Another Trump-backed candidate just won his election, putting an ally of the MAGA movement in the legislature.
That would be Ohio’s JD Vance the author of Hillbilly Elegy and a New Right Republican candidate, who dominated, winning 53.6 percent of the vote (with about 94 percent of votes counted).
The Associated Press, reporting on the Ohio election, called the race for Vance. His Democratic opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan, won only 46.3% of the vote.
Vance, speaking to his supporters about the victory, said:
“We won a very good victory, and I’m very proud of it. If you’re watching on TV, whether you voted for me or not, the thing that I promise you is to go to the United States Senate and fight every single day for the people of Ohio.”
Democrat Candidate Tim Ryan conceded with grace (though not without more than a bit of ego shining through), saying:
“I have the privilege to concede this race to JD Vance. Because the way this operates is that when you lose an election, you concede, and you respect the will of the people, right? We can’t have a system where if you win it’s a legitimate election, and if you lose someone’s stole it.”
The Guardian, commenting on Vance’s victory, said:
In the end, Vance may have been saved by widespread disillusionment in Ohio, as elsewhere, over the state of the economy and polls showing that a majority of voters believe Joe Biden’s policies are making the problem worse.
Trump endorsed Vance both in a statement and in a speech. In a speech he gave in April of 2022, Trump sided with then-candidate Vance, saying:
“He’s a guy that said some bad s–t about me. He did.But you know what? Every one of the others did also. In fact, if I went by that standard, I probably never would have endorsed anyone in the country. They all said back, but they came back.
“But I have to do what I have to do. We have to pick somebody that can win.”
Later in the speech, Trump echoed that same point about having to pick someone who could win again, saying:
“I like a lot of the other people in the race, but we have to pick the one that’s going to win. This guy is tough as hell. He’s going to win. We have to pick him. He’s right. He’s the guy. He’s the guy.”
And he picked well, as Vance just won.
Trump made a similar point about Vance in his “Save America” statement of support for him, saying:
“Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades. He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race.”
“I’ve studied this race closely and I think J.D. is the most likely to take out the weak, but dangerous, Democrat opponent.”
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