Will Ohio voters hold JD Vance accountable for moving to extreme side of Republican Party?

Remember Tim Russert, the "Meet the Press" inquisitor? He made his considerable reputation playing a helpful game of gotcha, catching political figures in hypocrisies, large and small.

“You say that is your position now,” he would press. “Yet two years ago, you said something close to the opposite.” The clashing words would appear on the screen, the politician left to explain the divide.

Such questioning served well. Those on the receiving end were held accountable. Their flip-flopping usually carried a political price, the greater the reversal, or embarrassment, the heavier the damage done.

Today, such accountability matters far less. Consider J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio. In the Russert era, his campaign would likely have been toast, given his dramatic change of mind about Donald Trump.

Yet Vance triumphed in the primary, and now appears a slightly better than even shot at winning on Nov. 8.

Should a Republican candidate be doing better, the state now a deeper red, Trump carrying Ohio twice by eight percentage points? Probably. That confirms the baggage Vance carries.

For those still weighing which candidate to choose in the Senate race, Vance or Tim Ryan, a Democrat who represents part of Akron in the U.S. House, it may be worthwhile to retrace the Vance trip on Trump.

In 2016, as Trump captured the Republican presidential nomination, Vance viewed him as “cultural heroin,” a “quick high.” These descriptions resonated in view of “Hillbilly Elegy,” the best-selling memoir Vance wrote about growing up in rural Ohio, surrounded by opioid addiction, job loss and poverty.

Vance even departed from Trump on immigration, warning against easy answers to difficult problems. In other words, don’t fall for the bombast about the wall.

Candidate Vance, author and venture capitalist, can appear serious, reasoned and un-Trump. Yet Joan W. Lawrence, a much-respected former state representative and director of the Department of Aging under Bob Taft, captured the Vance transformation. Writing recently in the Columbus Dispatch, she cited how Vance “went full MAGA” in his bid to win the primary.

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Lawrence notes that telling moment when Trump declared, “J.D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad!” Vance insists Trump was joking. Actually, he was mocking Vance, trafficking in his familiar indignities and cruelties.

Part of what works in the Lawrence column are her party credentials. She knows that handfuls of fellow Republicans switching to Ryan, or refusing to back Vance, in precincts across the state, could define the outcome. She reminds how Vance once called for “a more moderate GOP,” noting that he “endorsed affirmative action, savaged Republicans as anti-science and rejected partisan vitriol.”

Lawrence charts how far Vance has traveled to the extreme, including his opposition to same-sex marriage and embracing the support of “a lunatic,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has campaigned by his side.

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All of this adds up, according to Lawrence, to Vance the “craven shapeshifter who will say whatever he needs to say to get elected.”

A devastating measure of that shapeshifting starts with a photograph by Tony Spina, the legendary photographer for the Detroit Free Press. It captures the peaceful transition of power, from one party to another, in this instance, John Kennedy taking the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice Earl Warren, witnessed by Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson, along with thousands of others, Republicans and Democrats.

Such moments were taken for granted — until Donald Trump persisted in his false claims about a stolen election. Those claims eventually led to the deadly attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, the entire post-election episode a deep betrayal of the country’s founding, values and principles.

Vance has signed up for the Trumpian lies and worse. Why reward his cynical opportunism with election to the Senate?

It takes gall for the Vance campaign to accuse Ryan of posing as something he is not. It argues that Ryan rates as some kind of radical while also highlighting his support for President Joe Biden. Isn’t Biden the moderate who won the Democratic nomination?

Otherwise, the Vance campaign is a stale affair, say, in labeling Ryan as “Taxing Tim.” Among developed nations, the United States has a lower-than-average tax burden. Actually, Ryan emphasizes the need for investment, in such neglected things as training, advanced manufacturing and new technology, commitments worthy of bipartisan support.

During the summer, John Bridgeland made a similar case in a Cincinnati Enquirer column. He served as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, now senator whose retirement announcement opened the way to Vance vs. Ryan. Bridgeland has formed Republicans for Ryan. He describes Vance as “unrecognizable” and Ryan as more deserving of votes.

Campaigns often test character. In this race, J.D. Vance has tested poorly.

Douglas was the Beacon Journal editorial page editor from 1999 to 2019. He can be reached at mddouglasmm@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: JD Vance willing to say anything to be elected to Senate