Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has since left the Democrat Party, is endorsing Republican J.D. Vance against Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) in Ohio’s Senate race.
On Tuesday, Gabbard gave Vance her endorsement, writing on Twitter that Ryan “represents everything that is wrong with the warmongering Washington Establishment.”
“I’m endorsing [J.D. Vance] because he knows the cost of war, and that our government exists to serve the people, not the other way around,” Gabbard, a United States Army Reserve officer, said.
In response, Vance said he was thankful for Gabbard’s support.
“Grateful to have the support of the last person to clean Tim Ryan’s clock on the debate stage. Thanks Tulsi! And thanks for putting country over party,” Vance said.
Vance’s reference to Gabbard’s “clean[ing] Tim Ryan’s clock on the debate stage” recalls the Democrat presidential primary debate in 2019 when Gabbard grilled Ryan for his suggestion to leave U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan indefinitely rather than bringing American troops home.
“We must have our State Department engaged, we must have our military engaged to the extent they need to be,” Ryan said during the debat, to which Gabbard responded, “Is that what you will tell the parents of those two soldiers who were just killed in Afghanistan — ‘Well, we just have to be engaged?'”
While Ryan has continuously supported U.S. military intervention across the globe, most recently helping President Joe Biden send billions in American taxpayer money to Ukraine, Vance has backed a restrained foreign policy that focuses on bringing American troops home and reducing the amount taxpayer money that is sent off to foreign countries annually.
“… we have a leadership in this country that is constantly focused on stuff that has nothing to do with citizens in our country, has nothing to do with the middle-class citizens in my state of Ohio or all across this country, and ladies and gentlemen, it has to stop,” Vance said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this year.
“I’m sick of it. I’m sick of being told that we have to care more about people 6,000 miles away than we do people like my mom, my grandparents,” Vance said.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.