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Columbus, OH —  Ahead of Trump’s rally in Delaware, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters and Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga highlighted how his involvement is sowing even more chaos in this nasty and crowded primary. Trump’s last-minute endorsement of J.D. Vance has spurred more infighting that will only escalate in the weeks before the primary. 

Read excerpts of the prepared remarks below and hear audio of the press conference here:

• Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters: “It was already a race to the bottom and Trump’s visit will make it a photo finish to the gutter for this nasty, chaotic and expensive primary…Trump’s visit won’t unite the party. It will only exacerbate the chaos in the Senate and gubernatorial races by reminding GOP primary voters of the feud between the former president and Governor DeWine.”
• Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga: “Donald Trump waited until the last minute to endorse because he doesn’t want to back a losing horse, but if any of these candidates were to become our next senator, the people with the most to lose are hardworking Ohioans. And while the out-of-touch GOP millionaires duke it out in their nasty primary, they aren’t spending any time talking about the issues working families care about like raising wages and lowering everyday costs.” 

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Delaware, OH — Following Donald Trump’s rally tonight, Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Michael Beyer released the following statement:

“After his visit already kicked off another round of vicious infighting, Trump’s rally will only intensify this chaotic race and make it a sprint to the sewer. Trump’s priorities were clear tonight – spending more time furthering his own 2024 ambitions than focusing on his lackluster, phony endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate in 2022.”

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Columbus, OH — As a Senate candidate, Silicon Valley J.D. Vance has decried companies that use H-1B visas, but as a venture capitalist, he invested heavily in them. It’s a mode of operating that’s all too familiar for Vance, whose signature move is to say one thing and do the opposite.  

The issue could produce tension between Vance and Trump, who promised to end the program and tightened H-1B visas while in office, and is hosting a rally tomorrow here in Delaware. 

“Silicon Valley Vance made a fortune investing in corporations that undercut Ohio workers and as soon as he became a Senate candidate, changed his tune to further his own ambition,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Axios: J.D. Vance’s investments made use of H-1B visas he opposes

Sophia Cai and Dan Primack

April 22, 2022 

• J.D. Vance has spoken out strongly against H-1B visas as a Senate candidate in Ohio, but his history as a venture capitalist tells a different story.
• Around three dozen companies in which Vance-affiliated funds invested, and in which he still has economic interests, have applied for the visas, which often are used by American tech companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers.
• Why it matters: Vance and former President Trump are slated to appear together tomorrow night at a rally in Ohio, where H-1B visas are often used as rhetorical punching bags by candidates seeking to appeal to blue-collar workers.
• Trump tightened H-1B visa eligibility while in office, after having pledged to “end forever” the program on the campaign trail. His recent endorsement of Vance has been controversial among Republicans in Ohio, where Democrats hope to flip a seat in November.
• Background: Vance, who got his start in venture capital with Peter Thiel, in 2017 joined Steve Case’s Revolution to invest in Midwestern startups. Two years later he left Revolution to co-found his own firm in Ohio, called Narya.
• What we’re watching: Thirty-eight companies that received investment from Revolution’s first Rise of the Rest fund and/or Narya have applied for H-1B visas, according to Senate financial disclosures and the Department of Homeland Security database. Among them:
• StockX, a Detroit-based online sneaker marketplace, filed 31 petitions for H1-B visas between 2019 and 2022, for both initial and continuing employment.
• FiscalNote, which owns CQ Roll Call, filed 15 petitions between 2015 and 2021.
• AppHarvest, an indoor tomato grower in Kentucky that’s now publicly traded, filed five petitions in 2021 and 2022. Vance was on AppHarvest’s board of directors until April 2021.
• At a campaign stop in Dayton, Ohio in January, Vance called the H-1B visa “an unholy alliance between government and our biggest corporations.”
• The bottom line: Politicians with professional investing backgrounds often find their rhetoric coming into conflict with their résumé.

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April 22, 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. 

As the Republican Senate primary continues to sink lower and lower, 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.

‘’Go f**k yourself’: Trump and Don Jr. war with top GOP donor who bought ads opposing his candidate” –Salon headline, 4/22/22

There was a lot of chaos this week, so here’s what you may have missed:

TOTAL WAR. Since Trump’s endorsement, Don Jr. has adopted J.D. Vance’s feuds as his own. At a candidate forum last year, Vance called the pro-Mandel Club For Growth the “Club for Chinese Growth” after the group spent heavily airing Vance’s anti-Trump comments. Now that Trump has endorsed Vance, Trump expected Club for Growth to fall in line. Club for Growth didn’t do any such thing – instead they doubled down on their support for Mandel, and began re-airing the ad Trump asked them to take off the air last year. A spokesperson for the group said they were increasing their buy against Vance. Trump responded, having his assistant text David McIntosh, the president of Club, telling him to “go f**k yourself.” According to a source, Don Jr. then threatened McIntosh, saying he is considering opposing all candidates newly endorsed by the Club for Growth unless they pull the anti-Vance ads and remove McIntosh from the board. It all starts in Ohio, but the nasty infighting here could have nationwide consequences. A Vance ally summed it up nicely: “It’s total war.”

