Tim Ryan’s Fox News Campaign Strategy

The Ohio Democrat’s Senate campaign ads portray him as a moderate, but his voting record tells a different story.

By and
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Rep. Tim Ryan may be running for an Ohio Senate seat as a Democrat, but he’s letting Fox News personalities do the talking in his campaign ads. It may be his best hope of winning in a Republican-leaning state—especially given his voting record on Capitol Hill.

“Tim Ryan is obviously somebody who’s pitching the more moderate ideas,” says Fox News reporter Peter Doocy in one snippet. “You’re very moderate, I mean, you’re hanging out in the middle like most of us are,” Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo tells Ryan in another. Those clips, alongside others featuring Bret Baier and Tucker Carlson, ran in a July television ad meant to depict Ryan as a commonsense liberal.

“You don’t have to take it from me,” Ryan said in a July tweet about the ad. “Even Fox News will tell you I’ll always put Ohio first.” 

Yet Ryan has voted with President Joe Biden 100 percent of the time and largely avoids describing himself as a “moderate” in his bid against the Donald Trump-endorsed Republican J.D. Vance.

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  1. Benjamin.Sklar

    Yeah... Very curious why this piece was published. Exactly the kind of partisan fluff I pay to avoid with The Dispatch (partisan is fine, fluff isn't).

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  2. GregS

    Fox News hosts call Tim Ryan "moderate."
    Tim Ryan has "voted with" Joe Biden 100% of the time.

    You look at these two pieces of data and conclude that Fox News hosts were wrong and Tim Ryan is not a moderate.

    Could you not instead equally easily conclude that Fox News hosts are wrong, and *Joe Biden is a moderate*?

    Seems you have taken as a given that "voting with Joe Biden" precludes you from being a moderate. You'll need to show your work on that.

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    Rajeev

    Tim Ryan is straightforward and is moderate compared to most representatives. The Democrats now that they are in power tend to have fairly slimmed down bills having only 50 senators as opposed to say 2008 when they had 59 or 60 senators.

    But even if you contend the voting record will cause him to support any Democratic priorities, the main difference in this race is the character of both candidates. JD Vance has raced to the bottom whereas Tim Ryan is running a campaign similar to Jon Osoff in Georgia in 2020. Demonstrating decency and authenticity because voters will feel that. Osoff wrote a letter on FoxNews.com before the special election promising not to change who he was but instead be authentic and explain his voting record.

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    Jack Miland

    I was specifically referring to JD Vance, who is clearly a MAGA ass kisser and doesn’t dispute it. But there are others, Mark Meadows comes to mind. Kevin McCarthy, another. The list goes on.

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    Scarlette Tarte

    Yes, but who would you have Ohioans vote for? Fascism curious Vance? You gotta be kidding!

    Of course, people could just stay home, and not vote at all. Ryan would not try to help Biden overthrow an election. That's all that should matter today.

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  6. Andrew55

    I'd be very happy to have Tim Ryan take Kamela Harris's VP position right now

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    rlritt

    "This Congress, he voted for the roughly $730 billion Inflation Reduction Act, as well as a House-passed gun control bill that would ban high capacity magazines and raise the purchasing age for semiautomatic weapons from 18 to 21 years old."

    And you're against thrs common sense bills and woman's right to abortion beford fetal viability? That says more about your lacking common sense then Ryan being for left. Those are the moderate positions.

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    Ohio Gas Hog

    Never voted for Trump and Vance wasn't my choice in the primary, but I have no problem voting for JD Vance over Tim Ryan. None.

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  9. Token Liberal

    The legislation that Biden has signed into law is not especially "progressive." It's more center - left. Infrastructure. Covid assistance. Encouraging green energy. Encouraging domestic chip manufacturing. Prohibiting importation of items made by forced labor in China. So I don't think the fact that Ryan voted for these things make him some sort of flaming leftist.

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    BrettH

    Ryan vs. Vance is an interesting race to watch.

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