Cleveland.com: J.D. Vance Money, Poll Woes
August 1, 2022
Columbus, OH – A new Cleveland.com cartoon from Jeff Darcy tears into “more recently a San Francisco, California transplant” J.D. Vance for his “nearly broke” campaign and his comments that women should stay in “violent” marriages for the sake of the kids — “lumping Vance in with other struggling, underperforming GOP candidates” like Herschel Walker and Dr. Oz “as reasons Democrats have good chance of not only retaining the Senate, but may expand their margin.”
Cleveland.com: J.D. Vance money, poll woes: Darcy cartoons – Cleveland.com
Jeff Darcy
July 31, 2022
- Wouldn’t be surprised if J.D. Vance played Friday’s Mega Lotto billion dollar draw. Last quarter fundraising and news reports showed his campaign is nearly broke and in dire need of a Mega Lotto jackpot win or second bailout from California Mega donor Peter Thiel.
- “The J.D. Vance campaign is broke” -The Daily Beast.
- “His campaign is totally broke” – Gabby Orr, CNN
- “JD Vance May Need Another Peter Thiel Bailout” – Bloomberg
- Peter Thiel is a billionaire tech entrepreneur, co-founder of PayPal. During the primary, Thiel had given the Vance campaign $10 million. He was also an original investor in the venture capital fund managed by Vance, Narya.
- Since then, venture capital fund manager and Senator wannabe Vance has struggled to generate the smaller bread and butter campaign contributions. At one point he had to provide his campaign with a personal bridge loan of up to $700,000.
- “Vance showing some low fundraising numbers” – Jonathan Lemire, Politico, MSNBC
- Last quarter fundraising reports show Vance’s campaign spent more than it took in. He’s down in the polls too, at best Vance is tied with Rep. Tim Ryan in now red state Ohio.
- National news reports are routinely lumping Vance in with other struggling, underperforming GOP candidates endorsed by Donald Trump, primarily Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania/N.J. and Herschel Walker in Georgia.
- Contributing to Vance being lumped in with Oz and Walker, was coverage of Vance having said that even violent marriages should be maintained because marriage is “sacred” and for the sake of the kids. Vance had made the comment in September during a presentation at a California Christian high school.
- Although an Ohio native, who recounted his upbringing in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy”, Vance is more recently a San Francisco, California transplant.
- The Vance, Oz and Walker races are pointed too as reasons Democrats have good chance of not only retaining the Senate, but may expand their margin so they no longer have to kowtow to Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.
- Rep. Ryan’s series of TV ads have been so well done and effective, some Ohio voters mistakenly have thought he’s a Republican. Apparently believing he’s a primary opponent of Vance, who won the brutal Republican primary with the late endorsement of Trump after running in 3rd/4th place behind Josh Mandel, Mike Gibbons and Matt Dolan.
- Vance’s fundraising problems may explain why his campaign has been generally silent, especially in response to Ryan’s damaging ad offensive.
- Along with Republican strategists, Ohio and national political analyst continue to underestimate Ryan and misread Ohio voters, in large part because the state elected Republican Governor Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican General Assembly leadership, Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Rob Portman, whose seat Vance and Ryan now seek. They’ve continually overlooked that the same state elected and re-elected Sherrod Brown to the U.S. Senate.
- Before being elected to the U..S. Senate, Ohio elected Brown to state offices and the U.S. House for decades. Brown has long been far more liberal than Ryan. Ryan got his political start working for the late Rep. Jim Traficant, who was Ohio’s original cartoonish Congressman before Jordan.
- As Ryan’s demonstrating, Traficant also had crossover appeal to Republicans. Regardless of their being either liberal, center or center-right on the Democratic spectrum, Brown, Ryan and Trafficant all shared an ability to speak for working class and rural Ohioans.
- Fortunately for Vance, Ryan is not a Tuesday primary opponent of his, otherwise on Wednesday, not November, Vance could begin writing his “Hillbilly Campaign Eulogy.”
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