U.S. Senate candidate Tim Ryan says he fights for working class, wants to make U.S. manufacturing powerhouse

Democrat Ryan visits Dayton region after he and Republican Vance win their primaries

Democrat U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan touted his record of “fighting for working class people” during a roundtable in Dayton with unionized retail workers, drawing a sharp contrast with his Republican rival, J.D. Vance.

“Now the race has taken on the next phase of running against J.D. Vance, who has said that America’s a joke. I think this is the greatest country on God’s green earth,” said Ryan, of Trumbull County near Warren. “And he’s said he’s not comfortable in Ohio. And there’s no place I’d rather be than Ohio. So I think there’s going to be a very, very clear choice here for the people coming in the fall.”

Ryan won Tuesday’s primary with nearly 70% of the vote. Vance, a Republican businessman, author and Middletown native won his primary with over 32%, according to final, unofficial results reported by the Ohio Secretary of State.

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

“Career politicians like Tim Ryan presided over the managed decline of our nation and are the reason why China is eating our lunch. JD is running to reverse this trend driven by our elite establishment,” said Taylor Van Kirk, press secretary for Vance.

Ryan believes he can get the support of some of the 23 percent of Republican voters who cast ballots for state Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, the only one of the seven GOP candidates who said outright that the 2022 presidential election was not stolen from former President Donald Trump.

“There’s a number of people in the Republican Party who I want to feel very welcome in our campaign, that we want to make sure that they recognize that this isn’t a Democrat-Republican thing, this is about America,” Ryan said.

Vance, who was endorsed by Trump, cites debunked theories in saying that the election was stolen. Multiple investigations, audits, court rulings and Trump’s then-Attorney General William Barr, found there was no evidence of widespread fraud or election problems that could have overturned Joe Biden’s win of the popular vote and in the Electoral College.

“People, if they want to talk about the past, China’s going to continue to eat our lunch. If you want to talk about the last election, if you want to try to undermine democracy, there’s absolutely no proof of that,” Ryan said. “And so let’s talk about the future and how we can build that together as Americans, not as Democrats and Republicans.”

Ryan spoke at the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 75 offices, hearing workers say they are concerned about pay and time off, and that nonunion workers are afraid they’ll be fired if they try to join a union.

Ryan touted the proposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would strengthen labor protections and update labor laws.

Credit: Lynn Hulsey

Credit: Lynn Hulsey

“He’s great for the union, especially with the PRO Act,” said Vashyra Cannon, who attended the roundtable. “We really need more businesses to get unionized so that we can be a strong team and get these employers to be fair with us.”

Ryan said he wants Ohio to become the world’s “manufacturing powerhouse.”

“It’s chips, it’s electric vehicles, it’s batteries, it’s jet engines, it’s charging stations, it’s liquid natural gas out of eastern Ohio to ship to eastern Europe so that we can knock Putin’s legs out from under him,” Ryan said.

He called for Democrats and Republicans to work together to get things accomplished.

Ryan earlier Wednesday visited toured Butler Tech in Hamilton, and said he was very impressed by the the talent and motivation of the students at the career tech school and he called for more funding for vocational education. He also has visits to Lima, Toledo and Rossford scheduled today, according to his campaign.

Vance did not have any campaign events on Wednesday, said Taylor Van Kirk, press secretary for Vance.

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