OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The crucial U.S. Senate race in Ohio has been called.
Republican candidate J.D. Vance defeated Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan in the battleground state to fill outgoing GOP Sen. Rob Portman’s seat. Vance won with 53% of the vote, while Ryan had 47%.
“We just got a great chance to govern, and we need to use it,” Vance told his supporters Tuesday night after Ryan called him to concede. “I promise to all of my friends who are going to be at the Statehouse, to all of my friends who are going to be at the State Capitol, we need better leadership in Washington, D.C. And that’s exactly what I promised: To fight for you every single day. Whether you voted for me or not, the thing that I promise to do is go to the United State Senate and fight every single day for the people of Ohio. Thanks to you, we get the opportunity to do just that.”
Vance also evoked the memory of his “Mamaw” in his speech after the race was called.
“She was a proud product of working people. She believed in the American Dream, she believed in the promise of this country,” he said. “And I guess my simple promise to you, to everybody here — you’re not going to always agree with every single vote I take, you’re not going to agree with every single amendment that I offer in the United States Senate — but I will never forget the woman who raised me, I will never forget where I came from and I will never forget the great people of Ohio.”
BREAKING NEWS: The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that Republican candidate and author JD Vance will defeat Democratic U.S. House Rep. Tim Ryan in the Ohio Senate race. https://t.co/sVPZeebH7i pic.twitter.com/znmix9oHw3
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 9, 2022
Trump recently held a rally in Ohio with Vance and called him a “MAGA all-star,” adding: “JD will fight for Ohio with every bone in his body. JD knows how important it is to have leaders that put America first, put Ohio first.”
“Tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, is a referendum on Joe Biden’s failed policies and the fact that Tim Ryan is a rubber stamp for the failed Joe Biden agenda for this country and for the state of Ohio,” Vance told a crowd in Dayton.
Vance recently went viral for slamming Ryan for his positions on lockdowns.
VANCE: “There are a lot of issues, but most recently there was something that happened in this country that required courage and it required leadership, and that was when Joe Biden and Tim Ryan said that in order to work, in order to earn a living, in order to put bread on the dinner table of your children, you had to get big pharma’s vaccine. Now, ladies and gentlemen, that was disgusting and it was wrong.
(Audience booing)
I don’t care what your politics, I don’t care what your issues, nobody should have to put something in their body on a condition of providing for their own children.
(Cheering and Applause)
But where, ladies and gentlemen, where was Tim Ryan when workers were begging the government to stop enforcing this vaccine? Where was Tim Ryan when the workers of Youngstown were saying, ‘Don’t make us get this shot in order to provide for our families?’ Tim Ryan was kissing up to Nancy Pelosi and doing what he always does, bending the knee to the Washington Democrats, not standing up for the people in Youngstown, Ohio. We’ve got to change that.
(Cheering and Applause)
And, ladies and gentlemen, we will. We are going to take back the Senate, we’re going to take back the Congress. We are going to start changing the problems in this country.
(Cheering and Applause)
Because like I said, we do not have to live like this. We do not have to let the Chinese steel our manufacturing base. We do not let — have to let the pharmaceutical industry force a product on us in order for us to get a job. We do not have to throw open the southern border, killing tens of thousands of Ohioans with the poison that the cartels are bringing across. We can go in a different direction and, ladies and gentlemen, come this November, thanks to all of you, we will! God bless you!”
(Cheering and Applause)
WATCH:
