Ohio Rep. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, said JD Vance resorted to the “oldest trick in the book: antisemitic conspiracy theories” in recently reported remarks on the candidate’s abortion stance.
The USA TODAY Ohio Network reported Sept. 15 that in a January interview on the “What’s Left?” podcast with Aimee Terese and Oliver Bateman, Vance, who is running for the Ohio Senate seat against U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, referenced an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
“Let’s say Roe v. Wade is overruled,” Vance said in the January interview. “Ohio bans abortion in 2022 – let’s say 2024. Then every day, George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately Black women to get them to go have abortions in California. Of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity. ... If that happens, do you need some federal response to prevent it from happening because it’s really creepy? I’m pretty sympathetic to that, actually. Hopefully we get to a point where Ohio bans abortion and California and the Soroses of the world respect it.”
Weinstein joined state Reps. Juanita Brent, Catherine Ingram, Terrence Upchurch and candidate Erika White Sept. 23, for a news conference in which they called Vance’s antisemitic and racist remarks dangerous and telling of who he is.
“(The remarks) play into an old antisemitic trope that Jewish people are masterminds that are, in particular, rich and powerful, that are controlling world events behind the scenes,” Weinstein said during the conference. “It’s false, it’s gross and it has real world consequences, and it’s time to call him out on it.”
He said the use of this antisemitic conspiracy theory was an attempt to distract from his “extreme” anti-abortion stance that does not support exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Weinstein also said the remarks show no respect for Jewish Ohioans and recalled the protests that took place outside his home in January.
“I’ve both stood up to antisemitism before when I faced protests at my home, and JD Vance’s rhetoric is the exact kind of stuff that leads to these protests at my house on Sunday afternoons in front of my kids,” Weinstein said.
Brent, president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus – the oldest Black caucus in the U.S. – led the conference to address the antisemitic and racist remarks as well as the candidate’s abortion stance. She called Vance’s comments out of touch and not in tune with the needs of the community.
“Instead of him fighting to make sure that everyone has access, he’s encouraging that it’s going to be OK that there are going to be barriers within the state of Ohio,” she said.
Upchurch, D-Cleveland, shared his outrage over Vance’s spreading of racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories and past comments comparing abortion to slavery.
“The issue is over women having control over their own bodies, and inventing new conspiracy theories to explain why you want to force survivors of rape and incest to give birth is just gross,” Upchurch said, mentioning recent reports of minors who were victims of rape traveling across state lines for an abortion.
White, a Democratic candidate running against Derek Merrin to represent District 42, spoke about the divisive nature of Vance’s remarks.
“As we talk about struggling to find health care that women need and even crossing state lines to do so, that should be an outrage, and when anyone like JD Vance calls this an amazing victory, we should be outraged,” she said. “We should come together as Ohioans and realize that women and women’s voices should not be downplayed or made into conspiracy theories to separate us.”
