Similarly to Florida, Ohio, a once purple state, has become increasingly Republican. Gov. Mike DeWine was just reelected by 25 points, and Sen.-Elect J.D. Vance beat out Rep. Tim Ryan to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman by 6 points. As NBC News' "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd reminded viewers during the most recent Sunday edition, his guest, Sen. Sherrod Brown, "is the only Democrat to win statewide in Ohio in the past decade." The segment featured considerable discussion of Title 42, which a judge has ordered to come to an end later this week.
The senator appeared largely dismissive and even tone-deaf throughout the discussion of the hot-button issue. Todd was just as delusional, as he referred to the immigration plan from Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) as something that "seemed like the perfect compromise."
Townhall, including columnist Kurt Schlichter, has covered the plan extensively, particularly how it amounts to amnesty and is a gift to Democrats. As Spencer covered last Thursday night, the plan was shot down. Todd asked Brown why he thinks that was.
While Brown claimed he couldn't speak for Tillis or Sinema, he suggested it had something to do with "probably looking across the Capitol and seeing the chaos in the House right now, that even if we were able to do something in the Senate." He also prioritized the focus on DACA, emphasizing "it's really important we focus on [Dreamers] first," with the idea of national security being more of an aside.
As Matt highlighted, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did not allow the bill to be attached to the omnibus bill, which killed it.
Todd pushed the pro-amnesty plan even further as he asked what Brown could do when running for reelection to get more Ohio voters on board, who Brown expressed in his response "are reasonable," casually mentioning "we're a slightly lean Republican state now."
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It's likely that Brown wishes that were the case. While he has been reelected multiple times, as Todd himself pointed out, Brown is the only statewide Democrat to have won in several years.
An even more eyebrow-raising remark, though, was how the senator dismissed the issue. "I don't hear a lot about immigration from voters except people on the far right that always want to gain political advantage by talking about it," he claimed. Rather, it's "serious-minded people" who are in favor of amnesty as Tillis and Sinema are, he claimed, going on to once more make a push about the importance of DACA.
Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown: "I don't hear a lot about immigration from voters except from people on the far-right" pic.twitter.com/PLQeMx7X69
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 18, 2022
While Ohio may not be as directly as affected as immigration as border states, such as Texas, that's not to say voters don't care about it. While attending a campaign event for Vance in September, Townhall spoke with the event organizer, Tomie Patton, who serves as the president of Republicans of Avon Lake. While she acknowledged "we don't really see it" from where she was speaking in northern Ohio, concerns about the border still matter to Ohio voters as "a big issue" because "people are incensed by it."
Ohio was also affected by crime allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant from over the summer, in that Gerson Fuentes has been charged with raping a 10-year-old, who became pregnant and received an abortion in neighboring Indiana. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Fuentes is in the country illegally from Guatemala.
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