Politics

By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Tuesday finalized a rule it said would fix the so-called family glitch in the Affordable Care Act that priced many people out of health insurance and would help over a million Americans.

The fix, first proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service in April, addresses an element of the healthcare law that left family members of those with access to employer-provided health plans ineligible for certain subsidies.

“Now, the Treasury Department is finalizing that fix so that the law works the way Congress intended and the cost of coverage comes down for families all over the country. Starting next month, Americans can sign up to take advantage of this change,” President Joe Biden said in a White House statement.

“About 1 million Americans will either gain coverage or see their insurance become more affordable as a result of the new rule,” he added.

The problem was that employer-based health plans have been considered affordable as long as the coverage was within the financial means of an employee, regardless of whether it was too expensive for family members. As a result, the family members were not eligible for the subsidies they may have needed, the White House said.

The open enrollment period for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act starts on Nov. 1.

Also known as Obamacare, the law helps low and middle-income Americans who do not have access to affordable health insurance coverage through an employer.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who like Biden is a Democrat, said in a statement the fix will bring down healthcare costs and expand access to affordable coverage.

Republicans say the remedy contradicts the text of the law and that it will significantly increase spending on Obamacare plans. They also say it would lead to a major shifting of people out of employer-based plans and into government-subsidized ones.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Early voting began Tuesday across New Mexico on a limited scale at county clerk’s offices, as election regulators began mailing absentee ballots by request to registered voters.

More than a dozen people formed a line to cast ballots outside the Santa Fe County clerk’s office, including U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández as she seeks reelection in a race against Republican engineer Alexis Martinez Johnson.

Many counties will add more early voting locations on Oct. 22. Polls close Nov. 6-7 prior to Election Day on Nov. 8.

Three first-term congresswomen are seeking reelection in contested New Mexico races, as voters also consider a long list of candidates for statewide elected offices, including governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is seeking a second term in office against GOP nominee Mark Ronchetti in a contest highlighting concerns about urban crime, abortion access and spending priorities amid a windfall in state government income from oilfield production.

Ronchetti hopes to unseat the incumbent governor with calls for a new approach to combatting crime amid a record-setting spate of homicides in Albuquerque and a proposal to provide annual rebates linked to oil and natural gas production.

Lujan Grisham has cast herself as crucial advocate for expanding early childhood education, tuition-free college and continued access to abortion. In 2021, she overturned a dormant state ban on most abortion procedures, while Ronchetti wants a statewide referendum in an effort to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy with limited exceptions.

In southern New Mexico, Republican U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell is seeking a second term in a congressional district that has been redrawn in ways that could help Democrats by adding portions of Albuquerque and dividing a politically conservative oil-producing region. Democratic Las Cruces Councilman Gabe Vasquez hopes to reclaim the swing district that Republicans flipped in 2020.

In the secretary of state’s race, incumbent Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver is seeking reelection after expanding ballot access through same-day registration against Republican nominee Audrey Trujillo, a proponent of new voter ID requirements and new restrictions on absentee voting.

New Mexico’s primary election in June drew national attention when a handful of rural counties considered delaying certification of the results, as angry crowds gave voice to unproven conspiracy theories about voting systems.

Albuquerque-based District Attorney Raul Torrez is vying in an open race for attorney general against Republican attorney and U.S. Marine veteran Jeremy Michael Gay of Gallup.

Voters will also decide on a statewide ballot referendum that would increase spending on K-12 schools and early childhood education by about $200 million a year through greater distributions from the state’s oil-based permanent fund.

The entire state House is up for election. Democrats are defending a 45-seat majority, with 24 Republicans and one unaffiliated legislator.

In recent elections, Democrats have consolidated control over every statewide office, the state Supreme Court and broad majorities in the state House and Senate.

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By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Los Angeles city councilwoman day took a leave of absence from her post on Tuesday as a furor raged around her and two colleagues over racist comments she was heard making on an audiotape of their private conversation.

