Ohio GOP Senate Candidate Says People Should Stay in “Violent” Marriages

That’s only one of many reasons why JD Vance is a bad choice for Ohio

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

Venture capitalist turned Ohio Republican candidate for senate, JD Vance, rose to prominence with the publication of his bestselling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy and its subsequent 2020 Netflix movie adaption. In it, he tells the story of “a family and culture in crisis”, his Appalachian roots, and what it was like growing up in rural Ohio and Kentucky. He describes the crisis of hopelessness, suicide, addiction, and poverty that has plagued his family and Appalachian communities for decades.

Like JD Vance, I’m also from Ohio. I grew up in the city of Columbus, but my family hails from rural communities across Ohio and West Virginia. My father’s side of the family is from Northeastern Ohio while my mom’s side comes from southern Ohio and West Virginia. These are my roots, my family, and my history. From childhood through adulthood, I’ve made countless visits to my grandparent’s and great-grandparents’ homes and have seen these communities up close. I’ve listened to stories from family, friends, and neighbors. I’ve seen firsthand how poverty, domestic violence, crime, addiction, and police brutality have impacted my family and their communities. It is an epidemic and little, if anything, is being done to solve it.

JD Vance may have written the book on the subject, and he may portray himself as someone who cares about the disadvantaged working class of these poor, rural communities, but he clearly lacks the empathy required of a leader who truly seeks to help these people. He is not the person to represent these communities, or any Ohioans, in the Senate.

Nothing proves my point more than Vance’s recent comments on domestic violence, an issue that hits close to home for many people, including myself. Speaking to high school students at Pacifica Christian High School in Newport Beach, California, Vance said:

“This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, ‘well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making…