Takeaways from the second Ohio Senate debate

The second Ohio Senate debate between Democrat Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance was a personal and combative affair, with each candidate repeatedly questioning the other’s character. The heated nature highlighted just how crucial this race has become as Republicans look to defend the seat and win control of the evenly divided Senate in November. The Democratic Party has struggled for years in the Buckeye State, which former President Donald Trump twice carried, and even the most buoyant members of the party thought flipping retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman’s seat in 2022 was a longshot. But a strong campaign from Ryan and Vance’s struggles have made the race more competitive than expected.

Some of the most notable flashpoints in the debate were about whether either candidate would stand up to Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which abortions laws each candidate would back and a personal and heated argument about “replacement theory,” the idea that White people are being slowly and intentionally replaced by minorities and immigrants. What became clear throughout the night is that Ryan and Vance visibly don’t like each other, as each tried to tie the other to a long slate of other people: From Trump to Pelosi to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent. Some of the clearest – and most personal – exchanges were over the candidates’ willingness to stand up to their own parties, most notably Vance’s ties to Trump after the former President said at a recent campaign rally that Vance was “kissing my ass” to get him to campaign for him. “Donald Trump told a joke,” Vance said after the moderator asked about the former President’s comment, “and Tim Ryan has decided to run his entire campaign on it.” Vance added: “I know the President very well and he was joking about a New York Times story. That’s all he was doing. I didn’t take offense to it – I talked to the President before it. I talked to the President after it. Everybody there took it as a joke.”