Democrat Nury Martinez, who resigned her leadership post a day earlier, announced her leave of absence in a statement issued before the regularly scheduled council meeting.

“This has been one of the most difficult times of my life and I recognize this is entirely of my own making,” Martinez, 49, said in the statement.” At this moment, I need to take a leave of absence and take some time to have an honest and heartfelt conversation with my family, my constituents, and community leaders.”

Council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, who were heard on the recorded call along with local labor leader Ron Herrera, have issued apologies for their part in the inflammatory conversation but have defied calls to step down.

A White House spokeswoman said on Tuesday that U.S. President Joe Biden believed that all three should resign.

“He believes that they all should resign. The language that was used and tolerated during that conversation was unacceptable, and it was appalling. They should all step down,” Karine Jean-Pierre told a White House briefing.

Both Cedillo and de Leon left the council meeting as raucous protesters demanded their resignation.

Herrera resigned on Monday night from his position as president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The recorded conversation took place in October 2021 but came to light only this week after it was posted on a Reddit message board and reported by the Times.

Martinez is heard on the tape saying that council member Mike Bonin, who is white, treated his Black son as if he were an “accessory” and compared him to a “changuito,” which translates roughly as “little monkey.”

Martinez also disparaged Mexicans from Oaxaca and voiced her displeasure with Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, saying “he’s with the Blacks.”

Martinez was first elected to the city council in 2013 and became president in 2020.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by David Gregorio)

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — From Hollywood movies to the Beach Boys and Snoop Dogg, California has been a world-famous incubator of the arts.

Yet arts education is lagging in the state’s public schools. Advocacy organizations say fewer than a quarter of them have a full-time arts or music education teacher, and most schools serving low-income students offer few, if any, courses in dance, music, theater and visual arts.

An effort backed by a celebrity lineup that includes Barbra Streisand and Los Angeles-born rappers will.i.am and Dr. Dre is trying to change that with the help of voters this November.

A ballot measure would pump as much as $1 billion a year from the state’s general fund into arts education, California’s legislative analyst estimates.

Programs that could benefit go beyond the traditional art, theater, dance and music classes to include graphic design, computer coding, animation, music composition and script writing.

Austin Beutner, the former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is behind the measure. He and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan say the funding will help the arts continue to thrive in California, contributing to its robust economy, and would be especially important in helping students who struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The irony is glaring as California is the capital of the world’s creative economy,” Beutner and Duncan said in a guest commentary this year for CalMatters, a nonprofit news organization.

“This initiative is timely as our country seeks to create a more just and equitable future for all children,” they wrote. “A boost in arts and music education will help ensure the future workforce in media and technology properly reflect the diversity of the children in our public schools.”

The measure would require the state to provide funding equivalent to 1% of California’s state funding for public schools from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. The measure would send 30% of that money to low-income school districts, which have a large number of Black and Latino students

The campaign supporting the measure has widespread support and no organized opposition, a rarity. It is backed by everyone from the state teachers’ union to the Los Angeles County Business Federation, and has received more than $8 million in contributions, according to the latest campaign finance filings.

Some critics have expressed concerns about earmarking more money from the state’s general fund when California faces many other challenges, from homelessness to wildfires.

The Los Angeles Times editorial board initially opposed the measure for that reason, but later endorsed it.

“This initiative is a backdoor way to funnel more state money into schools and that its approach is more pragmatic than perfect,” a recent Times editorial said. “But that is not reason enough to vote no and deprive California children of these opportunities.”

“All kids deserve the quality arts education that California promises but has failed to deliver at many of its public schools,” it said.

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The chair of a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Tuesday asked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to detail how the Postal Service (USPS) will spend $3 billion awarded by Congress in August for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.

In a letter seen by Reuters, Representative Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, asked DeJoy for “a detailed plan and timeline to use the $3 billion in funding provided in the Inflation Reduction Act to increase the number of electric (delivery vehicles) being purchased and necessary support infrastructure.”

