Trump-Backed J.D. Vance Projected to Win Ohio Republican Primary for U.S. Senate
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J.D. Vance has been projected to win Ohio’s GOP Senate primary following a contentious race that ultimately saw him endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Decision Desk HQ called the race just after 9 p.m. ET.
Decision Desk HQ projects J.D Vance (@JDVance1) has won the OH GOP Senate Nomination
Race Call At: May 3rd 9:09pm edt
More results here: https://t.co/MOUZI5gypR
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) May 4, 2022
Early returns indicate Vance won the race with more than 30% of the vote split between seven candidates. Josh Mandel is so far running second, while Matt Dolan is in third.
Trump’s involvement in the race divided Ohio conservatives, many of whom criticized him for choosing the formerly Never Trump candidate.
Vance had been critical of Trump during past remarks, which put him at odds with many of the former president’s “America First” supporters in the state.
Trump acknowledged the Hillbilly Elegy author had criticized him in the past, but said he gave Republicans the best shot at winning in a general election.
“Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades,” Trump said. “He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race. The Democrats will be spending many millions of dollars, but the good news is that they have a defective candidate who ran for President and garnered exactly zero percent in the polls. The bottom line is, we must have a Republican victory in Ohio.”
Vance had previously stated some of the people who supported Trump in 2016 were “racists.”
“Race definitely played a role in the 2016 election,” Vance perviously stated. “I think that race will always play a role in our country. It’s just sort of a constant fact of American life.”
“And definitely some people who voted for Trump were racists, and they voted for him for racist reasons. I always resist the idea that the real thing driving most Trump voters was racial anxiety or racial animus, partially because I didn’t see it.”
The Ohio Republican Senate primary was viewed by many as a metric to gauge Trump influence in the party.
Vance will face Democrat Tim Ryan in November.
