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ICYMI: The Vindicator: Dems Buy Former Vance Website, Now Criticizes Senate Candidate

August 24, 2022

Columbus, OH – A new report from The Vindicator/Tribune Chronicle highlights the Ohio Democratic Party’s takeover of the now-defunct website for J.D. Vance’s sham non-profit, Our Ohio Renewal. The newly relaunched OurOhioRenewal.com redirects to OurOhioRipoff.com, which spotlights how Vance’s sham non-profit helped Vance and his political allies, while bringing in a puppet of Purdue Pharma, who pushed biased science that Purdue used to deflect responsibility for its role in the deadly opioid epidemic that has ravaged Ohio. 

Here’s what they’re reading in the Mahoning Valley today: 

The Vindicator: Dems buy former Vance website, now criticizes Senate candidate
David Skolnick
August 24, 2022

  • The Ohio Democratic Party bought the web domain address of the defunct nonprofit founded by J.D. Vance to fight the opioid epidemic and turned it into a parody account critical of the Republican Senate nominee.

  • OurOhioRenewal.com now directs people to OurOhioRipoff.com, which highlights shortcomings of Vance and the former nonprofit.

  • “With a few quick keystrokes, Ohioans can now learn the truth about J.D. Vance and his sham organization,” Michael Beyer, an ODP spokesman, said. “Instead of taking meaningful steps to address the opioid epidemic, Vance recruited a Purdue Pharma puppet who echoed their lies and deflected blame from the damage they caused.”

  • Beyer added: “If it wasn’t already clear, this is just one more way that Vance continues to prove himself a fraud who won’t hesitate to sell out Ohioans in order to further his own ambition.”

  • In a July 27 interview with the Scioto Valley Guardian, Vance said of the organization: “I do think we did some good. We provided some treatment to people that otherwise didn’t have it, But also, you know, running a nonprofit is a lot of work. And the guy that we actually tapped to run it, unfortunately, got stage four cancer. He’s doing fine now.”

  • He added: “It was something that we tried. I’m proud that we tried it, but it wasn’t ultimately very successful.”

  • Vance is facing U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, the Democratic nominee, in the Nov. 8 general election for an open seat. Most polls show the race as a statistical dead heat.

  • The Associated Press recently reported Vance’s shuttered nonprofit’s “most notable accomplishment — sending an addiction specialist to Ohio’s Appalachian region for a yearlong residency — was tainted by ties among the doctor, the institute that employed her and Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin.”

  • The report added: “The mothballing of Our Ohio Renewal and its dearth of tangible success raise questions about Vance’s management of the organization. His decision to bring on Dr. Sally Satel is drawing particular scrutiny.”

  • The report states Satel questioned the role of prescription painkillers in the opioid epidemic and that she sometimes cited Purdue-funded studies and doctors in articles she wrote.

  • Satel is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, which received about $800,000 from Purdue, according to a 2019 ProPublica article. Satel told the AP that she never consulted with or took money from Purdue and wasn’t aware of the contributions to AEI.

  • Vance has said in the past that his organization fell short of his goals. Vance rose to fame writing “Hillbilly Elegy,” a book that included his mother’s addiction to OxyContin and heroin and the impact those drugs have on people in Appalachia.

  • Vance’s old website touted Our Ohio Renewal as “dedicated to promoting the ideas and addressing the problems identified in” the book.

  • The ODP’s Vance website also cites a Business Insider article that states the nonprofit, created in 2017, spent no money on programs to fight the opioid epidemic and that 96.4 percent of its funding went to staff salaries and overhead in its first year.

  • The report also states Jai Chabria, who was the organization’s top officer and is now Vance’s senior campaign adviser, made more in management fees than Our Ohio Renewal spent in programming.

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