USPS said it is reviewing Maloney’s letter and will respond directly. This month, USPS told Reuters it was working “to evaluate vehicle mix and purchase capability in shorter intervals as technology evolves and the organization’s financial and operational picture improve.”

Maloney’s letter also seeks a detailed plan and timeline from USPS on how it “will work with the Department of Transportation and state governments to become part of the national public-facing charging network.”

In August, 17 state attorneys general urged USPS to halt planned purchases of gasoline-powered delivery vehicles pending a new environmental review.

In July, USPS said it would buy at least 25,000 electric delivery vehicles – more than twice its prior estimate – to replace its aging fleet.

In April, 16 states, four environmental groups and the United Auto Workers union filed lawsuits to block USPS from buying mostly gasoline-powered next-generation delivery vehicles under a contract with Oshkosh Defense worth at least $2.98 billion.

The White House and Environmental Protection Agency also asked USPS to reconsider, as did many lawmakers.

USPS is proposing to significantly boost EV purchases, proposing to buy at least 25,000 EVs out of its initial order of 50,000 delivery vehicles from Oshkosh, up from its prior plan to buy at least 10,019 EVs.

USPS in July said it also plans to buy more than 34,500 commercial off-the-shelf delivery vehicles over two years. Up to 20,000 could be EVs and 14,500 were expected to be gasoline-powered.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Democratic chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on Monday for a freeze on cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including most arms sales, accusing the kingdom of helping underwrite the Russian war on Ukraine after OPEC+ announced last week it would cut oil production.

“The United States must immediately freeze all aspects of our cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including any arms sales and security cooperation beyond what is absolutely necessary to defend U.S. personnel and interests,” Senator Bob Menendez said in a statement.

“As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I will not green-light any cooperation with Riyadh until the Kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine. Enough is enough,” Menendez said.

Menendez said he was horrified about attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

“There simply is no room to play both sides of this conflict – either you support the rest of the free world in trying to stop a war criminal from violently wiping off an entire country off of the map, or you support him,” Menendez said in an apparent reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia chose the latter in a terrible decision driven by economic self-interest.”

The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Saudi-led OPEC+ cartel agreed to steep oil production cuts on Wednesday, curbing supply in a tight market and raising the possibility of higher gasoline prices just as Washington seeks to limit Russia’s energy revenue because of the Ukraine war.

The move drew a sharp response from President Joe Biden, who was disappointed by the cartel’s “shortsighted” cut, the White House said, underscoring the growing rift between the United States and Saudi Arabia on energy policy.

High prices also would come right before the Nov. 8 U.S. midterm elections, when Biden’s Democrats are defending their control of Congress.

The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees review major international arms deals, which generally do not go ahead without their approval.

Saudi Arabia is the largest customer for U.S.-made military equipment.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A leaked recording of crude, racist comments that resulted in the president of the Los Angeles City Council resigning from the post also provided an unvarnished look into City Hall’s racial rivalries and the sometimes-hidden fight to seize and hold political power in a changing city.

Former Council president Nury Martinez, a Democrat, stepped down from the job and apologized Monday, saying she was ashamed of her racially offensive language in the year-old recording. Her remarks, which included mocking the Black son of a white councilman, came during a discussion with other Latino Council members and a Latino labor leader about protecting their political power during the redrawing of council district boundaries, known as redistricting. The once-a-decade process can pit one group against another to gain political advantage in future elections.

The white councilman, Mike Bonin, issued a statement with his husband calling for the resignations of Martinez and others involved in the discussion, describing it as “a coordinated effort to weaken Black political representation in Los Angeles.”

The California Legislative Black Caucus said the recording “reveals an appalling effort to decentralize Black voices during the critical redistricting process.”

Blacks and Latinos often build alliances in politics, but tension and rivalries among groups separated by race, geography, partisanship or religion have a long history in Los Angeles and, indeed, the country. The friction can cross into housing, education and jobs — even prisons — as well as the spoils of political power.

