Voters across the party lines reacted positively to Ohio GOP Senate candidate JD Vance's viral debate remarks ripping Democratic opponent Tim Ryan for accusing him of supporting the "great replacement theory."
Vance fired back at Ryan at their debate last week for accusing him of "peddling" the controversial theory, calling his comments "disgusting" and claiming that such accusations have caused in-person and online attacks aimed at his family.
"What happens is that my own children, my biracial children, get attacked by scumbags online and in person because you are so desperate for political power that you'll accuse me, the father of three beautiful biracial babies, of engaging in racism. We are sick of it. You can believe in a border without being a racist, you can believe in the country without being a racist. And this just shows how desperate this guy is for political power," Vance said.
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In a survey that played the video of his remarks and allowed respondents to track their reaction in real time, participants across the dial, evenly split between Democrats (blue line), Republicans (red line) and independents (yellow line), overall had a positive reaction to Vance’s comments.
Pollster Lee Carter, who conducted the survey through her company Maslansky + Partners, said that the responses to Vance were "staggering."
"Not only did Vance win over Republicans and Independents, he even won over Democrats. The topline across EVERYTHING we see, is that people are exhausted of the finger pointing and judgment. They are ready for common sense, solutions, and hope for tomorrow," she said.
Republicans involved in the survey awarded Vance an A for his remarks, while independents gave him a B, and Democrats a C.
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The real-time survey graph showed that as the clip began, Ryan’s accusations against Vance saw a little more than half of Democrats surveyed agree with his comments, as opposed to a far slimmer number of independents and Republicans. Vance’s response saw a huge increase in favorability across the board versus Ryan.
The race in the state is tight and represents a possible pick-up opportunity for Democrats to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. A recent Suffolk University/USA TODAY survey found 47% of likely voters would choose Vance compared to 45% who would vote Ryan.
Over 40% of respondents identified inflation and the economy as the most important issues, according to the poll. Abortion and threats to democracy ranked as the other top issues of concern at 19% each.
The Suffolk University poll was conducted from Oct. 11-15 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Former President Trump carried the state easily in 2016 and 2020.
