Mr Ryan condemned anti-Asian violence but said he spoke specifically about the Chinese Communist Party government policies that have hurt workers in Ohio and that he is not holding back.
A guide to the 2022 midterm elections
Seven months before the November election, it’s too early to tell if the Ryan script is working. Interviews with voters, former elected officials and community leaders in Niles, Warren and other towns in the industrial region known as the Mahoning Valley showed how difficult the midterm elections will be for Democrats and for Mr. Ryan. His message about jobs and the economy clashes with the prices working-class voters pay at supermarkets and gas stations.
Many Republican voters in this part of the Mahoning Valley were quick to dismiss any Democrat as unviable, citing gas prices, inflation and the US-Mexico border as Democratic problems requiring Republican solutions. Democrats were often divided between those who supported Mr. Ryan and those who were wary that he had become too much of a part of the Democratic establishment. Even anti-Trump voters were in an anti-establishment frame of mind.
Outside the Hot Dog Shoppe in Warren, Royce VanDervort, 76, who worked for the Packard Electric Division at General Motors, said he understood why people grew tired of the Democratic political machine amid factory closures and job losses, but was surprised by how strong and endured the Trump appeal. He is a seasoned Democrat and said he is Mr. Ryan supports. “Too old to change now,” he added.
But Mr. VanDervort’s friend and neighbor, Dennis Garito, 57, was the kind of voter Mr. Ryan was trying to win back. Garito, a retired manufacturing worker and 35-year Democrat, now describes himself as an independent. On the one hand, he said, he is concerned that Mr. Ryan and other Democrats have lost touch with the people they represent. On the other hand, he’s gotten sick of far-right Republicans arguing, he said, like “fighting kids.”
He plans to be on Mr. Ryan to vote in the Democratic primary. But if Senator Matt Dolan, a Republican less centered on Trump, wins the Republican primary and gets to the ballot in November, Ryan will likely lose Garito’s vote. “If it comes out between Dolan and Ryan, I’ll probably vote for Dolan,” said Mr. Garito. mr. Ryan, he added, had become “too much of a career politician”.