“Essentially, those two communities were going after the same pie crumbs,” said Michael Trujillo, a veteran Democratic consultant based in Los Angeles.

On the profanity-laced recording, the group discussed the city’s redrawing of Council district boundaries, as well as the need to reelect Latino members and protect economic interests within Latino districts, the Los Angeles Times, which obtained the recording, reported.

“If you’re going to talk about Latino districts, what kind of districts are you trying to create?” Martinez asked at one point. “You’re just going to create poor Latino districts with nothing?”

On the recording, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera expressed the need for caution in handling a district held by a Black councilman who had been indicted on federal corruption charges. He warned that the Black community could look at it as “a hostile takeover.”

“Because politically, they’re going to come after us,” Herrera said on the recording.

The recording surfaced at a time when rude political discourse has become commonplace nationwide, often laced with baseless allegations or conspiracy theories, but in this case involving members of the same party.

Jaime Regalado, former executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles, said the recording reveals the nature of political power struggles that often play out beyond public view.

“What we are hearing on the tape is everybody else be damned, especially the African American community,” he said.

“A lot of it goes back to when Latinos started to organize and get political power in the first place. That meant breaking the door down to City Hall,” Regalado said.

Black politicians “are trying to protect what they have. At the same time, you can understand the Latino wishes for parity” on the Council, given the growing Latino population, he said.

In 2005, when Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa became the first Latino mayor in more than a century, he had to overcome fears in the Black community that if he was elected, Black people would be ousted from government jobs and replaced by Latinos. When he was a candidate, Villaraigosa talked about overcoming the “black-brown divide” that can breed violence.

Black leadership has worried about potentially losing historically Black U.S. House seats in Southern California, amid shifting demographics.

In L.A., the Latino population has been growing for decades and now represents about half the population. The Black population is about 9%. Latinos have long said their representation on the Council falls below their share of the population, while Blacks have maintained an outsized representation, despite comprising a relatively small share of the city residents. The heavily Democratic city gave rise to a prominent line of Black politicians, including former Mayor Tom Bradley and Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters.

Fernando Guerra of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University called the racist language “horrific,” but added that the recording underscored the reality of politics. Once power is gained, “You are not going to give it to someone else.”

“There is a political axiom that power is not given up, its taken,” he said. Despite the friction “there is not a single case of a Latino taking a Black seat of a significant position in L.A.,” such as Congress or the Legislature.

The dispute has washed into the city’s race for mayor.

U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, who is running for mayor against fellow Democrat Rick Caruso and could become the first Black woman to hold the office, said the Latino Council members were “stoking the divide between our city’s Black and Latino communities.” She also called for those involved to resign.

Caruso has promised to take on dysfunction at City Hall, and the disclosure of the recording could play into his overall message. He also called for the resignation of those involved.

He called it “a heartbreaking day.”

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(Reuters) -A Los Angeles city councilwoman resigned as president of the council on Monday after the release of an audio recording in which she makes racist and other disparaging comments, including remarks about the Black son of a colleague.

Nury Martinez, a Democrat, apologized to fellow Democratic Councilman Mike Bonin and his family in a statement announcing that her resignation would be effective immediately. She continues to represent Los Angeles’ sixth district.

Martinez came under fire after the Los Angeles Times reported comments she made during a recorded October 2021 meeting, in which she said Bonin, who is white, treated his Black son as if he were an “accessory” and compared him to a “changuito,” which translates as “little monkey.” Bonin was not present.

Martinez also disparaged Mexicans from Oaxaca and voiced her displeasure with Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, saying “he’s with the Blacks,” the Times reported.

“I take responsibility for what I said and there are no excuses for those comments. I’m so sorry,” Martinez said in the statement. “As someone who believes deeply in the empowerment of communities of color, I recognize my comments undercut that goal.”

Two other Democratic members of the council – Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León – and labor leader Ron Herrera, who resigned on Monday night, were present during the conversation, according to the Times.

