Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance has been running a full-on Trump campaign to win in the Buckeye State, complete with a pitch to finish Trump's never-completed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
But CNN reports that, in 2016, Vance believed the border wall was a meaningless symbol, while also acknowledging Trump's habit of engaging in overt race baiting.
During an appearance on CNN six years ago, Vance not only talked about Trump's use of racism to appeal to white voters, but also linked it to the Republican Party as a whole.
"It's not just that Donald Trump doesn't speak to issues of special concern of minority voters or Black voters, it's that he seems to like actively antagonizing a lot of the Black voters," Vance told host Don Lemon. "Unfortunately, that's been the Republican Party strategy for 30 years. I say that as a Republican who wants the party to get more Black voters. And Trump seems to be taking that strategy just to the next level. It shows in the polls, right? He's not going to do especially well on Election Day."
Vance also suggested that some working-class Trump voters were attracted to his campaign because it gave them a sense of community that they'd get elsewhere if they went to church more often.
"I think Trump provides that sense of community that many in the white working class would have, if they actually went to church," Vance told New York public radio. "I think if folks went to church a little bit more they may not be as excited or as attracted to the sort of social experience that Trump provides."
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