Many Democrats and media pundits have downplayed the chance of victory for Ohio Republican Senate nominee JD Vance in spite of — or perhaps because of — the fact that Vance received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
The first major poll of the Ohio Senate race since the primary elections has now been released and, despite those dismissive predictions from the left, Vance holds a slight advantage over his Democratic opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), Breitbart reported.
This is likely a terrifying development for Democrats and the media, as they had hoped that Vance’s link to Trump would be his downfall and would result in an easy win for Ryan.
Vance holds slim lead over Ryan
The poll was conducted by the USA Today Network and Suffolk University and included 500 likely Ohio voters surveyed between May 22 to 24 with a 4.4 percent margin of error.
It found that the Ohio Senate race is within that margin of error, as Vance garnered 41.6 percent support compared to 39.4 percent for Ryan, with 2.2 percent supportive of a third-party candidate and 16.8 percent still undecided.
The pollsters asked respondents to share which major issues were most important in terms of their vote in the Ohio Senate race, and the results were not helpful to Ryan but played right into the populist messaging of Vance.
The top two issues by far were the state of the economy and inflation plus high gas prices — issues that are largely attributable to the excessive spending and policies put forward by the Democratic-controlled Congress and President Joe Biden.
Biden a weight on Ryan
Further, the pollsters found that 49.4 percent of those polled wanted their Senate vote to change the direction for the nation that Biden was heading while only 24 percent expected their vote to support Biden’s direction for the country.
According to The Hill, the director of Suffolk University’s Political Research Center, David Paleologos, suggested that Ryan could fall even further behind Vance given that the economic news and inflation will likely only grow worse in the coming months, thanks in large part to President Biden.
“Here’s Ryan trying to emerge from the quicksand,” Paleologos explained, “and he’s getting drawn back into it because the problem of the economy is so ominous in Ohio.”
Biden vs. Trump among Ohio voters
With regard to President Biden specifically, his job approval in that poll was 36.8 percent while his disapproval stood at 56.8 percent. Similarly, his favorability rating was 38.8 percent while 56 percent viewed the president unfavorably.
Compare that to former President Trump, who had 40.8 percent favorability and an unfavorable rating of 50.6 percent. That completely undermines the Democratic/media narrative that the former president is less popular, and therefore a net negative for Vance, than the current president and is likely causing a bit of panic behind the scenes.