It reported that De León accused Bonin of not supporting Latinos and likened him to being the council’s “fourth Black member.”

The three issued statements acknowledging that inappropriate remarks were made at the meeting, according to the Times.

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor did not respond to a request for comment on Herrera’s resignation.

Bonin issued a statement on Sunday calling for the city council to remove Martinez as president and for her to resign from the legislative body.

“Any parent reading her comments will know she is unfit for public office,” Bonin said.

The local chapter of activist group Black Lives Matter said Martinez, Cedillo, de León and Herrera should resign from their posts.

Martinez was the first Latina to become president of the city’s council in January 2020, according to her office website. She was first elected to city council in 2013.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York. Additional reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh. Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Gerry Doyle)

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As Sheila Armstrong grew emotional in recounting how her brother and nephew were killed in Philadelphia, Dr. Mehmet Oz — sitting next to her inside a Black church, their chairs arranged a bit like his former daytime TV show set — placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Later, he gave her a hug, and said, “How do you cope?”

Two days later, on a stage 4 miles away, Oz’s Democratic rival for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat, John Fetterman, stood with Lee and Dennis Horton and spoke of his efforts as lieutenant governor to free the two Black men from life sentences.

“Almost 30 years in prison, condemned to die in prison as innocent men, and I fought to make sure they come out to their families,” Fetterman told the crowd.

Black voters are at the center of an increasingly competitive battle in a race that could tilt control of the Senate, as Democrats try to harness outrage over the Supreme Court’s abortion decision and Republicans tap the national playbook to focus on crime in cities.

They are perhaps the Democratic Party’s most loyal supporters. About 9 in 10 Black voters nationally went for Joe Biden in 2020, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide. In Pennsylvania, the support was similar, at 94%.

There’s no evidence of a looming mass defection to Republicans like Oz. But if he can peel off even a small share — or a critical mass of Black voters choose not to vote — it might prove consequential in a race that polls show as close.

In Philadelphia, where Black voters are the largest bloc in the swing state’s biggest Democratic bastion, some activists question Democrats’ outreach and fret about turnout.

Charles Ellison, the executive producer and host of Reality Check, a daily public affairs program on Philadelphia’s prominent Black-themed WURD radio, said Democrats lack a unified message tailored for the Black community and didn’t undertake a long-term investment in Black voter outreach.

“There’s just not this realization that’s occurring that Pennsylvania is a national battleground and Philadelphia is the cornerstone in that,” Ellison said. “And the only way you’re going to get Philadelphia and the only way you’re going to get Pennsylvania is through maximum Black voter turnout.”

Fetterman may benefit from this year’s governor’s race.

In it, Democrat Josh Shapiro’s campaign said it is investing $3 million in Black voter outreach while his opponent, Republican Doug Mastriano, has drawn criticism from members of his own party for focusing almost exclusively on his right-wing base.

Shapiro is also making regular visits to Black churches and businesses, has rolled out a platform to expand pathways to jobs and create wealth in Black communities, and endorsed a Black man, Austin Davis, for lieutenant governor.

In the Senate race, millions of dollars in Republican attack ads aired on TV in Philadelphia before Fetterman — who spent much of the summer off the campaign trail recovering from a stroke — held his first public political event there in late September.

For Oz, crime is a primary thrust. He has held two public safety-themed town halls in Black communities, suggesting that Democrats have failed to protect them from violence and drugs.

Republicans frequently point to gun violence in Philadelphia and have sought to undercut one of Fetterman’s avenues of appeal to Black voters: his efforts as lieutenant governor to free the over-incarcerated, rehabilitated or innocent. Republicans cast it as freeing dangerous criminals to roam the streets.

Fetterman and Democrats call that a lie and fearmongering that underestimates support among Black voters for giving second chances. And they say Black voters know they can trust Fetterman to support the things they care about, like voting rights legislation in Congress.

Plus, Oz is former President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate.

