An Ohio newspaper editor has repeated the attack line that Senator JD Vance is "weird" while suggesting it is an "appropriate" description for Donald Trump's running mate.
Speaking to MSNBC, Chris Quinn, editor of cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer, said that the controversy surrounding the Republican vice presidential candidate's previous comments on women, abortion, and those without children is not surprising given how Ohio Republican politics worked during his 2022 election campaign.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and her allies are among those who have labeled former President Donald Trump, Vance and other GOP figures "weird" as part of their 2024 campaign.
Polling suggests that the attack line is breaking through with the public. A Data for Progress poll shows that 79 percent of voters, including 78 percent of independents, think that "insulting women and couples who don't have children" is a "weird" thing for a political figure to say. Voters also agree that Republicans are "weirder" today than they were 10 years ago by a margin of 26 points.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, Quinn suggested that Vance has been making off-putting statements for years to help his political career in Ohio.
"I wish we had come up with the word 'weird' because it is so appropriate for what he's saying," Quinn said.
"I don't think we're surprised at all at the statements that are coming out now because of the way Ohio works. I don't know if people realize that more than 70 percent of this state is not registered in a political party.
"So when it comes to the party primaries, it's a very small percentage of people that make that selection, and it has turned the primaries into just a competition to be the most outrageous."
In response, Luke Schroeder, a spokesman for Vance, told Newsweek: "Chris Quinn is a partisan hack and everyone in Ohio knows it, including his own employees.
This is the same guy who published a disgusting, racist cartoon attacking Senator Vance's wife [in 2022], and to this day, he still hasn't apologized for it. Nobody cares what Chris Quinn thinks."
Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy, won the Republican primary for the Ohio Senate seat in 2022 thanks in no small part to an endorsem*nt from Trump.
Quinn suggested that all the Republican Ohio Senate hopefuls were saying "outrageous" things in order to get the backing of Trump in the primary race.
"Now, everybody's looking at what he said and going, 'Man, that is way out there, it's weird,' but it's what you had to do in the party primary to get elected," he said.
"If we had open primaries in Ohio, [Vance] wouldn't have won. The center of Ohio would never have chosen him to be on the final ballot, but the small group of people now that are picking the candidates are as fringe as you get, so you've got to make "cat lady" comments to get on the ballot."
Vance has previously denied the suggestion that he is weird, saying he is a "pretty normal guy. I've got a wife and kids, and I like to hang out and watch football. And I care about this stuff because I care about the country."
In an interview on the Full Send podcast, Vance suggested that the attack line comes from Harris' "24-year-old social media interns who maybe were bullied in school and so now they've decided they're going to do the same thing."
Elsewhere, Quinn said that Trump picking Vance as his running mate may damage the GOP ticket's 2024 chances in Ohio.
For decades, Ohio was considered a bellwether state that was able to correctly pick the overall winner of the presidential elections. However, this run ended in 2020, when Trump retained Ohio but lost the election to President Joe Biden.
Ohio is considered a red state that Trump will win in November, although Quinn suggests it could now be in play for Harris.
"Trump wasn't a felon when he ran before. Now he is, and people in Ohio, in the center, pay attention to things like that, and it could be that they just don't want to vote for him or Vance," Quinn said.
"I think a lot comes down to who is the vice presidential candidate, and can Harris keep this momentum going," Quinn added.
"She's clearly energizing people, including in Ohio cities which mattered for Obama, but can you get that personable vice presidential candidate to be the contrast to the weird JD Vance?"
Update, 8/6/24, 8:59 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Vance's spokesperson, Luke Schroeder.
