In a risky political move, Rep. Dave Joyce recently tried to distance himself from President Trump in a congressional district that the president won by 12 percentage points in the 2016 Election.
Joyce, who is seeking reelection in Ohio’s 14th Congressional District, recently released an ad in which he touts his vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act.
“When Republican leaders in Congress tried to take away protections for pre-existing conditions, I said no,” Joyce states. “I won the the fight to fund the Great Lakes restoration, and when President Trump tried to take it away, I said no again.”
“I’m Dave Joyce, and I approve this message, because I’ll do what’s right for northeastern Ohio, even if it means standing up to my own party,” the ad concludes.
Joyce, however, regularly voted to repeal Obamacare before Trump took office, and his campaign website used to tout a record of voting for repeal more than 30 times, Cleveland.com reports.
In a state that Trump won by by 8 points, the ad seems out of place, leaving Joyce’s spokesman, Dino DiSanto to explain that “Joyce will do what is right for his district, no ifs and or buts—doesn’t matter party affiliation or who is in the White House.”
Although Joyce has occasionally been critical of the president, his voting record paints a far different picture. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Ohio congressman has voted in line with the president 96.7 percent of the time, and is expected to continue to do so 85 percent of the time.
Joyce’s ad sounds a lot more like his opponent, Democrat Betsy Rader, who is running on a platform of working across the aisle and giving a voice to “people from all walks of life and backgrounds.”
According to her campaign website, one of Rader’s top priorities is to provide Ohioans with affordable healthcare, boasting her record of working “for the Cleveland Clinic and Medicare and Medicaid Services.”
Rader, who did not face a challenger in the Democratic primary, had raised an impressive $325,000 with almost $635,000 remaining as of July.