“I think most Black people would say he was one of the worst presidents for Black people in our lifetime,” said Sharif Street, the state Democratic Party chair and the first Black person to hold the position. “I don’t think a TV commercial can override what people know to already be true.”

At Fetterman’s rally at a recreation center in northeast Philadelphia, at least a half-dozen Black supporters introduced Fetterman.

One of the speakers, the Rev. Mark Tyler, said Fetterman supports things that Black voters care about, such as bringing jobs to “America’s poorest big city,” ending environmental racism and supporting stronger funding for city schools. Fetterman also supports criminal justice reform and ending gun violence, Tyler said.

“He did it as a mayor in Braddock and understands what it is to have to sit and stand with grieving Black families after such a tragic incident,” Tyler said.

As Fetterman stood onstage with the Hortons — brothers who had their life sentences commuted after nearly 30 years in prison, and now work for Fetterman’s campaign — he took aim at Oz’s attacks for his work to free the men. Oz’s campaign has called the Hortons “convicted murderers” and Fetterman “the most pro-murderer candidate for the Senate in the entire country.”

The Hortons were convicted of second-degree murder in a fatal shooting during a robbery in a Philadelphia bar — crimes they maintained they didn’t commit. Despite opposition from the victim’s brother, Gov. Tom Wolf freed the men in late 2020, noting they had served 27 years after turning down plea deals for 5 to 10 years.

“What does it say about a person’s character if they will fight to make sure innocent men will die in prison versus a man that will fight to make sure that they’re able to get back with their families?” Fetterman asked the crowd. “That’s the choice.”

Oz-allied groups have also aired TV ads reviving a 2013 incident in which Fetterman — as Braddock’s mayor — grabbed his shotgun and pursued a jogging Black man whom he suspected had been involved in gunfire nearby. No one was charged in the incident and Fetterman has said he didn’t know the man’s race before he confronted him.

Oz’s town halls take a softer tone, where the heart surgeon-turned-TV talk show host says he is there to listen and find solutions to problems that Democrats have let fester.

“The best thing a doctor does is listen. You can’t fix a problem you don’t hear. So I’ve spent a career heeding that and trying to understand what people are trying to say because then you can really get to the answers,” Oz said. He’s also touted his work to raise money for scholarships for Black medical students.

Love Williams, a 25-year-old registered Democrat who came to Oz’s event at the invitation of a friend, said he wasn’t sure he’ll vote this fall after feeling like Biden has underdelivered for Black people.

Asked by Williams what he’d do to help his community, Oz said he’d push for more tax dollars for private schools and to open liquefied natural gas export stations in the city to bring wealth into the community.

Williams said afterward that he wasn’t sold on Oz — or Oz’s ideas, either.

The event, he said, came off as “just a political stop for one politician.”

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The first debate between Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican JD Vance descended quickly into attacks Monday, with the candidates for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat accusing each other of being responsible for job losses and putting party loyalty ahead of voters’ needs.

Vance said Ryan had supported policies that led to a 10-year-old girl in Ohio being raped. Ryan said Vance had started a “fake nonprofit” to help people overcome addiction issues. The two accused each other of being beholden to their party, with Ryan echoing a comment from former President Donald Trump in calling Vance an “a— kisser” and Vance saying Ryan’s 100% voting record with President Joe Biden means he’s not the reasonable moderate he says he is.

The face-off between Ryan, a 10-term congressman, and Vance, a venture capitalist and author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman was one of the most contentious debates of the general election season so far. The race is one of the most expensive and closely watched of the midterms, with Democrats viewing it as a possible pickup opportunity in November.

Both candidates sought to tailor their messages to the working-class voters who could determine the election in an evening peppered with barbs and one-liners.

Ryan sought to paint Vance as an extremist, someone who associates with “crazies” from his party who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen, support national abortion restrictions and contributed to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“You’re running around with Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who wants to ban books. You’re running around with (Sen.) Lindsey Graham, who wants a national abortion ban. You’re running around with (Rep.) Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s the absolute looniest politician in America,” Ryan said.

