BREAKING: Republican JD Vance Defeats Tim Ryan For U.S. Senate in Ohio

Republican JD Vance is the projected winner for the U.S. Senate race in Ohio, according to NBC News.

BREAKING: Republican JD Vance wins U.S. Senate race in Ohio, NBC News projects. https://t.co/VRwChwBMN8 pic.twitter.com/Hy7QUYLVew

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 9, 2022

Looking good for my friend @JDVance1. Excited to have him in the Senate

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 9, 2022

With 90% reporting, Vance held a 53.5 to 46.4 lead.

“Vance will succeed fellow Republican Rob Portman, who did not seek re-election,” NBC News stated.

Cont. from NBC News:

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J.D. Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author who was a searing Donald Trump critic before he converted into one of his most loyal allies, has defeated Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio’s Senate race, NBC News projects.

Vance will succeed fellow Republican Rob Portman, who did not seek re-election. Unlike Portman, Vance has advanced unsubstantiated theories that a second term was stolen from Trump at the ballot box in 2020.

The race became an unexpected and expensive battleground in the fight for partisan control of the Senate. Portman’s previous success and Trump’s two comfortable Ohio victories made Ryan, 49, a heavy underdog. But Ryan tailored his campaign to independents and moderate Republicans, presenting himself as a champion of the working class.

Vance, 38, had to overcome poor fundraising, rookie mistakes that threatened to doom his campaign over the summer and suspicions within his own party about his past opposition to Trump. Polls from the summer and into early fall showed Ryan tied with Vance, although surveys in the closing weeks suggested Vance was pulling ahead.

National GOP groups, including those aligned with Trump and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, helped Vance offset his deficiencies, pumping tens of millions of dollars into ads that attacked Ryan’s record in Congress. Despite his efforts to present himself as a centrist, Ryan had a voting record that yoked him closely to President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

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