Republican Author, Senate Candidate Suggests That Battered Spouses Should Stay In Abusive Relationships

A former author and current Republican candidate for Senator in the state of Ohio has gone on record on Monday to state that he thinks battered individuals should stay in abusive relationships, another in a list of anti-feminist statements he has made during his campaign.

Speaking at the Pacifica Christian High School in Southern California in September, the resurfaced clip has Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance decrying divorce and defending people who stay in abusive relationships by baselessly claiming that the children divorced parents are worse off than they were before, according to the Independent.

“This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, ‘well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term,’” Vance said.

“And that’s what I think all of us should be honest about, is we’ve run this experiment in real time. And what we have is a lot of very, very real family dysfunction that’s making our kids unhappy,” he continued.

Asked about his statement by news outlet Vice, Vance doubled down on his opinion regarding the matter, claiming that divorce has not made domestic violence decrease in numbers, before suggesting that he himself has been a victim of domestic violence in the past.

“I reject the premise of your bogus question. As anyone who studies these issues knows: Domestic violence has skyrocketed in recent years, and is much higher among non-married couples. That’s the ‘trick’ I reference: that domestic violence would somehow go down if progressives got what they want, when in fact modern society’s war on families has made our domestic violence situation much worse,” he said.

Women tend to be disproportionately affected by domestic violence cases the most, and the World Health Organization notes that children who grew up with domestic violence around them “may suffer a range of behavioral and emotional disturbances. These can also be associated with perpetrating or experiencing violence later in life.”

Tim Ryan, Vance’s Democrat opponent for the Senate seat in Ohio, snapped back at Vance for his statements regarding domestic violence and divorce.

“J.D. Vance thinks parents should stay in violent marriages ‘for the sake of their kids,’” he said. “That’s not just wrong, it’s unbelievably dangerous.”