J.D. Vance went on the road for the first stops of his ‘No BS Town Hall Tour’ on Thursday, taking questions in Toledo from a crowd at Maumee Bay Brewing Co.
Mr. Vance, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, who is also an author and venture capitalist, provided his views on a number of issues and explained where he stands in the current state of the race and the country.
His father, Don Bowman, introduced him to an audience of about 30 people and spoke about his son’s relationship with former President Donald Trump.
“He told me a story of how he went to have a meeting with Donald Trump,” Mr. Bowman said about his son. “And he told him he wasn’t coming there asking for his endorsement, but he wanted to earn his endorsement.”
Mr. Vance has been the target of several political ads pointing out his past criticisms of Mr. Trump. His father was one influence that helped him change his views on the former president.
“He was very early to the Trump train,” Mr. Vance said of his father. “If you’ve heard any of the $4 million in negative advertisements against me, you know that I was a little later to the Trump train.”
Mr. Vance sounded off and took aim at national media outlets, coronavirus lockdowns, and the politicians in Washington that he feels are corrupt.
Among those in the audience was Colin Flanagan, a Democrat and recent Ohio State graduate who recently announced a statehouse run. He told Mr. Vance that he thinks that they “see the country similarly” and asked him about how to retain Ohio’s youth, to which Mr. Vance replied by explaining why he ultimately returned to the state.
“I launched a business here, I think that business has done very well,” Mr. Vance said. “But mainly, I want my kids to grow up around the people who made me who I was. You’re not going to get that in a place like California...New York.”
The conversation shifted to bipartisanship and how to pass good legislation in Congress.
He pointed out an effort that’s currently being made in Congress to prevent elected officials from trading stocks. Mr. Vance said that he would be a supporter of such a bill, if elected.
This week, two Senators introduced bills to address the issue of stock trading; Georgia Democrat John Ossoff and Republican Josh Hawley, who has endorsed Mr. Vance.
“The leadership doesn’t like it, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t like it, the leadership of the Republicans don’t like that bill either,” Mr. Vance said. “So we need to get enough good people so we can get things done for the people, even when leadership says they don’t want it to happen.”
Mr. Vance will face a crowded field of GOP candidates looking to replace U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. Other candidates for the May 3 primary include former State Treasurer Josh Mandel, former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken, businessmen Bernie Moreno and Mike Gibbons, and State Sen. Matt Dolan.
Recent polling from December and January have put Mr. Vance as high as second and as low as fourth, but he’s not concerned about what he’s seen on the ground. Mr. Mandel has consistently been the highest polling candidate, between 21 and 26 percent in various polls.
“We’re doing great. The only independent poll that’s been done, which was done after the attack ads came out against me, shows us in second place,” Mr. Vance said. “That’s against a candidate who has run statewide many times and I’ve never run statewide.”
Mr. Vance was making reference to the December Trafalgar poll, which put him at 14.9 percent and Mr. Mandel at 21.4 percent, with more than 34 percent of voters still undecided.
His current campaign tour consists of 14 scheduled stops over the course of six days. According to his campaign, he has visited more than 60 of Ohio’s 88 counties since announcing his Senate run in July, 2021.
First Published January 14, 2022, 2:42 a.m.
