Many said they would not vote for Vance. In a tight contest, such sentiments could have far-reaching implications.
a more nationalist and isolationist foreign policy, a Trump-era shift from decades of more consistently hawkish and interventionist leanings in the party.
Parma, near where Stolar lives, is home to Ohio’s Ukrainian Village, where the fire hydrants are painted blue and yellow and every storefront contains a display of solidarity for the home country. Ukrainian flags are flown from the butchers to the funeral parlor. “Their mother, their brother, their sister and cousins are back there,” said Liscynesky, manager of the credit union. “These people can’t work. All they’re thinking about is bombs and people being killed, what’s happening to their families.”One of Liscynesky’s employees used to text their best friend in Kyiv every day. Last month, he said, the replies stopped.
“They’re traumatized,” Dobronos said at Rudy’s Strudel, an Eastern European bakery next to the Ukrainian Village. “They remember hearing bombs dropped, artillery, the difficulties when they lived in camps with pallets and air mattresses.” “We’re all very supportive of Ukraine and our efforts to oppose the Russians,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown . “Everybody I know is, except J.D. Vance. For whatever reason, Vance is on the wrong side, and I expect it to cost him votes.”
A different perspective was evident at a clambake in Strongsville, Ohio, about 10 miles southwest of Parma, where a couple hundred Vance supportersthe fighting spirit he wants to take to Washington came from his grandmother, who he said had 19 loaded handguns around her house. In a speech, he said he wanted to crack down on crime and Mexican cartels. He slammed Ryan and sought to link him to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi .
said he couldn’t sit back and watch the war unfold without helping. In March, he traveled to Ukraine and joined a troop of American and Georgian Legion fighters. With four years experience in the military, including time in Afghanistan last year, McCafferyAdvertisement