JD Vance Is Having Fun and Winning the Ohio Senate Race

CLAY: We go up to Ohio now to be joined by JD Vance, who’s going to be the next senator from the great state of Ohio, and JD, I know you’ve had this date five days from now on a calendar likely in the campaign offices, on your phone calendar for a long time. As you come down the stretch run, is it fun? Is it exhilarating? Is it sort of unbelievable that it’s finally here? What does it feel like for you to be on the precipice of Election Night?

VANCE: Yeah. It’s sort of all of those things at once. We’re doing a big statewide tour right now and a lot of fun, great energy out there. Yeah, I will say it still doesn’t quite feel like it’s close to being over. You know, I had this similar feeling during the primary where until the votes really start being tabulated, it’s hard to believe you’ve reached the end point. But, man, we’re having a great time, and I’m definitely enjoying myself.

BUCK: Did you have a town hall recently, JD? Just give folks some of the after-action report on that one.

VANCE: Yeah, we did so. So we were originally supposed to do a Fox News debate. Tim Ryan, I guess, you know, after the second debate that we did, decided to pull out of the debate and just wanted to do a town hall. And so we did 20 minutes with Tim Ryan, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and then 20 minutes with me. And, you know, it’s I thought, it was very, very fun. The crowd was great. And, you know, Tim had to face some tough questions from the crowd about his record and how it’s inconsistent with this sort of moderate cloak that he’s putting on.

And I thought it was very well for us. But, you know, the thing is, when you’re when you’re ahead in a race — and I do think that we’re ahead — the main thing that you want to do is not fumble the football. And so, you know, the candidate version of fumbling the football is to make a big mistake and say something stupid that they can clip and to put into a TV ad. And then I think the voter version of fumbling the football is not getting out there and not getting your friends and family to vote. So that’s kind of what we’re focused on these final five days is just making sure people get to the polls and making sure that, you know, I don’t I don’t put my foot in my mouth in a way that’s going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

BUCK: And JD, just to be clear, I know that you’re ahead in the polls right now, but Clay and I insist on you have to trounce your opponent. It’s not enough to just win. So, we want everyone out there to get out and vote by a lot to send a message.

VANCE: Yeah. Absolutely. That’s what I want too, and I want to send a message to the media; I want to send a message to Joe Biden. And look, if the difference between a Republican Senate with 51 senators and a Republican Senate with 54/55 senators where these guys just got a shellacking is way different (garbled cell) Joe Biden, his war was on energy policy or immigration stuff if we actually give these guys the beatdown that they deserve. But that does require every single person to get out there and vote all across the country. But, obviously, I’m most focused on Ohio.

CLAY: I know you’re most focused on Ohio. You mentioned what the majority might look like. How much attention are you paying to the overall potential for a Red Wave, something that could carry people in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, obviously North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, all the battlegrounds out there? How much evidence of that are you seeing of a nationalized overall red wave that is likely to carry people everywhere, no matter what state you’re in?

VANCE: Yeah, look, man, obviously, we’re certainly focused on Ohio, though we did just send, you know, some money from our campaign to Don Bolduc in New Hampshire because I think he’s coming on strong and I think he’d be a great senator for those in New Hampshire. But just from the inside of the campaign, you know, obviously, you talk to you talk to pollsters and you talk to consultants. And some of them are just on your race, but some of them are polling and working on races across the country. I would say three months ago, people were a little bit worried that things were going well.

But they thought we would still have a good November. About a month and a half ago, it felt like things were starting to turn in our favor, and in the last week it started to become a little giddy. And I will say not just our race, but races all across the country, there is this sense that we’re either going to have a great night or, like, a historic night. And, you know, either one of those is wonderful. But there is a real sense, man, that this could really, really tip in our favor, like 1994-2014. I certainly hope so, because the Democrats do not deserve to get a second shot at governing.

CLAY: Yeah, there’s no doubt, and Buck and I certainly feel that as we talk to people all over the nation every day. I just want to follow back up with what you said. General Bolduc — we had him on earlier this week, I believe — is making a real run and may now be in the lead according to the two most recent polls that I’ve seen out of New Hampshire. You actually, as a part of your campaign, are now supporting him, hoping that he’ll be a colleague of yours come January. Is that what you were telling us?

VANCE: Yeah, that’s exactly right. You know, so obviously, some of the campaign resources we raise — most of it actually — can only go to our campaign, but then some of it actually can’t go to our TV advertising at all. It goes into a committee that you really can only spend on other people, and we don’t have a ton of those resources, but we have enough to help a few candidates out. So we’ve definitely been trying to pick some good races where we think the money could be helpful.

Obviously, if folks want to support us directly, JDVance.com is the place to do it. And I will say, look, I feel good about our race, but we really can’t let our foot off the gas here. And, you know, those all-important undecided voters who could decide this election, especially if it gets tight down the stretch here, those voters really do respond to TV advertising. So I encourage people to help us out and help everybody else out as well.

BUCK: How much money, JD, have the coastal elites thrown to your opponent? I mean, I’ve mentioned this a few times on the show because it was so jaw dropping. Clay pulled together the data earlier in the week on the Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke gubernatorial races — which are going to be both lost by probably double digits or close to double digits in both cases — $150 million spent and a ton of that money coming from New York and California, because Santa Monica should pick the governor of Georgia, obviously. What’s it been like in your state?

VANCE: Yeah. So my understanding is that Tim Ryan, my Democrat opponent, and John Fetterman, of course, the guy in Pennsylvania — the very well-spoken Senate candidate in Pennsylvania — they’re the two best fundraisers in the entire national Democratic Party right now. So, I think if Tim Ryan, by the end of this race, I think he’s raised probably 60 plus, he’ll probably hit well over 70 by Tuesday. And again, all of that has gone into TV advertising where he pretends to be somebody that he’s not.

You know, says that he supports the police, even though he’s voted to strip them of their legal protections, even though he voted to ban gas powered cars and wants to in fracking he says he’s pro energy independence and that’s why the money really does matter. I mean, I never got this until I was a candidate, but those all-important undecided voters, that’s one of the ways you reach them. Certainly, the media isn’t helping us out, but those advertisers for the Democrats have been effective. And one of the reasons why I feel so good about our race now is we’ve really beaten that stuff back in the last couple of months.

CLAY: JD, do you watch all the negative ads? Like, do you sit on your campaign bus or sit in campaign headquarters between meetings and events and actually watch everything they say about you or not? I’m just curious. I don’t know the answer.

VANCE: No, I’m not a psychopath, so I try not to see and watch and read every negative thing they say about me. Man, I think you’d go crazy if you just saw everything negative. I mean, sometimes, like, I’m a big sports guy, especially college football, and so, you know, during a Buckeyes game, you’ll see a negative ad come on about you. And it’s kind of funny when you’re hanging out with your buddies and they’re like, “Oh, there you are, JD! There’s your fat head on TV…” (crosstalk)

BUCK: But, JD, what’s your site? Because we gotta get pedal to the metal here. We got 15 seconds. Where do people go?

VANCE: Yeah. JDVance.com. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.

BUCK: You’re the man, JD Thank you.