Trump-endorsed candidate J.D. Vance was named the winner in Ohio’s highly contested Republican Senate primary on Tuesday night.
Vance beat out former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, ex-state GOP Chair Jane Timken and investment banker Mike Gibbons, and will run against Rep. Tim Ryan(D) in November for retiring Sen. Rob Portman‘s (R) seat.
“Now, the party that we need to unify to fight Tim Ryan, it’s our Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen. It is the party of working people all across the state of Ohio, and it needs to fight, and it needs to win,” Vance said in his victory speech.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Ryan needs to go down,” he added. “And we’re going to be the party that does it.”
Before former President Donald Trump‘s endorsement just three weeks ago, Vance had fallen behind in the polls. His agenda was similar to his opponents and while he presented himself as a staunch Trump supporter, the other candidates continually brought up his past anti-Trump comments.
He formerly wrote in a now-deleted Tweet, “In 4 years, I hope people remember that it was those of us who empathized with Trump’s voters who fought him most aggressively,” called himself a “never-Trump guy” and threatened to vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clintonover Trump in 2016.
When Trump ended up awarding Vance with a late endorsement, he acknowledged Vance’s past comments but announced that Vance “gets it now,” and “is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race.”
