Rep. Tim Ryan pushes 'bringing compassion to politics' during Lorain visit

LORAIN — Lorain and the rest of Ohio are ready for an end to political extremism, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, told those gathered Thursday morning at Lakeview Park South. The latest of Ryan's stops in the International City saw a focus on the "exhausted majority" and a push for economic revitalization in the Midwest during Ryan's campaign speech. Ryan is running for the U.S. Senate against JD Vance, a Republican venture capitalist and lawyer who rose to prominence after writing a memoir about his family's Appalachian roots. The winner will replace Republican Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, who announced last year he was not seeking reelection. With less than two weeks until Election Day, and early voting underway, Ryan's message was one of bringing compassion to politics. "There's been enough hate, there's been enough anger, there's been enough fear, there's been enough division," he said, garnering cheers from those clutching campaign signs in gloved hands. "We want to bring love, and compassion and understanding and forgiveness and some common sense and a little bit of grace to our public discourse. That we can disagree without being disagreeable." He said he has issues with Democrats who ignore working-class people, but he's still able to look party members like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden in the eye without hating them. The fundamental issue on the ballot is freedom, he said. "This is a foundational value in the United States of America. You look at a woman's ability to handle her own health care decisions," a mention that generated overwhelming cheers from women in the crowd. "You look at the ability for a person to join a union … to be able to say 'We want to negotiate with the company together,' that's an issue of freedom. You look at the issue of who you want to marry, that's your own business the government shouldn't be involved in that," he said. He continued, noting many Americans are trapped in a "broken economic system," working six, seven days a week and 15 hours a day. "They are not free. … So we are going to campaign the next 10 days on freedom," he said. He said many Republicans are quietly voting for him, according to party leaders in deeply red counties. "They don't want to get into a fight with anybody, but they certainly don't want to support people that think it's OK to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6," he said. "JD Vance raised money for those people who stormed the Capitol … saying the election was stolen — people don't want to go down that road. And just because you voted for Donald Trump doesn't mean you support that stuff." Ohio is made up of leaders, he said, from Civil War generals to men and women who fought and worked during World War II to the astronauts who went to the moon. "I want to try to provide some of that leadership and we people to go out and be the leaders and shape the future of our country," he said. "And the future of Lorain, the future of Youngstown, the future of Ohio. It happens because we make it happen." After telling a story of when his wife was a fourth-grade teacher and attended a high school football game — only to be mobbed by her former students coming back to greet her — he said those teachers, nurses, police officers and working-class people need to be protected. "We want your wages to be good, we want you to have a dignified retirement and we want you to have a little joy in your life," he said. "That's what we're fighting for right now — to rebuild the great American middle class." This generation has a rendezvous with destiny, he said, and a commitment to future generations to leave them a country and a government to be proud of. Ryan said his grandfather was an example of that, recalling the civic responsibilities his grandfather, a union steelworker in Niles, had to the church and to his community. He had a good job, and he was able to get involved on his days off and support local levies for police, fire, mental health, libraries and schools, Ryan said. After his grandfather's death, Ryan remembered helping his mother go through his grandfather's things. There, Ryan found a book, "The Legacy of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church," and flipping through he found a photo of a much younger man he recognized immediately — despite the darker hair and thinner face. "He's standing in front of a half-built brick wall that I later find out that half-built brick wall became Our Lady of Mount Carmel grade school that I went to, and that my brother went to and that all the Italian Catholic boys and girls in Niles, Ohio (went to). … This guy was literally building my future." That is the core of politics, he said. "Are we building a future for our kids, and for our grandkids?" During a meeting with media after the small rally, Ryan touched again on economics and a tax cut for the middle class, but also on the needs of the Hispanic community. "In the short term, again, we need a tax cut to put money in people's pockets, that's the way we help people in the short term before there's a global fix to the inflation problems," he said. "And with regards to immigrants and the immigration community, we've got to stop treating this like a political football. … We've had bipartisan immigration reform bills five or 10 years ago in Congress, passed the Senate with 70 or 80 votes. … We need a strong border, we need to know who's coming in and out of our country, we need to make sure we keep the drugs out, especially the fentanyl, and then we need to figure out a way for people to legally come into the country," Ryan said. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.