JD Vance’s Senate campaign is missing in action in Ohio: report

The venture capitalist who is the GOP nominee in the battle to control the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Ohio Republican Rob Portman appears to be in trouble.

On Thursday, Columbus public station WOSU reported that J.D. Vance "has basically disappeared from public view since his May primary win. There have been no big campaign events, no TV commercials and hardly a media appearance."

Vance is facing Rep. Tim Ryan of Youngstown, who is the Democratic Party nominee.

"Many suspected he was using this slow period campaign to raise money, much of that is done in private. But that does not appear to be the case," WOSU reported. "The second quarter campaign finance report shows Vance raised a mere $2.3 million dollars. That’s less than a third of the $9.1 million dollars Ryan raised during the same time period. While Ryan has $3.5 million in the bank, Vance only has about $630,000 available and he loaned his campaign $700,000."

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Vance's fundraising woes haven't just forced him to pull out his personal checkbook, they have also resulted in him breaking a major campaign pledge.

"While running in the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate earlier this year, J.D. Vance flatly said he would not accept any contributions from corporate PACs," the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. "But a campaign finance report Vance’s campaign filed on Friday shows that Vance, since winning the Republican Senate nomination in May, has accepted tens of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs in the energy, insurance and real-estate industries."

An Ohio GOP strategist granted anonymity by the newspaper to speak freely questioned the venture capitalist's work ethic.

“It’s certainly got to be a wake-up call to the J.D. Vance campaign, because Tim Ryan is running circles around him right now,” the strategist told the newspaper. “It’s early enough that Vance can be fine, but he’s got to be moving, and he’s got to start working. That’s all there is to it.”

\u201cJ.D.Vance- the \u201cpopulist\u201d candidate of Koch Industries: Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance makes about face on accepting corporate PAC money - https://t.co/lLvEHi5Zjw https://t.co/4v1IqFwTaa\u201d

— Jane Mayer (@Jane Mayer) 1658427369