Ohio GOP Senate Candidate Targets Mexican Immigrants: "JD Vance bets Ohio GOP Senate bid on illegal immigration"

 

The Washington Examiner headline says it all:  "JD Vance bets Ohio GOP Senate bid on illegal immigration." A Yale Law grad and author of Hillbilly Elegy, Vance, with the endorsement of none other than Donald Trump, is running for Senate in Ohio.  And immigration is at the center of Vance's campaign:

"J.D. Vance is turning to illegal immigration to rescue his uneven Ohio Senate campaign and come from behind to win the Republican nomination in this key red state primary.

Vance has been stuck in the middle of the pack in a crowded field of Republican contenders, although recent polling commissioned for his super PAC showed the 37-year-old conservative populist in a three-way tie for first. To vault ahead of the competition in the final weeks before the May 3 primary, Vance is streamlining his pitch to GOP voters and focusing almost exclusively on illegal immigration at the Southern border, with a biographical touch."

In focusing on immigration, Vance has a television ad dedicated to the issue, where he decries Mexicans a la Trump, open borders, immigrants voting Democratic, and illegal drugs.  Fox News reports that Vance is spending $1 million to broadcast the ad attacking President Biden for the "border crisis." 

"Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans?" Vance says in a provocative open to the ad.  I fear that some viewers may just say yes to both questions.  Is Vance trying to appeal to that group of voters?

Politifact takes on Vance's ad:  "JD Vance’s ad about ‘open border’ and immigrant voters is wrong."

KJ