(Republicaninformer.com)- Republican JD Vance won a seat on the Senate representing Ohio during Tuesday’s midterm election, and he has former President Donald Trump’s support to at least partially thank for that.
Yet when he gave his victory speech on Tuesday night, Vance didn’t mention Trump once, even though he received the former president’s official endorsement during the race.
Trump endorsed a number of Republicans who were embroiled in tight races during this week’s midterm elections, but Vance was the only one who was able to secure his victory on the night of the elections. Some others lost, while others still are in races that are too close to officially call.
One of those is in Georgia, where Republican candidate Herschel Walker will face off against Democratic incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock in a runoff election next month.
During his victory speech, Vance thanked dozens of people who were either involved directly in helping his campaign, or others who assisted in the victory. Yet, Trump’s name wasn’t mentioned once.
It’s not clear whether someone got in his ear after the victory speech, or whether he wanted to signal Trump out separately, but Vance did release a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday morning that said the support that Trump gave him in the race “made all the difference.”
The statement read:
“I can’t thank President Trump enough for his support. His endorsement and the work he did to drive turnout — including a huge rally in Dayton on election eve — made all the difference in this race, and led us to the largest battleground victory in the nation.”
While Vance was victorious Tuesday night, Republicans didn’t fare nearly as well as a whole as many people expected. The GOP looks like it’ll still win control of the House — and has a chance to win the Senate as well — but many were predicting a huge red wave that didn’t end up happening.
Many conservative media commentators said the fact that this happened was a major sign that it was time for the Republican Party to move on from Trump and his politics. Some argued that Trump ended up endorsing many outlandish candidates who had no legitimate chance of actually winning their general elections — which gave Democrats many victories. It might even give liberals control of the Senate once again.
One of the senior writers at the National Review, Michael Brendan Dougherty, tweeted:
“All the chatter on my conservative and GOP channels is rage at Trump like I’ve never seen. The one guy he attacked before Election Day was DeSantis — the clear winner, meanwhile, all his guys are s–ing the bet.”
Another conservative commentator, Phil Wegmann of RealClearPolitics, wrote:
“GOP Source tells me after tonight, with Trump candidates underperforming and DeSantis winning by double digits, 2024 is a ‘free for all.’ Everybody in the water. If you want to take on Trump, he’s never been weaker.”
