote against codifying right to marriage for same-sex couples

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No Wonder J.D. Vance’s Sham Non-Profit Paid Jai Chabria The Big Bucks

Columbus, OH – Despite doubling down on his horrific belief that women should stay in “violent” marriages, J.D. Vance knows his comments are indefensible, which is why he sent a grifter from his sham opioid non-profit to do cleanup duty on Cleveland TV yesterday.

Yesterday morning, J.D. Vance went on the Brandon Boxer Show and said (at 10:11), “And I think it’s disgusting for him to use this smear against me that the point I made is a very simple point, and I completely stand by it. Divorce, I think that our society’s approach to divorce has not been good for kids…That the whole point was the progressives say that we have the divorce because of domestic violence. And my point is, domestic violence is way worse outside of marriages than it is within marriage.” (FALSE.)

Later in the day, rather than take another opportunity to dig his hole even deeper, Vance chose to hide from News 5 Cleveland’s Morgan Trau, sending out campaign adviser Jai Chabria to do cleanup duty in his place. In Chabria’s appearance, he claimed that the media have twisted Vance’s words (despite Vance’s comments being published in full), which contradicts what Vance said hours before that he “completely stand(s) by” his dangerous remarks.

Chabria’s appearance is also a reminder of the unresolved questions that continue to dog Vance surrounding his sham non-profit, which Vance said was meant to help combat the opioid crisis but which only ever served to promote Vance himself. Chabria received over $60,000 in payments in the first year after the organization was founded, far and away the single biggest line item and much more than it ever spent on programs to fight the opioid epidemic. Chabria has also refused to answer whether Vance used his non-profit to conduct political polling – after reporting revealed that around the same time Vance had “commissioned a poll testing his viability in the Republican primaries for governor and Senate.”

It’s no wonder Chabria gets paid the big bucks – he’s lied and grifted alongside Vance for years.

“J.D. Vance can’t defend his comments that women in violent marriages should put themselves in danger, so he hid behind a political crony who used Ohio’s opioid epidemic to enrich himself instead. J.D. Vance is no better than the company he keeps, and he should be ashamed of himself for sending in a fraudulent grifter to speak on his behalf instead of explaining to Ohioans why he thinks women should stay in ‘violent’ marriages,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

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Columbus, OH — Today, Cleveland.com broke a report that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat Fischer made comments comparing abortion to slavery earlier this month at the Delaware City Republican Club. Fischer’s remarks come after J.D. Vance also compared abortion to slavery following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe in what’s become a disgusting pattern for Republicans.

“Critics are blasting Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick Fischer, a Republican seeking reelection, for comparing abortion to slavery and segregation in recent remarks before a group of Republicans outside Columbus. Fischer spoke at the Delaware City Republican Club on July 14 in which he compared Roe v. Wade to a pair of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that upheld slavery and segregation,” writes Laura Hancock for Cleveland.com.

Fischer also made comments about Roe and offered his thoughts on the case, raising ethical questions since Fischer would likely hear abortion cases if he would be reelected to the bench.

“Justice Fischer’s comments were nothing short of disgusting, and he – like J.D. Vance – should apologize immediately. With his remarks, Justice Fischer demonstrated just how extreme and out-of-touch the Court will become if the Republicans running are reelected. Ohioans are once again reminded that the stakes of November’s elections couldn’t be higher,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Read more here and below:

