Centrist Independent Voter Endorsements for the 2022 General Election
Because of limited time and resources, we are focusing on a relatively small number of elections in 2022. If you have an election you would like us to take a position on, contact us through the feedback button on the side or bottom of this page or use the contact us page. We will be adding more general election endorsements as the primaries conclude.
Ohio General Election for the U.S. Senate Seat
The Republicans have nominated J.D. Vance for this seat. We endorsed Matt Dolan in the Republican primary. Dolan did better than expected, by not good enough to get the nomination. Vance has a number of strikes against him. First, he has Trump’s endorsement. If Vance wins, Trump will use that fact to strengthen his hold over the Republican Party. Second, Vance has come to embrace what some refer to as Conservative Nationalism. As best we can determine, this means conservative on social issues like abortion, protectionist on trade, anti-immigration and isolationist on international affairs. In a particularly egregious example of his isolationist views, he has made it clear that he is indifferent to Ukraine’s fate. Anyone who has examined the Centrist Independent Voter’s philosophy section or the public policy section would conclude that the Centrist Independent Voter could not endorse J.D. Vance.
The Democrats easily nominated Tim Ryan. The Centrist Independent Voter endorsed Ryan in the Ohio Democratic Primary. Ryan is a center-of-the-left politician. For our tastes he is far too pro-union, but Ohio is heavily unionized. For a review of his positions on other issues visit ontheissues.org. He is, also, a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, which marks him as more centrist than many Democrats. He is certainly more centrist than his opponents in the Democratic primary.
There is no question that Ryan is something of a long shot. However, a win for Ryan would strongly buttress the case, to both parties, that extremism loses, moderation wins. Tim Ryan therefore gets our endorsement for the U.S. Senate seat from Ohio.