MOUNT VERNON – Democrat Tim Ryan brought his campaign for the U.S. Senate to Knox County on Thursday, sharing his message that he wants to position communities like Mount Vernon for manufacturing growth and fight for investment in infrastructure and jobs.
Ryan held a meet-and-greet at Knox County Democratic Headquarters at 9 East Vine St. in Mount Vernon.
Upon election to the Senate, he would push for the passage and expansion of the America COMPETES Act of 2022, which passed the House on Feb. 4. The county needs to go all in on competing against China, he said.
His legislative plans would be “continuing to have an aggressive program to reassure companies to the U.S., like the Intel deal, really focusing on manufacturing jobs,” Ryan said.
Ohio has always built things, and now competition with China is the country’s No. 1 issue, he said.
“You see them looking the other way now, with what's going on in the Ukraine. They do not share our values,” he said.
The U.S. only has 330 million people to compete with China’s population of 1.4 billion.
He’d bring shop class back, invest money in vocational schools and get away from the idea that everybody must go to college. Young people will need skills that might require just a bit more training after high school, he said.
“The infrastructure investment that passed a few months back, I worked closely with Sen. Portman on. It's going to create almost 600,000 jobs in Ohio,” Ryan said.
He said Ohio once dominated industries, whether it was Akron and rubber, glass in Toledo, or energy and agriculture across the state.
“We dominated those industries, and now new industries are emerging and China's dominating them,” he said. “So, I want Ohio to be on the cutting edge of these new industries, which will mean long-sustained jobs, jobs for people that pay well.”
Ohio needs to be positioned as a leader in this generation of industry.
“China dominates 52% of the electric vehicle market,” Ryan said. “And these are good-paying manufacturing jobs that need to be in Ohio. And that's what I'm going to fight for.”
He got started in politics after being ignored by a lot of politicians growing up. They ignored the community and didn’t have the people’ best interest in mind by outsourcing jobs to China and Mexico, he said.
“And so at a very young age, I wanted to be a part of trying to make that right and help these families that had lost the jobs or had to move to Indiana or Michigan or wherever to go follow the work,” he said.
Being in the Senate would be a position where Ryan said he could make a difference.
He plans to win by showing the people he will be a fighter for Ohio, for the people who live in what he calls “real” America.
“I know what they've been through, because my family and my community has been through it, too,” he said. “And I think people vote for somebody who understands that, and I understand that better than anybody in this race.”
His campaign has taken him to 80 of the state’s 88 counties.
“We're going to see people everywhere, meeting them and learning about their communities and what the opportunities are in these communities,” he said. “People really appreciate it.”
