Davidson: Democrat Ryan campaigned ‘like a Republican’ against Vance

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO: Ohio status as a swing state was in question before the midterms after safely voting Republican the last two general cycles, but Democrat Tim Ryan’s trying to change that against Republican JD Vance in the race for retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman seat take a look at how close this race has gotten tonight. Less close is Ohio district eight House race, Republican Representative Warren Davidson leading that and he is joining us now. Congressman representing the district since 2016. How are you feeling tonight about your early results?

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH):Well, the vote counts a little slower than normal. Normally, by this time, we would we would see races being called in Ohio. And our district in particular is a little slower than some of the others around the state. So you know, that’s the that’s the thing. But I’ve talked to people who’ve been out working polls through the day, we saw, you know, a presidential election year level turnout in a lot of Republican leaning districts and off year election, levels of turnout in more Democrat leaning districts. So if that holds, it shouldn’t be a really big night for Republicans, not just here in our district, but around the state.

DEL ROSARIO: We are starting to see that in districts around the country. What do you think is mobilizing Republicans to come out to vote in these numbers?

DAVIDSON: I think Republicans and independents and maybe even some former Democrats are just looking at the results. You know, the you know, you can listen to all the campaign as the people know what they’re experiencing. You know, the economy always is a top of mind issue, but with inflation, where it is today, you know, gas groceries. And they know that the energy policy decisions, no matter what the Biden administration says, they know that these were intentional policy decisions. They weren’t, you know, some random event that somehow happened, it is the result of policy decisions, and they can see the timeline. And so they’re not really buying that they can see that the freedoms that they’ve taken under attack, whether that’s from COVID, Legacy frustrations, or, you know, the kind of canceled culture, mindset, that’s a big deal. And, you know, security issues, whether that’s community safety, national security, or really a component of that border security, those things are all top of mind when I talk to voters, and they’re very frustrated with Joe blind on everyone.

DEL ROSARIO: As we go through the night, if this Republican wave does happen in the House and the Senate, how much do you think Republicans are going to be able to accomplish without a resounding majority in the Senate and especially with a Democrat in the White House?

DAVIDSON: Yeah, I mean, some people view that as a great thing, neither party can accomplish much. But you know, we’ve got real problems to solve and people to serve. And so Republicans are gonna be very intentional about doing that. In, you know, the big thing in the house. So you know, it’s a majoritarian body. So the majority party, the Democrats for much of this time had four seats. But they governed as if they had like, 100, you know, they ran their agenda. They chair every committee, they choose what we vote on. And frankly, they disallow a lot of amendments. Republicans did that, too. When I was first in the majority, under spot, Paul Ryan is speaker. But that’s the kind of tone in the house. So we’ll be pretty aggressive in the house will be get very aggressive on oversight. And I think that’ll push the some of the media cycle, but also hopefully push the executive branch to do what they’re supposed to do by highlighting some of the failures. And then you know, standalone bills aren’t going to be able to move very easily. We’d love the Joe Biden would change course, just because he would be trying to solve the problem. But he’s not going to change his energy policy, as he hasn’t changed it yet. It may take a congressional compulsion to do that. So we’re going to have to look for things like the debt ceiling, things like the Farm Bill, things like the Defense Authorization Act, and of course, the annual funding bill. So those are the big, big things that happen next year. And when we go back, Democrats will still still be in the majority. And we have an omnibus deadline of December 16. So kind of a lame duck session funding bill. And if, you know, if Democrats were proud about what they were going to do in that bill, they would have voted on it before the election. They’re saving it for after because I think they knew what was coming. And I hate to see all the bad things that are gonna wind up in.

DEL ROSARIO: Let’s move to the Senate race happening in your state right now, as far as that is concerned. Are you surprised at how neck and neck the race is between Tim Ryan and JD Vance?

DAVIDSON: You know, not not entirely. I mean, Tim Ryan, really, you wouldn’t know that he’s even a member of the House of Representatives or a Democrat. I mean, he ran a campaign as if he was there with me and my friends supporting Donald Trump fighting to secure the border fighting to fix our trade policies, you know, fighting to, you know, make our communities safer instead of voting for things that To end qualified immunity for police officers, so they get sued for doing their jobs. So his campaign ads, it’d be great to see Democrats be able to campaign on that in a sort of way, the level of division in the country would be much smaller. But then JD Vance had to raise the money and spend the money to make an informed ballots. So it’s like, no, this guy is actually a member of Congress. He’s a Democrat. He’s opposed every measure that we can talk about. And as people become more aware of that the appetite for Tim Ryan is gone and ready to embrace JD Vance.

DEL ROSARIO: If it doesn’t turn out that way, what could this race tell us about the red wave that Republicans are hoping for tonight?

DAVIDSON: It’ll say if you campaign as if you’re a Republican, you might have a chance of winning. So I don’t know if Democrats are ready to do that. They certainly didn’t campaign that way. Broadly, around the country, Tim Ryan was an outlier and campaigning that way. I wish his voting record was more like his campaign message. When I saw him in August, we came back for the vote on the quote, inflation Reduction Act. And I said, You voted no. Right. And he looked at me like, What are you talking about? I said, I saw your ads. You’re with us now. Right? And he laughed, and I was kind of, you know, meant to be a little bit of a poke there. But, you know, he doesn’t vote that way. And so, you know, maybe Democrats will not just campaign that way, but start to vote that way. And then, you know, maybe we can heal some of the things in our country.

DEL ROSARIO: All right. Republican Representative Warren Davidson in Ohio. Thank you so much for joining us tonight on your busy nights and we appreciate your time.

DAVIDSON: Yeah, thank you.

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