Angel Mom backs JD Vance in new Ohio Senate campaign ad

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JD Vance speaks with Fox News Digital at CPAC 2022

D Vance speaks with Fox News Digital at CPAC 2022

FIRST ON FOX: Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance is touting the endorsement of Angel Mom Maureen Maloney in a new ad, in which Maloney praises Vance’s stance on border security and on combating illegal immigration. 

Maloney’s son Matthew was 23 when he was killed in 2011 by an illegal immigrant drunk driver. Maloney is one of a number of "Angel Families" who have pushed for border security and stricter measures against illegal immigrants, particularly those with a criminal record.

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"He should never have been here, and it should never have happened," Maloney says in the ad.

In the ad, Maloney blasts politicians who are "too weak" to do anything about illegal immigration, and says that Vance – a hedge fund executive and the best-selling author of the memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" – has the "guts" to tackle illegal immigration.

"Illegal immigration is a huge issue, and I’ve been an activist fighting illegal immigration for the last 10 years since my son was kiled, and over the last year two million illegal aliens crossed the border into the U.S., and this year it’s going to be even higher," Maloney told Fox News Digital in an interview. "So we need politicians who are going to be strong on the border and tough on crime and I feel J.D. Vance is one of those politicians."

"I feel like he has the guts to stand up to the Democrats and even some Republicans who are allowing this to go on," she said.

Border security and illegal immigration have long been top issues for Republicans, and now with a continuing crisis at the southern border that saw sky-high numbers of migrant encounters throughout 2021, it is set to remain that way ahead of the midterms.

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Vance is locked in a tight primary race to succeed Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Other candidates include former state treasurer Josh Mandel, Cleveland entrepreneur and real estate developer Mike Gibbons, former Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken, and state Sen. Matt Dolan, a former prosecutor whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians.

Angel families were a key part of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign as he focused on illegal immigration. But Maloney says that after Trump left office, the current administration has not been interested.

"The only real time our voices were heard was when President Trump was in office," Maloney said, "The Obama administration ignored us and now the Biden administration is deaf to our cries."

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Maloney said she is hoping for a strong Republican showing in the midterms, but emphasized that that only mattered to her and fellow Angel families if those Republicans were strong on illegal immigration.

"The way it is now the Democrats have the upper hand on us, so we definitely need a red wave in November. But it doesn’t do us any good if those Republicans who do get elected are soft on illegal immigration, who want to give amnesty to all the illegal aliens in the country."