JD Vance rolls out statewide ad touting Trump endorsement

Ohio GOP Senate candidate JD Vance rolled out a statewide ad Monday touting his new endorsement from former President Trump.

Vance’s campaign on Monday said the ad is part of a $500,000 purchase running statewide on broadcast and cable outlets. That $500,000 blitz is also part of a seven-figure buy for the home stretch to the May 3 primary.

“JD 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,” a narrator says in the ad after video of local news coverage of Trump’s endorsement.

“Trump fought back and so have I,” Vance adds. “Now, I’ll take our fight to the U.S. Senate.”

The ad comes as Vance presses to make Ohio GOP voters aware of Trump’s imprimatur in the roughly two-week sprint to the primary.

Vance, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” won Trump’s endorsement Friday, winning the informal competition among most of the primary candidates to win the former president’s backing.

After news of the pending endorsement broke last week, allies of Vance’s primary rivals launched a full-court press to stave off an announcement, with Vance detractors highlighting his past criticism of Trump in 2016. However, Trump still gave his support, while noting Vance’s past barbs.

“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. He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race,” Trump said.

Trump remains overwhelmingly popular among the GOP base and won Ohio by about 8 points in both 2016 and 2020.

However, Trump waited months before providing his endorsement, and now Vance will need to leverage that support in a narrow timeframe in a race where thus far he has been unable to eke out a polling lead.

Trump is holding a rally in Ohio this coming weekend that will feature Vance, which will serve as another opportunity to make voters aware of the endorsement.