HOWLAND TOWNSHIP, Ohio – Tim Ryan says there’s a certain amount of disappointment when you lose your home county – even after winning the election.
“It certainly stings,” he said bluntly.
The former presidential candidate won his 10th congressional race against Republican Christina Hagan to represent the five counties of Mahoning, Portage, Stark, Summit and Trumbull that make up the fabled “valley” by 7 percentage points. However, he was 1.5 points compact of the place he calls home.
“It has been a difficult year for many moderate Democrats across the state and the country,” Ryan said.
Youngstown State University political science professor Paul Sracic said that when the 13th Congressional District seat was drawn after the last census, it was one of the most Democratic seats in Ohio’s delegation.
“Ten years later, it seemed like the core of the district had become Republican,” he said. “In Trumbull County alone, we lost a state senator. We lost a state representative. We lost a longtime county commissioner. In Portage County, we lost a state representative. We lost a county commissioner in Stark County and five countywide elected seats.”
Ryan is blaming a brand that Middle American voters don’t trust to have their support behind them, which is especially painful in a district known for its support of working-class Democrats.
“Our brand is not good,” he said. “70 million people either hate us, are afraid of us, or believe that our party has such extensive socialism. That’s why we lost so many seats in the House or some of the seats were much closer together than we wanted.”
Ryan points to a quote he heard last week from Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report that he thinks sums up how much elections have changed: “It used to be that all politics was local, now it seems that all local politics is national”.
Republicans were projected to lose 15 to 20 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives by last Tuesday. Not only did that not happen, but Republicans could gain up to 13 modern seats.
Ryan also places the blame on Twitter, where too many staffers, members of Congress and the media are constantly insulting each other or drawing the lines of social justice in the sand. Such issues never arise in places like his hometown of Niles, Ohio. While everyone in the Twitter vacuum thinks these are the issues voters care about, Ryan vehemently disagrees.
“It’s just not true. “Voters are not interested in the latest Twitter fight,” Ryan said. “They care about jobs and the economy.”
A Twitter spat broke out on Sunday between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Conor Lamb when the latter called his campaign’s lack of a digital presence a impoverished strategy for Democrats, highlighting his tight race in western Pennsylvania.
He returned the favor by remarking that he didn’t have to face a real challenge in the general election, which sent Twitter into a frenzy. This is exactly what Ryan claims he has no interest in getting involved with.
Ryan acknowledges that members like Ocasio-Cortez have a much bigger megaphone than he or any other centrist Democrats trying to do everything they can to represent their districts. However, he hopes that Joe Biden’s megaphone will prevail.
“I think he did a good job during the election. He pushed back on energy issues. “He pushed back against the police, saying we need to talk to the police, law enforcement and civil rights organizations and bring the temperature down,” Ryan said. “I mean, he had good responses to these provocations and that’s why I think he has a real chance to rebrand the party.”
Ryan’s frustration with his party’s leadership and brand is nothing modern. Four years ago, he ran against Nancy Pelosi for House speaker after the 2016 presidential election results placed Democrats in a historic minority.
Pelosi won. But Democrats gained backseat seats in 2018, only to lose many of them again on Election Day. He says he won’t question her as speaker this time.
“A lot of people feel like my party has abandoned them,” Ryan said. “I think if we start to get really tangible results on the economy, on Covid-19 and a good infrastructure package, we have a chance to go into the medium term with a pretty good economy.”
He then said, “Then running for Democrat could be an interesting time. With a new brand and a good economy, it could look more like the Clinton economy of 1996 than the Clinton economy of 1994.”
He added: “Joe Biden has a moment to bring a new name, a new brand, to the party. If he can do this, we can stem our losses.”
Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst and a reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. Reaches Everyman and Everywoman through leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the Beltway and all places in between.