Vance suggested Ryan’s focus on allegation of extremism was meant as a distraction from pocketbook issues important to voters, such as inflation and the price of groceries.

“It’s close to Halloween and Tim Ryan has put on a costume where he pretends to be a reasonable moderate.” Had he been, Vance said, “Youngstown may not have lost 50,000 manufacturing jobs during your 20 years.”

Ryan said: “I’m not gonna apologize for spending 20 years of my adult life slogging away to try to help one of the hardest economically hit regions of Ohio and dedicating my life to help that region come back. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, JD. You went off to California, you were drinking wine and eating cheese.”

Vance countered that he left Ohio at 18 to join the Marines, and after working in Silicon Valley, he returned to Ohio to raise his family and start a business.

During questioning about China, Ryan said Vance invested in China as a venture capitalist, the type of business move that exacerbated job losses in Ohio’s manufacturing base. “The problem we’re having now with inflation is our supply chains all went to China, and guys like him made a whole lot of money off that,” Ryan said.

Vance said it is Democratic economic policies that have harmed manufacturing, saying, “They have completely gone to war against America’s energy sector.” He said he could not remember investing in China.

On abortion, Vance did not answer whether he would support Graham’s proposed national ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Vance said he thinks different states would likely want different laws but “some minimum national standard is totally fine with me.”

He called himself “pro-life” but said he has “always believed in reasonable exceptions.”

Ryan said he supports codifying the abortion rights established in Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June. He said he opposes Ohio’s law banning most abortions after fetal cardiac activity has been detected, as early as six weeks into pregnancy, which was blocked Friday.

Vance agreed with Ryan that a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim should not have had to leave the state for an abortion, but he said the fact the suspect was in the country illegally was a failure of weak border policies.

“You voted so many times against the border wall funding, so many times for amnesty, Tim,” Vance said. “If you had done your job, she would have never been raped in the first place.”

On foreign policy, the pair parted ways on what the U.S. response should be if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to launch nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Ryan said the U.S. should be prepared with a “swift and significant response,” while Vance countered that the United States needs a “foreign policy establishment that puts the interests of our citizens first.”

Ryan responded: “If JD had his way, Putin would be through Ukraine at this point. He’d be going into Poland.”

“If I had my way,” Vance retorted, “you’d put money at the southern border, Tim, instead of launching tons of money into Ukraine.” It echoed comments Vance had made in an interview before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying he didn’t ”really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another” because he wanted to see Biden focus on his own country’s border security.

Vance said, however, that Taiwan was a “much different situation” than Ukraine because of its importance to U.S. national security. “The reason why Taiwan is different is because they make so many of our semiconductors, our computer chips. The entire modern economy would collapse without it,” Vance said.

Ryan sought at points to put some distance between himself and his party, repeating his earlier comments that Biden shouldn’t run for a second term in 2024 and calling Vice President Kamala Harris “absolutely wrong” to say that the southern border was secure.

“I’m not here to just get in a fight or just tiptoe the Democratic Party line,” Ryan said. “I’m here to speak the truth.”

Ryan said Vance didn’t have the courage to stand up to people in his own party, noting that during an Ohio rally last month, Trump, who endorsed Vance, said, “JD is kissing my a–, he wants my support so (much).”

Vance retorted: “I’m not going to take lessons on dignity and self-respect from a guy caught on video kissing up to Chuck Schumer and begging him for a promotion to his next job. That’s the kind of guy Tim Ryan is.”

While the general election debate between Ryan and Vance was acrimonious, it didn’t lead to a near-physical altercation, as an Ohio GOP Senate debate back in March during the primary season did. Former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and investment banker Mike Gibbons found themselves face to face on the debate stage, shouting at each other, while Vance told the two to stop fighting.

“Sit down. Come on,” Vance said, sitting in a row with the remaining candidates. “This is ridiculous.”

At the end of Monday’s debate, Vance and Ryan shook hands.

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