Wednesday 19 October 2022 09:01 PM J.D. Vance's campaign tears into 'woke editors' for cartoon mocking his ... trends now

J.D. Vance's campaign claims that a 'woke' Cleveland newspaper is 'encouraging bigotry' after publishing a political cartoon last Wednesday that made the Indiana heritage of the Ohio Senate candidate's wife the butt of the joke.

Vance got testy at Monday night's debate – days after the cartoon was published – and lashed out at his Democratic opponent Tim Ryan by claiming his comments claiming he is racist are stoking attacks against his biracial children.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer published a political cartoon that made a parallel between his wife Usha Chilukuri's Indian heritage and Vance's opposition to the Indians baseball team changing its name to the Guardians for the sake of political correctness.

Ryan, in the cartoon, was depicted wearing a Cleveland Guardians jersey and ballcap, while Vance was shown wearing a San Francisco Giants jersey and hat – in an apparent attempt to peg him as a carpetbagger.

'Only Indians name change I support is my wife's to 'Senator J.D. Vance's Spouse,'' Vance is shown saying in a speech bubble in the cartoon.

Notably, the Cleveland Plain Dealer over the weekend endorsed Vance's Democratic opponent Representative Ryan.

'I'm a first generation Indian American and my immigrant parents taught me to love this country as much as they do, which is why I've never been one to bring race into the conversation,' Vance's Chief Strategist Jai Chabria said in a statement provided to DailyMail.com, which noted the potential hypocrisy when it comes to racism against a Republican politician.

'[T]he Cleveland Plain Dealer's woke editors published a cartoon that explicitly encourages bigotry against Indian women by perpetuating a stereotype,' Chabria added.

'Tim should step up and condemn their actions immediately, or perhaps this racism is ok because it's against a Republican.'