On November 8, Ohio voters have a critical decision to make. They will decide who will replace Rob Portman, the outgoing Republican member of the U.S. Senate from Ohio.
The choices are Democratic nominee, Congressman Tim Ryan, the sitting congressman from the Mahoning Valley, and first-time political candidate J. D. Vance.
Vance, born James Donald Bowman in 1984 but now known as James David Vance, defeated six other Republican candidates in a hard-fought primary battle. Political pundits believe that the last-minute endorsement by Donald Trump may have given Vance the edge to eke out a victory, besting his nearest competitor, former state treasurer Josh Mandel by roughly 89,000 votes.
For the sake of Ohio and the nation, Tim Ryan must win this election.
A seat in the United States Senate from Ohio has been the steppingstone for two presidents. Both William Henry Harrison and Warren Harding held the position. Harding was the first senator elected to the presidency while a sitting member of the Senate, a feat accomplished by only two other senators, John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama. Former Cleveland mayor Harold Burton went from representing Ohio in the Senate to the United States Supreme Court.
Having sent eight native sons to the presidency, Senators from Ohio such as Salmon P. Chase (1864), John Sherman (1880), Robert Taft (1940-1952), and John Glenn (1984) were viable presidential candidates. While no one from Ohio has ever been elected vice president, Senator John W. Bricker ran as the vice-presidential candidate with Thomas Dewey in 1948.
Since 2007, one of Ohio’s Senate seats has been held by Democrat Sherrod Brown. Brown got the seat when he defeated then-senator and now governor, Mike DeWine. But turning the open seat vacated by Portman blue may not be that easy in the era of Trumpism.
Republicans hold every statewide office in Ohio, except for three seats on the Ohio Supreme Court. They hold a majority in the Ohio State Senate and the Ohio House of Representatives. Of the sixteen members of Ohio’s delegation to the House of Representatives, only four are Democrats. All but Ryan are female. Although Obama carried Ohio in 2008 and 2012, Donald Trump carried the state in 2016 and 2020. In 2020 he got more votes in Ohio than he amassed in 2016.
Considering the strength of the Ohio Republican Party, Ohio Democrats can no longer rely on the strength of the vote in urban areas to offset the rural Republican vote. And trotting out a bunch of Black ministers will no longer suffice in the Black community. We no longer have leaders such as Lou Stokes, whose endorsement carried clout in the Black community. Black voters statewide must be energized.
Ryan must parlay women’s opposition to the recent anti-abortion decision of the Supreme Court to get women energized. It’s great to picket and demonstrate but voting is what counts.
Ryan must run strong in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Lucas, Hamilton and Summit counties. To do that he has to get out the vote by canvasing precinct by precinct. He must also work like heck in rural areas to bring back former Democrats, independents and swing voters into his camp. That can be a key to victory.
My concern is that I have already heard grumblings from residents of Cleveland’s Black community complaining about Ryan’s current ad campaign. He says that he voted against Obama’s trade deal — an instant turnoff for Black voters — and for a Trump program — a turnoff for lots of other voters. Ryan’s boast that “I’ll be my own man” is causing some voters to fear an Ohio version of West Virginia’s Joe Manchin. I assume that Ryan’s ads were developed based on market research and are designed to target those loyal Democrats who jumped ship in 2016 and 2020, but he must realize that the ads go out to all of Northern Ohio and can be a turn off to some voters.
Sending J.D. Vance to the Senate is a disaster waiting to happen. A former ATB “Anybody But Trump” guy now turned Trump loyalist, Vance calls himself a populist conservative. Endorsed by Tucker Carlson and buddy-buddy with Donald Trump Jr, his best-selling rags-to-riches autobiography — made into a movie — and his success as a venture capitalist and lawyer have made him a multimillionaire — a long way from the poverty he claims he experienced as a child.
Two Justices of the Supreme Court are 74 years old. Two more are in their 60s, which means that it is extremely likely that there will be vacancies to be filled in the near future. We need Democrats to vote up or down on confirmations. We need Democrats to maintain our majority in the Senate, which is now hanging on by a thread.
We know what happened in 2016 when mealy-mouthed Democrats made their lame excuses: The “I just didn’t like Hillary” folks; the Jill Stein voters and the Bernie Sanders folks who prolonged the Democratic primary race put Trump in the White House. A repeat of those inane points of view along with voter apathy could put Vance in the Senate.
The time is now to get behind Tim Ryan. Make sure that you are registered to vote along with everyone in your family. Make sure that people who cannot make it to the polls get their absentee ballots. Make sure every relative, friend, neighbor, co-worker, along with the person standing behind you in the supermarket line, votes Democratic in November.
There’s an adage in political circles. You can have too few votes, but you can never have too many. The Trumpsters will be out in force. We must counter that force and vote, vote, vote. And most importantly vote for Tim Ryan for the United States Senate. It will be a sad day for Ohio and the nation if Tim Ryan comes up short on November 9.
So please vote! Find out who’s on the ballot and register to vote if you haven’t already done by googling “board of elections” and your country name. Go here for the Cuyahoga County BOE.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
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One Response to “Electing Tim Ryan to the Senate a Must for Ohio and the Country by C. Ellen Connally”
Mel Maurer
Thanks Ellen. Another good perspective on the reality of Ohio politics. Any rational person of any color knows that Ryan is by far the superior candidate but that may not be enough to win. However it can be if we who believe in government of the people and of of Trump get out the vote for him. A win for Tim will show the country that Ohio has had enough Trumpism with all its evils and lead the way to normalcy again.