Watch the debates beginning at 6 30 p. M. On cspan, cspan now app or free mobile video app or online at cspan. Org. Ohio democratic representative tim ryan and republican j. D. Vance are the top two candidates running in this years ohio u. S. Senate race. They debated each other on a of issues. On a range of issues. The debate was held in youngstown, ohio. Wfmj. Announcer from 21 news, your place for politics, the candidates for the u. S. Senate face off for the final time. Tim ryan, j. D. Vance. This is the u. S. Senate debate on 21 wfmj. Steyer tonights debate is nestled in the grand ballroom of Stambaugh Auditorium. This magnificent venue opened in 1926 and at the time, it look less than 2 million to build. Its become a historic event venue that landed on the National Register of Historic Places and a premier facility for the arts in the Mahoning Valley. Chris good evening. Im chris sarah nelly. This magnificent venue is the backdrop for tonights second of two debates in the race for u. S. Senate in ohio. Tonights debate format is going to be very simple. It will be an open dialogue that encourages indepth conversation, all in the hopes of giving you the viewer a you, the viewer, a clearer picture of each candidates platform. I want to send it on ever to my colleague and one of tonights moderators, 21 news anchor derek steyer. Mr. Steyer thank you, chris. And thank you to our candidates tonight, tim ryan and j. D. And j. D. Vance, for being here and giving voters another opportunity to hear from you. Joining me in questioning these candidates tonight, to my left, my colleague at 21 wfmj, 21 news at 5 00 p. M. Anchor, lindsay mccoy. And to my right, Mahoning Valley journalist bertram de souza. Lets not waste any more time with the fist question. Ms. Mccoy inflation is the top issue of concern among voters. From what we pay for groceries, gas, and everyday essentials. Congressman ryan, you voted in support of the Inflation Reduction Act which you claim l claim, quote, bring down prices. But some economists and republicans do not believe this bill will do that as it spends more federal money. Why do you still stand behind this legislation . Mr. Ryan this is an opportunity for us, one, to reduce inflation. One of the big drivers. Let me first say, i know how much pain people are in at the pump, with food. Its rough, and if youre driving anywhere, if youre a Home Healthcare worker, a construction worker, its been brutal. I understand that. Thats why ive been calling for a tax cut in the short term to put money in peoples pockets. J. D. Said that was a gimmick, but its actually an opportunity for us to put more money in peoples pockets. The Inflation Reduction Act also drives down our deficit by 300 billion, which will help pull some money out of the economy, and one of the big drivers of inflation is our supply chains are locked up. Over the last 30 or 40 years, there were a lot of really wealthy people, and democrats and republicans passed trade deals that shipped our jobs overseas. Now we have a pandemic, economic , collapse, our supply chains arent here. And so the Inflation Reduction Act is saying, how do we bring the supply chains back . And that is what we have been working on here. Weve seen a stream of investments here in ohio since the Inflation Reduction Act passed in electric vehicles, in honda Just Announced a Huge Investment here. The Solar Industry up in toledo, hundreds of millions of dollars in investments. We are now natural gas was a big part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which i helped get that in there because i think thats a huge bridge for us and a job creator here in ohio. Thats how we eventually get it down, but in the short term, the answer is a tax cut for working people. Its not a gimmick. Its an actual economic tool to help relieve some of the pressure. Ms. Mccoy and mr. Vance, your response, what would you do to solve the inflation problem if elected . Mr. Vance first of all, we have an appreciate were talking about 2 trillion in additional federal spending. Thats not going to reduces inflation. That will add more fuel to the fire of inflation. I really wish tim ryan had stood up to his party on this vote because it might have made the inflation crisis a lot better if he hadnt done what he always does which is vote with nancy , pelosi and joe biden 100 of the time. Now, he says i believe the tax cut is a gimmick. I think a tax cut is a great idea, but when you vote for tim it is a gimmick because in your time in congress, you voted to raise taxes 6. 7 trillion 113 times and just a few weeks ago, in the Inflation Reduction Act itself, it raises taxes by 20 billion on working people in this state and in this country. And it sends 87,000 irs agents to go after them. To bring down inflation, we need to do two things. First of all, we need to stop spending money we dont have. Runaway spending is one of the reasons we have inflation. Larry summers said inflation would get worse with these bills and he was right. Republicans were right. But the leadership on capitol hill was wrong. The other thing we have to do is open up Americas Energy sector. Joe biden shut down pipelines and permitting for oil and gas leases. He also made it impossible to invest in ohios oil and gas sector. That Rising Energy price people see at the pump, farmers paying more for diesel, thats the direct result of policies enacted by joe biden and nancy pelosi and supported 100 by tim ryan. Mr. Ryan if i may, j. D. , you keep talking about nancy pelosi. If you want to run against nancy pelosi, move back to San Francisco and run against nancy pelosi. Youre running against me. I put the natural gas provision in the Inflation Reduction Act. I was the one who made sure we had all of the investments in electric vehicles in the Inflation Reduction Act. Do you not see whats happening at lordstown . We have four vehicles out there, a truck two cars, and a tractor. , we have a battery plant across the street that was 2. 