• Critics are blasting Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick Fischer, a Republican seeking reelection, for comparing abortion to slavery and segregation in recent remarks before a group of Republicans outside Columbus.
• Fischer spoke at the Delaware City Republican Club on July 14 in which he compared Roe v. Wade to a pair of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that upheld slavery and segregation.
• “Ladies and gentlemen, do you know what substantive due process is? It would take me hours to go into it,” he said. “But you know what it’s the basis for? The Dred Scott decision. Not good. It’s the basis for Plessy v. Ferguson. Not good. And it was the basis for Roe v. Wade.”
• In Ohio, J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, told the Catholic Current that abortion and slavery were comparable, “and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society.”
• By the end of the year, the Ohio General Assembly and Gov. Mike DeWine are expected to push forward a bill generally outlawing abortion in most cases in the state. Fischer’s remarks were in response to an audience member at the Delaware City Republican Club, who asked if abortion rights will be determined by the Ohio Supreme Court next year.
• Fischer noted that the state’s judicial conduct rules prevent him from talking directly about cases. The Ohio Supreme Court has an abortion case before it, with abortion rights groups asking the court to overturn the so-called fetal “heartbeat” bill.
• However, Fischer did share some thoughts, explaining that when he was dating his wife 38 years ago, he felt the same way: that the legal argument behind Roe v. Wade, known as substantive due process, was weak.
• “But I told her that if you ever got enough people with guts, that would theoretically — on a theory, on a legal theoretical basis — easily (be) overturned,” said Fischer, who graduated from Harvard Law School with honors.
• “I think it’s troubling that there’s this comparison to a fetus,” she said. “People who were enslaved were actual living, breathing individuals, fully developed and able to make decisions for themselves and were denied the rights to have personal autonomy and self-determination… It infantilizes Black people in an inappropriate and disrespectful way.”
• The Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct cautions judges about making pledges, promises and commitments, since there’s “the overarching judicial obligation to apply and uphold the law without regard to his or her personal views.”

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Columbus, OH — This week, at the Ohio State Fair, Mike DeWine made a bold prediction: “We’re not going to have any kind of change in contraception law. We’re not going to have any kind of change in regard to marriage, for heaven’s sake. It’s not going to happen.”

Anyone who has been paying attention to DeWine’s term as governor, however, knows that he’s not the guy running the show, extremists in the legislature are. So it’s very likely that DeWine sees a bill on his desk that would ban contraceptives or ban same-sex marriage. In fact, Republican Gary Click has already introduced legislation that would likely ban certain kinds of birth control.

And the question that Mike DeWine needs to answer right now is: will he veto any bill that bans contraception or same-sex marriage? 

“Mike DeWine’s legislative record has more caves than an Ohio State Park. So, it’s time for DeWine to make it clear to Ohioans right now: will he veto any bill that bans contraceptives or same-sex marriage? Any answer short of a promise to veto those bills is a signal to Ohioans that DeWine he’s willing to sign away their rights if he’s reelected in November,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

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Vance: “And My Point Is, Domestic Violence Is Way Worse Outside Of Marriages Than It Is Within Marriage.”

Columbus, OH – In an interview on WTVN this morning, J.D. Vance doubled down and said that he “completely stands by” his comments that spouses in violent marriages should not get divorced. 

On the Brandon Boxer Show, Vance said (at 10:11), “And I think it’s disgusting for him to use this smear against me that the point I made is a very simple point, and I completely stand by it. Divorce, I think that our society’s approach to divorce has not been good for kids…That the whole point was the progressives say that we have the divorce because of domestic violence. And my point is, domestic violence is way worse outside of marriages than it is within marriage.” 

Vance is still facing the fallout this week for suggesting that spouses in violent marriages should stay in those marriages for the sake of the children. Vance also claimed that divorce makes it easier for people to “shift spouses like they change their underwear.” When VICE News asked Vance to clarify if “he thinks people in violent marriages should generally stay together or get divorced,” the campaign refused to do so and said that they felt Vance already answered the question. 

This comes after J.D. Vance cheered on the largest rollback of women’s rights in half a century, called rape “inconvenient,” and compared abortion to slavery. Vance is making it clear to Ohio women that he is dangerous and does not care about their well-being.  

“J.D. Vance is doubling down on his disgusting comments that women should put themselves in danger to stay in violent marriages. J.D. Vance is a disgrace, a danger to women everywhere, and has disqualified himself,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

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