Where in the world is J.D. Vance?

Cockburn loves campaign gossip, and the latest gossipy article from the Daily Beast does little to inspire confidence in Ohio GOP Senate hopeful J.D. Vance.

Last week, Vance made a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Israel, which is pretty far from his home state in the Midwest. And apparently the fact that he wasn’t campaigning in the Buckeye State has ticked off more than a few Ohioans.

This isn’t the first of Vance’s abandonment issues. He’s been missing from Ohio speaking events and conferences, and even ghosted some of his donors according to the Beast’s source in the GOP. This comes a few days after the Beast posted about Vance’s finance issues, stating plainly in the very first line that “The J.D. Vance Campaign is broke.”

Cockburn notes that this observation is supported by recent second quarter campaign finance reports, which show Democratic challenger Tim Ryan with a significant financial edge. While Vance is going abroad, Ryan is staying stateside, speaking to people and holding events in an effort to turn the state blue.

The Ohio news channel WOSU had this to say:

Vance…has basically disappeared from public view since his May primary win. There have been no big campaign events, no TV commercials and hardly a media appearance. Many suspected he was using this slow period campaign to raise money, much of that is done in private. But that does not appear to be the case.

To Cockburn, it seems like the notable Trump endorsement of Vance in the primary is the only thing keeping Vance’s campaign afloat. While the Ohio Senate seat still looks like a likely Republican victory, the Democrats aren’t making it easy.