3 billion investment. This is the future for us, j. D. , and i know youre not here a lot, but what weve been working on in this community and in ohio are the jobs of the future and the inflation we saw a stream of investments directly after the Inflation Reduction Act. Solar, gas, batteries, electric vehicles, honda, ford, Big Companies investing into communities like ours. Foxcon has four cars out there. I dont know how much clearer this could be, but this has been a good thing. If we dont do it, you know whos going to dominate these industries . China, and we cant have it. Mr. Vance let me just address that here. Tim ryan says i want to run against nancy pelosi. I dont care about running against nancy pelosi. I do care about the fact that a guy who is running to represent ohio in the United States senate votes with her 100 of the time. Now, tim ryan, of course, has a tv commercial out there right now. Its actually a pretty funny tv commercial, tim, to your team. Ryan thank you. Mr. Vance he says he only agrees with his own wife 70 of the time, but he agrees and voted with nancy pelosi 100 of the time. It must make things a little awkward in the ryan household, i suppose. But you vote with her 100 of the time. You cant run from the policies that shes supported and shoved down the throat of the people in ohio. Ms. Mccoy gentlemen, gentlemen, lets refocus, move on to the next topic. Mr. De souza gentlemen, political subservience is part of this hotly contested race. Mr. Vance, congressman ryan has called you Donald Trumps asskisser, the implication being you would pay any price for the endorsement and support of the former president , who publicly insulted you in youngstown. To prove the congressman wrong and show ohio voters you are , your own man, i would like you to identify one issue that mr. Trump is wrong about and therefore deserving of public criticism. Mr. Vance i disagree with the president on a number of things. Hes a friend of mine and im proud to have his endorsement, but look, the thing that was wrong about the Trump Administration is they put a lot of people in the administration, a lot of bad personnel folks who actually advocated limitless, nonstop wars. That would mean a lot of folks from Mahoning Valley, and a lot of folks from where i grew up, would have to go off and fight those wars. A guy like john bolton, for example, should have never been National Security advisor in the Trump Administration. Let me address tim ryans point. Donald trump told a joke the a at a rally based on a false New York Times story and tim ryan has decided to run his entire campaign on it. Tim ryan is publicly out there on national television, saying i love nancy pelosi. A few what was it, a few months ago, he went before a National Audience and said that he has to suck up and kiss up to Chuck Schumer. The guy who is subservient to the National Party is tim ryan, whos been begging for these guys to come into this race and save him from the campaign hes been running. Look, its ridiculous for him accuse me of being anything because he has utterly failed to be independent to represent this valley and he will utterly fail to represent the people of ohio if hes elected to the United States senate. Mr. De souza so i get this straight, when the former president said j. D. Is kissing my ass because he wants my support, you took that as a joke . Mr. Vance i know the president very well. He was joking about a New York Times story. Thats all he was doing. I didnt take offense to it. I talked to the president before it, i talked to the president afterwards, everybody there took it as a joke. This guy goes on national tv and says i love nancy pelosi, and has the audacity of accusing me of kissing anyones rear end. Thats pretty rich. Mr. De souza congressman, mr. Vance has portrayed you as a lap dog for House Speaker nancy pelosi and other Democratic Leaders in congress. And says ul do their bidding in the senate. To prove him wrong, id like you to point to an issue that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has totally bungled and therefore deserves public repudiation. Mr. Ryan let me say that this first is obviously a clip that j. D. Is running to try to misrepresent people. I ran against nancy pelosi, j. D. , for leadership and you have to have the courage to take on your own leaders. These leaders in d. C. , they will eat you up like a chew toy, right . I mean, you were calling trump americas hitler. Then you kissed his ass mr. Vance thats not true. Mr. Ryan it is true. Then you kissed his ass and he endorsed you and you said hes the greatest president of all time. Mitch mcconnell gave you 40 40 million to prop up your campaign, peter till gave you 15 million. Thats 55 million, j. D. What do you think they want for that . They want your loyalty and you proved youll kiss their ass too. Its nothing personal. Im just telling you ive been in this business, its a tough business. If you think youre going to help ohio, youre not. If you cant even stand up for yourself, how you going to stand up for the people of this state . How are you going to take on the corporate interests . All the money you took are from the corporations who sent our jobs overseas. Peter till, 15 million, buddy, what do you think he wants . Mr. Steyer can you answer the question . Mr. Vance let me respond. You have taken tens of millions of tim, from technology dollars, companies, from out of the state what percent of your , donors have come from the state of ohio . A very