Republican JD Vance, who has asserted that the 2020 presidential race was stolen from Donald Trump, said he trusts the integrity of Ohio elections and he’d accept the results if he loses the U.S. Senate race in the state to his Democratic opponent, Representative Tim Ryan.
“I expect to win,” Vance, who’s been endorsed by Trump, said at a Fox News town hall in Columbus on Tuesday. “But, of course, if things don’t go the way that I expect, I’ll support the guy who wins and I’ll try to be as as supportive as I possibly can.”
Supporters of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen are running for key state and federal offices, in some cases pledging to take action against future results that don’t go their way.
Vance, a venture capitalist and the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” also said he agreed with Democrats that Medicare should be able to negotiate prescription drug prices. He said Democrats should be able to work with Republicans if the GOP takes control of Congress in the midterm elections, as he expects, on securing the southern US border and expanding energy production.
Vance and Ryan are locked in an unexpectedly competitive race in Ohio to replace retiring Senator Rob Portman, a Republican.
Republicans had thought the seat would safe for the party in a state that Trump easily won twice in a challenging election year for Democrats, but Ryan has out-raised and outspent Vance running a campaign to woo moderates and independents.
“We’ve got to stop these stupid fights,” Ryan, who took questions separately from Vance, said during his portion of the town hall. “Some of the answers are going to be conservative. Some of the answers may be a little more investment and progressive, but we’re never going to know if we don’t talk to each other.”
Ryan admitted in response to a question that the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ climate and health measure passed earlier this year, won’t help with high inflation and gasoline prices in the short term. But he said provisions in the bill supporting natural gas will help in the long run and that he’s pushing for a middle-class tax cut.
He also criticized Vance for not condemning the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as part of extremism that leads to violence. But Vance called the assault “disgusting”’ and said everyone should condemn the violence.
Vance and his allies have waged a relentless campaign against Ryan, saying his voting record is in near lock-step with Biden and Pelosi and belies his rhetoric on the campaign trail and the image he portrayed in his ads as an authentic Ohioan who emerged from a working-class background and will work in a bipartisan way to get results.
Earlier Tuesday, Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, campaigned against Vance on a visit to Ohio. Cheney, in an interview with PBS Newshour in Cleveland, did not mention Ryan by name but assailed Vance’s call for a cutoff in assistance to Ukraine.
