J.D. Vance Releases Ads Touting Trump Endorsement

MIDDLETOWN, OH —Three days after receiving an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, Ohio GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance rolled out commercials statewide on Monday highlighting the endorsement.

Vance —author of the book "Hillbilly Elegy" — revealed the 30-second spot, and The Hill reported that it will run as part of a $500,000 statewide purchase on broadcast and cable outlets. The ad buy is part of a larger seven-figure buy ahead of the May 3 Republican Primary.

In the ad, a narrator says: "J.D .is the conservative outsider who will continue Trump's fight to secure our borders, protect the unborn, get rid of the corrupt politicians and stop Joe Biden."

The narrator adds: "J.D. Vance: Marine, author of 'Hillbilly Elegy,' President Trump-endorsed American First conservative."

Then, Vance says: "Trump fought back and so have I. Now, I'll take our fight to the U.S. Senate."

Vance is running against several candidates for the nomination. According to NPR, Vance and fellow GOP challengers like businessman Mike Gibbons, former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and former state GOP Chair Jane Timken, all have "worked to mirror Trump's style and elevated his pet issues of alleged election fraud and illegal immigration."

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan is the likely Democratic nominee.

But Vance has been on record criticizing Trump on multiple occasions past. CNN uncovered now-deleted Tweets from 2016 in which Vance called Trump "reprehensible" and said he would be voting for third-party candidate Evan McMullin in that year's presidential election.

Vance has since apologized for the tweets.

Also in 2016, during an interview with Kentucky radio host Matt Jones, Vance said he agreed when the host called Trump "a total fraud that is exploiting these people."

"I agree with you on Trump, because I don't think that he's the person. I don't think he actually cares about folks," Vance said. "I think he just recognizes that there was a hole in the conversation and that hole is that people from these regions of the country, they feel ignored. They feel left out and they feel very frustrated. And I think of course in a lot of ways they feel that way for totally justifiable reasons. So it's a problem that Trump has been the vessel of a lot of that frustration."

In his endorsement of Vance, which was posted on social media, Trump made reference to Vance's previous statements.

"Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades," Trump wrote. "He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race.

"Democrats will be spending many millions of dollars, but the good news is that they have a defective candidate (Ryan) who ran for President and garnered exactly zero percent in the polls. The bottom line is, we must have a Republican victory in Ohio."