small share. His entire campaign is based on sucking up to the National Democratic establishment and of course they support you, tim, because you support their policies 100 . Heres what happened. He says he challenged nancy pelosi for leadership and then he goes on national tv and says he loves her. If thats the price of challenging nancy pelosi, doing it for a few days before you failed, like youve done with everything youve tried to get through further the people of ohio. Mr. Ryan derek, just let my answer that. The quote of me saying i love nancy pelosi was right before i said i was running against her . You know why . Because i dont have to hate anybody. I dont have to hate republicans. I dont have to hate nancy pelosi or joe biden. I didnt i dont have to hate them. We need to move the political discourse in this country from hate and anger and division to love and compassion and forgiveness and some grace. And all im saying is, i dont have to hate her. I took her on. I took her on. She was the top democrat in the entire country, tough as nails, and i stood toetotoe with her in a room full of 220 of my colleagues with her sitting in the audience and i spoke my piece, because when youre from the valley, whats you do and then you shake hands. Mr. Vance you voted with her 100 of the time. Mr. Ryan i tried mr. Vance you cant vote against them. Just one time, tim. Mr. Steyer were going to move on to our next topic, which is abortion. Congressman ryan, you said i want to go back to roe v. Wade where a fetus becomes viable at 24 to 28 weeks, but if republicans take control of the senate after midterms, that doesnt seem likely. What do you propose to protect a womans right to choose . Mr. Ryan at this point, it would be stopping a National Abortion ban. Lindsay graham, a major beard in the Republican Party in the senate, has said he wants a National Abortion ban. And we have seen how difficult it has been here in ohio. We see a couple stories every week where women are in difficult circumstances and ohio healthcare workers wont take care of them. So, they have to go to illinois or they have to go to indiana. Its a tragedy, a tragedy. Pregnancy through rape, a tragedy towards the end of a planned pregnancy when you have a room, a crib, binkies, blankets, parties planned, tragic. And j. D. And his extreme crew, they want to have a National Abortion ban. Theyre not happy with people having to go to illinois. They want people to get a passport and have to go to canada. Largest governmental overreach in the history of our lifetimes. He called rape inconvenient. This is not a guy whos ready to protect the rights of women. These are complicated circumstances. So, if the republicans control the house and the senate, we wont be able to codify roe v. Wade, which i think is the smart move, move us away from chaos and back to stability. So i will spend all my time trying to fight a National Abortion ban. Mr. Steyer mr. Vance, you said in the previous debate you said of the ohio 10yearold who was raped that she could have been , and lould to have an abortion in the state of ohio. We know thats one exception you support. Are there any others . Mr. Vance my basic view is me need to protect life in this country. In the case of that young girl, what i said is she should be able to get an abortion in this state. And i think one obvious exception that applies there is its very dangerous for a young girl to bring a baby to term like that. But lets just back up a second. Two things on this. Number one, the question presupposed that tim ryan supports codifying roe v. Wade. Yet, his actual voting record here has supported abortion without limits up to 40 weeks of pregnancy. Tim ryan voted for a piece of legislation that would have that would prevent doctors from providing care to babies who survive botched abortions. That is not the roe v. Wade standard, tim. As much as you call me an extremist, you are the extremist on this issue. The other thing thats important to talk about, tim ryan talks about this poor girl who was raped, the 10yearold girl ha who had to travel to indiana to get an abortion. Obviously, an incredibly tragic situation. Im the father of a ninemonthold girl. Its unbelievable. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have that happen to your child or to have that happen to yourself if youre a young woman. That little girl was raped by an illegal immigrant. And both the media and tim ryan need to be honest about the fact that she would never have been raped in the first place if tim ryan had done his job on Border Security. Lets talk about the full picture and the full slate of exceptions, absolutely, but lets not let the democrats off the hook for letting me career leading these leading these letting these career criminals into our state to fray to prey on our little girls in the first place. Mr. Steyer what are the full slate of exceptions . Mr. Vance theres a number. Heres the thing i want to say. You cant say with total confidence what every single exception in every single case is going to be. Let me offer an example here. I know a lot of pro life people, people who have been pro life since before i was born. One of the things they will tell you is they support an exception in the case of incest, for example. Ive heard a number of pro life people say that, but in incest exception looks different at three weeks of pregnancy versus 39 weeks of pregnancy. So i dont think that you can say on a debate stage every single thing that youre going to vote for when it comes to an abortion piece of legislation. What i am willing to do and what i think is a lot more helpful for voters who are actually listening to this is to say, number one, what are my principles . My principles are i w