Both sides weigh in after Ryan announces candidacy

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Republicans panned presidential candidate Tim Ryan as a “congressional back-bencher” while Democrats said he “brings something valuable to the conversation.”

Both sides weighed in Thursday, the day Ryan of Howland, D-13th, announced his presidential bid.

David Betras, Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, said Ryan’s “message is he’s able to talk to people. He can talk about progressive issues and he can talk about blue collar worker issues.”

Thomas McCabe, Mahoning County Republican Party chairman, said: “We wish him luck on his quixotic quest for the presidency. Hopefully this might open the door for us to get representation in the Valley that represents us and not his own interests and his own aspirations to run for” higher office.

Of Ryan, McCabe added, “And what record is he going to run on?”

To qualify for the first Democratic debate June 26 and 27 – two days because there are so hopefuls – a candidate must either have at least 1 percent support in three qualifying polls, or have at least 65,000 unique donors with a minimum of 200 different donors in at least 20 states.

Ryan is expected to have a significant labor presence at Saturday’s rally.

Dave Green, president of the United Auto Workers Local 1112 at the idled Lordstown General Motors facility, said he’ll be proud to be there. Green, a Democrat, was Ryan’s guest at the February State of the Union address.

“If [Ryan] gets around the country and people get to know him, he’s got a great shot at this,” Green said. “Tim’s been an advocate for working people.”

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper, who said the state party hasn’t endorsed in the 2020 presidential primary, said: “Tim Ryan brings something valuable to the conversation: an emphasis on working people and economic issues. We have to take the fight to [Republican President Donald] Trump about who has a better vision for America’s future, about who is going to help communities like Lordstown, Ohio, or Flint, Mich., places that feel like they’ve been left behind or forgotten.”

When asked for a comment about Ryan, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat who considered his own presidential bid run earlier this year, didn’t mention Ryan.

He said: “I’m glad we have so many great Democratic candidates running and I hope every one of them will talk about the dignity of work because that’s how we win and how we should govern.”

The Democratic National Committee didn’t respond Thursday to a request by The Vindicator to comment on Ryan’s announcement.

Republicans were sharp in their criticism.

“Tim Ryan is a congressional back-bencher who has no chance of becoming president,” said Michael Ahrens, Republican National Committee spokesman. “You can just add him to the long list of liberal candidates demanding government-run health care, and it underscores how radical and out of touch this Democratic field truly is.”

Evan Machan, Ohio Republican Party spokesman, added: “Tim Ryan is a weak congressman and will be an even weaker candidate for president.”

In response to a tweet by a Vindicator reporter about Ryan’s candidacy, Bob Paduchick, senior advisor to the 2020 Trump campaign, wrote: “It seems every two years we go thru Tim Ryan ‘running’ for governor, speaker, president....

“The Mahoning Valley deserves a representative that will stay focused on the Valley and not self-promotion.”

Trumbull County’s Republican Party chairman, Kevin Wyndham, said: “With the field of candidates the democrats are assembling, Tim will have his work cut out for him nationally. Although by comparison to his initial primary opponents, he appears more mainstream than some of the others. In most election cycles that would benefit him, but that does not seem to be where the Democrats are positioning themselves as of late. ...

"If he makes it through the minefield of primary season, come November of 2020, he’d probably do well on the coasts, but he’ll have a difficult time selling himself to the rest of the country. Based on his Congressional track record and some of his position shifts, he’d have a difficult time even carrying his home state which has proven even in 2018 to be solidly red.”