KENT, Ohio — Ohio's two U.S. Senate candidates, J.D. Vance and Tim Ryan, kicked off their final full day of campaigning in Northeast Ohio Monday.
Democrat Tim Ryan made several stops across the region sharing with supporters the optimism he feels inside.
“We’re going to win,” Ryan told News 5 following a rally in Kent. “I feel really good, the energy on the ground is huge we got a ton of Republican support that’s crossing over, part of the exhausted majority against the extremists. Democrats, Republicans and Independents are uniting, we want to get the country back in the middle.”
Portage County is one of our pivot counties, a place that has gone both Republican and Democrat in the past. A county that four years ago actually saw voters split their vote going for Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. Something Tim Ryan believes they'll do again on Tuesday.
“You know, I think again it’s like people are tired of the insanity, they’re tired of the extremism,” Ryan said. “They want a working class candidate not another millionaire funded by billionaires who has really extreme and weird positions.”
His opponent, Republican J.D. Vance, made a stop in Avon talking to Lorain County Republicans to kick off his day. Lorain is another county known for it's ability to vote blue and red. Four years ago, voters there went for Democrats Sherrod Brown and Richard Cordray, and then two years later for former President Donald Trump. It's part of that Trump message to union workers that Vance is hoping connects.
"We need to be a country that makes things again,” said Vance. “We need to be self-sufficient, we need to rely on our own people. It's ridiculous that China makes our pharmaceuticals, that too many other countries make our automobiles, our steel. If we manufacture things, it creates self-sufficiency for ourselves as a country put it also creates a lot of good jobs here in Lorain County."
And that's why he too closes out this year-and-a-half journey with a smile and his optimistic outlook.
"It's hard to believe we've reached a point where it's over. I'm going to have as much fun as I can, I'm going to talk to as many people as I can, and I'm going to try to leave nothing for granted but I do feel like we're in a great place,” Vance said.
