OHIO. (CNN) – Donald Trump has tried to block Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan’s attempt to win over his supporters with a rally Saturday in Ohio, telling the public that the Democrat is no friend of Trump’s motion, though he “acts like he’s my friend when it comes to politics. “
Trump’s appearance in Republican Senate candidate JD Vance is the latest hurdle in his journey to help the candidates he helped win the questionable Republican primary. Trump has used his approval to help Senate candidates like Vance, Blake Masters in Arizona and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania get out of crowded Republican camps. But since then, those applicants have struggled to pivot to the general election, plagued by depleted cross coffers and poor fundraising after the primaries, forcing the former president to come to their aid once again.
As influential as Trump in the Republican primary, his influence on a general election remains uncertain. But Republicans running for the Senate now find themselves in a situation where the candidates Trump helped nominate are now at the center of any hope of controlling the House in 2023.
To do this, Trump took to the road. The former president made headlines at a rally two weeks ago in Pennsylvania, where Oz spoke and the former president praised the prominent doctor, albeit briefly. nominated, which has the approval of the former president, and later in Michigan with a number of candidates he has endorsed.
In Ohio, Ryan is throwing a stronger-than-expected challenge to Vance by distancing himself from some Democratic policies and embracing facets of the Trump team. – in popularity of Ohio’s recent turn to the right – under pressure from Democrats’ desire to win over Trump voters.
“I agreed with Trump on trade,” Ryan said in a TV ad over the summer. “I voted against outsourcing each and every time. “
Trump has clearly taken note of Ryan’s strategy: His Rally Saturday took place in Youngstown, in the center of Ryan’s Congressional District.
“He looked at my surveys. I think he’s running, JD, on a Donald Trump love policy,” Trump said of Ryan, adding, “He doesn’t love me and I don’t like him. It’s terrible. “
By joining Youngsthe city, Trump is entering the kingdom that shaped Ryan. Raised in the vicinity of the city of Niles, Ohio, Ryan represented the network in his political career, making it, as well as around Mahoning County, synonymous with his logo of pro-union democratic politics. But Mahoning leaned Toward Republicans after being a Democratic stronghold for years: Trump in 2020 was the first Republican presidential candidate to win the county since Richard Nixon in 1972.
“I’ve largely won your region,” Trump said, adding, “We’ve won Ohio twice. . . We won it in two landslides and now we have to give JD a landslide. “
One of the tactics Ohio Democrats have sought to win over Trump’s electorate is to portray Vance as an imposter, continually noting that in 2016, the now-Trump-approved Senate nominee criticized the former president.
“Yes, he said bad things about me,” Trump said with a smile, acknowledging that Vance is beyond criticism. “But that before he met me. And then he fell in love. “
Trump’s comments were plagued by his grievance policy. The former president said, “For six consecutive years, I have been harassed, investigated, defamed, slandered and persecuted” like no president in history, adding that other people “don’t just sue me. “, they chase you through me. “
However, their court cases were only about the Democrats. While complaining about inflation, Trump said, “Mitch McConnell had a bigger momentum and prevented it in the Senate. He’s like a Democrat. “
And Trump also tasked Vance with the status of Republican leader in the Senate and “getting him out of there. “
“Mitch McConnell is a disgrace and I hope you do something about it, JD,” Trump said, putting Vance in an awkward position given that the Senate Leadership Fund, an organization heavily tied to McConnell, was forced to set aside $28 million in Ohio television advertising time, an expense no Republican would have foreseen for the previous race in the cycle.
By the end of June, Ryan had raised $21. 8 million in the 2022 cycle, at just $3. 5 million for Vance. The Democrat entered the current part of the year with a 5-to-1 monetary merit over his Republican opponent.
And in Vance’s case, cash goes beyond his own fundraiser.
To get through the primaries, Vance needed the outdoors of billionaire tech mogul Peter Thiel, who invested millions in a pro-Vance super PAC. The money Thiel spent to cheer up Vance even led Trump to endorse the Republican nominee.
But once Vance left the primary, Thiel stopped spending on his pro-Vance efforts, leading to divisions between the PayPal co-founder and Republicans like McConnell, who urged Thiel to spend more on Senate campaigns.
Much of Trump’s speech focused on his private policy rather than Vance or others. Trump has continued to spark a 2024 race, all he’s been doing for months.
“I’ve run twice, I’ve won twice,” Trump said, before adding that “I should do it again. “
The crowd erupted as Trump continued to lie about the 2020 election, a sign that rejecting the election is a key motivation for the former president’s supporters.
“Stay tuned, everyone. Stay tuned,” he added.
Trump tried to start talking at 7 p. heures. ET. Vance, an Ohio State graduate, said he thought the rally would end at 8:30 p. m. And so that other people could leave and see half the moment. Trump began speaking at 19h44. ET and didn’t finish until 9:25 p. m. And, when the Ohio State game was underway in the third quarter with Ohio State leading 49-21.
Trump declared the Ohio state soccer game saying, “You have a football game and it wasn’t that crowd. “
Democrats responded to Trump’s rally by dismissing it primarily as anything less than a game of chance in the state of Ohio.
“I’m too busy watching football, but I’m sure everything JD Vance and his allies from abroad tried to communicate in a half-empty stadium would have sounded hollow for all Ohioans who were also busy. Ohio State-Toledo,” said Jordan Fuja, a spokeswoman for Ryan who was at the Ohio State game Saturday night.
The scene around the occasion as the peak of Trump’s other rallies, where some of the former president’s most fervent cronies moved as his staunch supporters took cover for hours to enter. Those acolytes included Mike Lindell, who said Tuesday that the FBI served him. a subpoena to appear before a grand jury over the contents of his phone as part of an investigation into a Colorado election security breach.
Trump mentioned Lindell from the scene.
FIXED: This story was updated to properly heed the call from the Republican outdoor organization that invested in TV ad bookings to help Vance.
El-CNN-Wire™