Democrats are hoping a slew of Trump-supported Senate candidates will prove too inexperienced and “extreme” to elect this November.
They’re counting on that to land them back in control of the Senate come 2023.
But this battleground Democrat Senate candidate’s troubled past is coming back to bite him and his party.
This candidate can’t hold his booze
If you were to suddenly learn a Democrat U.S. Senate candidate has had multiple drunken run-ins with police, most race observers would likely suspect John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the culprit.
Few would likely venture their first guest on seemingly mild-mannered Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio.
However, the Daily Mail is reporting Rep. Ryan has been having “ongoing problems” with the cops.
In each of the incidents cited in the report, alcohol was involved.
“Given Tim Ryan’s track record of calling police officers the new Jim Crow and voting to eliminate qualified immunity, it’s not a surprise that this is the way he carries himself around law enforcement,” Columbus Fraternal Order of Police President Jeff Simpson said. “This trend of confrontational police encounters is not limited to his earlier years. Shamefully, this has been an ongoing problem with Mr. Ryan during his career in Congress.”
Not exactly a law-and-order candidate
The first incident in the Daily Mail report is from 1995.
While police were tending to an unruly customer who had a few too many at a bar Ryan was frequenting, Ryan allegedly shouted and cursed at officers while hurling drinks at them.
In 1999, Ryan attempted to get his record cleared of any wrongdoing by pointing out that he worked for his local U.S. House member, Rep. Jim Traficant.
Three years later, he again tried to get out of trouble by claiming that his father was a friend of a Bowling Green administrator.
And just three years after that, Ryan’s boss, Traficant was convicted of 10-felony charges, including bribery and racketeering – and Ryan was elected as Traficant’s successor.
Fast forward to 2012 and alcohol was once again proving to be more than Ryan could handle.
This time, as a sitting Congressman, Ryan was arrested for public intoxication.
The charge was later dismissed, however, according to the Daily Mail report, Ryan was “increasingly uncooperative” with the arresting officer.
Vance vs. Ryan
The apparently heavy-drinking Rep. Ryan has spent his entire Midterm campaign for the U.S. Senate running television, radio, and digital ads that sound like they come from a Trump-supporting Republican.
In reality, Ryan has voted with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time.
He’s even received the woke endorsement of “Squad” leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and held a virtual fundraiser with Hillary Clinton.
Vance has been leading in all but one poll since May, however all have been tight.
The RealClearPolitics average of polling in the race has Vance up 2.7-points – however, that average is brought down by the single outlier Cincinnati Enquirer survey from the first week of September that showed Ryan leading by 1-point.