BETRAYAL. The fallout doesn’t stop there, though. Half of the 2016 Trump RNC delegates from Ohio wrote a letter to Trump asking him to reconsider his endorsement of J.D. Vance, warning, “JD Vance has not developed relationships with Republican voters and grassroots leaders that are crucial to win. This endorsement of JD Vance is a betrayal to not only your Ohio supporters but Trump supporters across our great nation!” According to Fox News, the letter is signed by 33 of the total 66 delegates that were designated to represent Trump at the 2016 RNC if he won the Ohio primary. Hard to unite the party when half of your national delegates are jumping ship before the primary! 

RILED UP. The other candidates responded to Trump’s endorsement of Vance – and it has not gone well. Weathervane Jane Timken said, “It has riled up the base. They are not happy. My voters are sticking with me.” Mike Gibbons told NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard that he thinks Trump made a mistake and that “I don’t think JD is qualified as a conservative.” At a campaign event yesterday with insurrectionist Michael Flynn, Josh Mandel mentioned “never Trumpers” in the Republican Party while avoiding mentioning any of his opponents by name. Then someone in the crowd yelled Vance’s name and Mandel felt compelled to repeat it – attacking J.D. Vance as a Never Trumper. It’s hard to put down the knives when you’ve been using them for so long! 

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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For Immediate Release:
Friday, April 22, 2022
CONTACT: Cameron Keir, [email protected], 614-506-5413

ICYMI: Columbus Dispatch Opinion: “Ohio Republicans Rather You Focus on ‘Kids With 2 Dads’ Than Mountain of Scandals”

“The GOP does not want Ohioans to think about House Bill 6 as they enter the voting booth.”

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, a Columbus Dispatch opinion column eviscerated Republicans over their attempts to hide corruption behind shameful, hateful legislation ahead of the primary. Ohio activist Kenyon Farrow called out Republican leaders for the introduction of divisive bills meant to distract Ohioans from the ongoing corruption at Mike DeWine’s statehouse. The same corruption that’s costing hard-working Ohioans billions of dollars each year.

“The GOP is selling the most cynical agenda, scapegoating teachers trying to make sure students are academically and socially prepared to live in a world with other people who may in fact be different from themselves, instead of dealing with the mess they’ve left the state after years of supermajorities that they created and are desperate to perpetuate for their own greed and power,” writes Kenyon Farrow.

Read more on how Republicans are attempting to hide the skyrocketing costs of their corruption here and below:

• At this point most people are familiar with House Bill 616, which some have nicknamed Ohio’s “Don’t Say Gay.”
• The bill would ban “any curriculum or instructional materials on sexual orientation or gender identity” and “divisive or inherently racist concepts and any other concept that the state board of education defines as divisive or inherently racist.”
• In addition to being a cheap and cynical political ploy to scapegoat the LGBTQ and Black and brown people who’ve fought for education curricula to represent the full experiences of people in the U.S. and in Ohio, these bills are really a way to keep the total and utter ubiquity of scandals the Republican legislators are facing out of the minds of Ohioans when they go to the polls this year.
• The GOP does not want Ohioans to think about House Bill 6 as they enter the voting booth.
• Passed in 2019, the bill was a $1.3 billion bailout for two nuclear plants and two coal plants—one of which is not even in the state of Ohio—as ostensibly a favor to First Energy, who stood to make $170 million annually as a result (this isn’t counting the $61 million in bribes that were used to push the bill through).
• As of now, five people — former House Speaker Larry Householder of Glenford included — have been arrested.
• Sam Randazzo, who Gov. Mike DeWine’s appointed Ohio Public Utilities Commission chair, was paid $4 million  from FirstEnergy.  Questions still remain as to what point DeWine knew about the alleged bribe being paid.
• Instead of talking about this, we’re spending time talking about whether kids should learn one of their classmates may have two moms or dads.
• But there is much worse.
• In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Ohioans were dying by the dozens per day and millions were out of work due to stay at home orders, the lack of legislative approved funding for basic internet security and technology upgrades allowed for scammers to file fraudulent claims, costing the state $3.8 billion, and costing hunger and hardship to everyday Ohioans who were out of work and not able to meet their own basic needs.
• Ohio Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran, who owned stock in United Healthcare gave their Ohio subsidiary (United Healthcare Community Plan of Ohio) the state contract to manage the state’s Medicaid program, even while they’ve been ranked almost dead-last on federal oversight reports and denying the contract of a company that ranked near the top.
• In essence, Corcoran handed $1.2 billion in 2019 alone in funds paid for by Ohioans through taxes to a company ranked low in its transparency and oversight.
• Wait—there’s even more.
• The Ohio Redistricting Commission, which is dominated by five Republicans, refused to sit down and create a transparent and open process for setting new maps to not break communities up and create oddly carved out districts merely to benefit one part or another.
• They would not meet with the two Democrats on the commission and over and over, submitted maps that violated the spirit of the law and gave Ohio voters a big middle finger by creating maps that were heavily partisan.
• The chaos is leading two primary elections instead of one. The mess will cost Ohioans millions.
• These are the issues the Republicans don’t want on the minds of Ohioans when they go vote this year.
• The GOP is selling the most cynical agenda, scapegoating teachers trying to make sure students are academically and socially prepared to live in a world with other people who may in fact be different from themselves, instead of dealing with the mess they’ve left the state after years of supermajorities that they created and are desperate to perpetuate for their own greed and power.

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