Trump Endorsement Put JD Vance Over the Top in Ohio

BUCK: Gonna get into the politics situation right now in the aftermath of the Ohio primary that occurred last night. There are Senate and congressional primary seats that are obviously still up for grabs, but at least we know who on the Republican and Democrat tickets in Ohio is gonna be vying for those seats. JD Vance, who… We had JD on right?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: I’ve interviewed him numerous times in the past going back for a while. Funny. I don’t even hear people talk that much anymore about Hillbilly Elegy, which is really what got his name out there —

CLAY: Phenomenal book.

BUCK: — which is a great book. Now he’s a venture capitalist, went to Yale Law School, and he is the Republican primary winner in the state of Ohio. His closest competitor was Josh Mandel. Vance got 33%. With 99% of… Yeah. All the precincts in, basically. Thirty-two percent went to Vance, 23% Mandel. And a lot of things here. For one, Clay, people are pointing to the power of the Trump endorsement here. As we know, you’ve got JD Vance had the Trump endorsement very publicly and a lot of people from Trump world were supporting him.

JD is a frequent guest on Tucker’s show which I think — I know, we all know — speaks not only to millions of people, but definitely speaks to primary voters and the Republican base very directly. And I’m just looking at this now for what this could mean going into November. One thing is does the Trump endorsement mean a lot for any still out there.

You got Dr. Oz up against McCormick in Pennsylvania. We’ve had them both here on the show as guests. I think that will be interesting ’cause Oz got that endorsement. ‘Cause remember, Dina Powell is the wife of McCormick who’s a billionaire hedge fund manager. Dina was in the White House in the early stages of the Trump presidency. So a lot of wrangling to get that Trump stamp of approval.

And then beyond that, Clay, you know, what does this mean when Ohio is going for MAGA candidates, if you will, does this suggest that as we’re heading into midterm election you’re gonna be seeing things looking very good for anybody else who’s Trump-backed across the country? That’s one part of this. There are other aspects of this, too, I want to get into. But what do you think?

CLAY: Look, I think Trump won the election. And we got a ton of people in Ohio. I heard the other day — you did, too, Buck — we’re number one in Columbus. We’re number one almost in Cincinnati. We got a monster audience all over the state of Ohio. I heard from a lot of people that JD Vance, that swung the election. And if you look at the polling, JD Vance was not leading that I saw in any poll until the Trump endorsement came out.

And Trump planned it almost perfectly, Mid-April, right in advance of this election. I don’t think JD Vance would have won this race if Donald Trump doesn’t endorse him. Certainly, he wouldn’t have won it in my opinion if Trump had endorsed someone else. So where I think the Trump endorsement is gonna have the biggest impact — and we’ll see if it also translates in Pennsylvania — is when it’s a tightly contested primary with multiple places, which I think is also gonna happen in Arizona where Trump has not endorsed anybody yet but there are three or four guys really kind of going toe-to-toe, trading blows.

BUCK: Good candidates in Arizona, I gotta say. We’ve had Kari Lake on the show.

CLAY: For governor. She’s been endorsed by Trump. But you got Brnovich, you’ve got Blake Masters — and by the way, we don’t endorse anybody on this show when we got Republican primaries going on. But there’s a real battle going on. I want to make sure that I get this ’cause I was looking at the polling, I’m kind of a poll nerd, Buck. I love to watch some of these tight races.

And it’s basically right now, a three-way battle in Arizona where it’s almost impossible to figure out how exactly that race is gonna go, where it seems to me that where Trump comes in and makes a choice is potentially going to determine who ends up winning there.

BUCK: Here is JD Vance on his primary victory last night in Ohio.

BUCK: Oh, by the way, a former colleague of mine also, Madison Gesiotto, won the primary in a very tight primary race in a Congressional District in Ohio too last night.

CLAY: Oh, that’s awesome.

BUCK: I’ve known Madison for many years. Yeah. I have a number of either colleague/friends running, there’s even one place, Clay, where I have two friends/colleagues running against each other.

CLAY: Which is one another, by the way, you’re in a really tough spot when it’s legitimate friends that you have that are going head-to-head but that’s one reason I’ve tried… People have said, hey, Clay, what do you think about what’s going on in your own backyard in Nashville where you have a new congressional District. Why don’t you weigh in and tell us, you know, kind of pull the strings?

I’m trying to stay out of that stuff because I want to let voters decide who their top pick is, and if I were a politician, that’s one thing where you come out and you say, “Hey, I’m gonna endorse this person or not.” By the way, let me hit the Arizona battle where Brnovich, I believe, Lamon — and I might be mispronouncing some names — Masters, McGuire, and Olson.

There is a big battle going on in Arizona where, given how tight it is, that impact could be substantial. Now, to be fair, in Georgia, which is about to have its primary, Trump came out in favor of Perdue, and it appears Brian Kemp, the incumbent governor, is going to win comfortably in that primary.

So when head-to-head it may not matter as much in terms of an endorsement as it does when there are four or five people and they’re all kind of bunched together, which is what we saw in Ohio. But I think if you’re looking those results, it’s hard to argue against Trump ’cause I don’t think JD Vance wins if Trump doesn’t endorse him, and he certainly doesn’t win if Trump endorses somebody else.

BUCK: I say we take some calls on the impact of this, particularly — so we want to update you on what happened last night in Ohio, and we know we’ve got other big primaries ahead. I should look up when the Pennsylvania primary; it’s gotta be sign, right?

CLAY: I think it’s the 17th. 17th or the 24th. I put ’em again to my point on being a nerd, I have those primaries in my calendar —

BUCK: The way people have their friends’ birthdays, you have primary dates?

CLAY: I got primary dates.

BUCK: I gotta take a page out of that one.