Ohio’s Highest Profile Democratic Candidates Keep Surprisingly LOW Profile During Biden’s Visit to the State
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When President Joe Biden delivers an economic speech Wednesday on his sixth visit to Ohio since taking office, prominent Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan will not be with him. Ryan, running for Senate, and former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, running for governor, both cited “scheduling conflicts.”
The two major candidates for the party are avoiding the event in an election year where inflation and gas prices have hurt the president and the party with the working class across the country and especially in Ohio, where today Biden will be speaking on those very subjects before a friendly — but not limitlessly patient — union audience.
As Pres. Biden visits Cleveland today to talk about the economy, the two Dem statewide nominees will be elsewhere, per their campaigns.
Rep. Tim Ryan, the Senate nominee, is campaigning along the Ohio river.
Nan Whaley, the Gov. nominee, is campaigning in Dayton and Toledo.
— aaron navarro (@aaronlarnavarro) July 6, 2022
Rep. Ryan’s reluctance to embrace Biden’s state isn’t new. Just two months ago he was unenthusiastic about the idea of the president stumping on his behalf. He said he wants to be the face of his campaign, and emphasized the difference between the party and himself. “I’m a unique kind of Democrat,” he told Fox’s John Roberts.
The Washington Post notes that Ohio is a bit of a microcosm of the “challenges” Democrats are facing in both the upcoming midterms and broadly in polling ahead of 2024. The Washington Free Beacon says the big name candidates are “hiding” from Biden so he doesn’t drag their numbers down. The Hill suggests that Biden could “hurt down-ballot Democrats” across the state.
If the state is representative of the party’s problems in November, then the high profile absenteeism is more than just a diss, it’s yet another sign for Democrats in November reading “trouble ahead.”
