WVXU’s Howard Wilkinson: J.D. Vance Will “Own” Saying Women Should Stay In Violent Marriages
August 11, 2022
“There is no question that J.D. Vance…currently has a problem with women voters.”
Columbus, OH – WVXU political analyst Howard Wilkinson is the latest to note that J.D. Vance has a “problem with women voters” that stems from Vance’s own doing – calling rape “inconvenient,” saying that women should stay in “violent” marriages and comparing abortion to slavery.
Read more below:
WVXU: Analysis: J.D. Vance ‘rejects’ idea that he believes women should stay in abusive marriages
Howard Wilkinson
August 10, 2022
- There is no question that J.D. Vance, the Middletown native and Republican candidate for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat, currently has a problem with women voters.
- …women voters, domestic violence advocates and supporters of his Democratic opponent, Congressman Tim Ryan, have been flooding social media for the past two weeks over a video clip from last September of Vance speaking at a California high school where they say he said women should stay in abusive, violent marriages.
- It was released by Vice News, along with a story saying Vance believes women should stay in such marriages for the sake of the children.
- Lydia Strauss of Columbus, who has worked with domestic violence victims for more than two decades, accused Vance of spreading dangerous rhetoric.
- “Vance thinks we should stay in violent marriages, he wants to make abortion illegal nationally, he called rape ‘inconvenient’ and even compared abortion to slavery,” Strauss said.
- Many women voters — particularly suburban women voters who could end up deciding this race — don’t trust Vance for a number of reasons, including his support for Donald Trump, whose endorsement probably won the GOP primary for him; his strong anti-abortion views, and now, the California comments on domestic violence.
- So, what exactly did Vance say at this high school in California last fall that has created such a firestorm? Here it is, word for word:
- “This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, ‘Well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term. Maybe it works out for the moms and dads. But it didn’t really work out for the kids of those marriages.”
- The issue of violent marriages is not going to go away for Vance anytime soon.
- Some people believe that the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) did a pre-emptive strike this week with a $1 million ad buy in major Ohio media market for a 30-second spot in which Vance’s wife, Usha, does all the talking.
- David Niven, associate professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati, said the ad has a “cookie cutter” quality to it and is a “classic soft biographical ad narrated by someone in the candidate’s life who is more likeable than the candidate himself.”
- “I think the ad reflects the dawning awareness of Republicans that very few Ohioans know much about J.D. Vance; and many of those who do know him don’t much like him,” Niven said. “And certainly the party is facing a continued erosion of support among women.”
- But many voters — particularly women voters — are going to find it difficult, if not impossible, to get over the hump of his off-hand remarks in a California high school last fall. Sweet images of him playing with one of his kids may not cut it.
- J.D. Vance is going to own those remarks from now through Nov. 8. They will not go away.
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