A new ad campaign for Republican Ohio Senate candidate Mike Gibbons hits his rivals J.D. Vance and Jane Timken on taxes.
Gibbons made remarks during a podcast interview last fall that recently gained attention, suggesting that middle-class people do not pay “any kind of a fair share” in income taxes.
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“The top 20% of earners in the United States pay 82% of federal income tax — and, if you do the math, and 45% to 50% don’t pay any income tax, you can see the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share, depending on how you want to define it,” Gibbons said.
Gibbons’s rivals in the crowded and competitive primary pounced on the comments, with Vance and Timken both arguing Gibbons wants to raise taxes on the middle class. Timken’s statement said Gibbons “may think the middle class only exists ‘to win an election.’”
The new ad from the Gibbons campaign says he does not support raising taxes and that rivals took his words out of context to hide “their own terrible records”; the video features Sen. Rand Paul, who has endorsed Gibbons.
Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said Gibbons is a “conservative outsider” who will end “reckless spending” in Washington.
In response to his rivals’ criticisms, the Gibbons ad cites a 2021 tweet from Vance in which he wrote, in part, “Raise their taxes.” Vance’s tweet quoted another tweet referencing reports of a meeting between top corporate officials discussing how to respond to state voting laws.
Raise their taxes and do whatever else is necessary to fight these goons. We can have an American Republic or a global oligarchy, and it’s time for choosing. https://t.co/WYFEYpiTyz
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 12, 2021
“Raise their taxes and do whatever else is necessary to fight these goons,” Vance’s full tweet said. “We can have an American Republic or a global oligarchy, and it’s time for choosing.”
“At this very moment there are companies (big and small) paying good wages to American workers, investing in their communities, and making it easier for American families,” he added in a subsequent post. “Cut their taxes. No more subsidies to the anti-American business class.”
The ad takes aim at Timken, a former chairwoman of the Ohio Republican Party, who it says “bankrolled” tax-raising politicians, pointing to a 2019 Ohio bill passed by the Republican Legislature permitting politicians to serve on boards of directors while holding office. Timken was not in the Legislature but was party chairwoman at the time.
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A recent RealClearPolitics average of Ohio Senate polls found Gibbons leading the primary field by 1.3 points.
