“Rep. Tim Ryan’s ad for his Ohio Senate campaign stirs up a racist pedagogy vis-a-vis China and makes Americans of East Asian descent vulnerable to attacks,” said Shekar Narasimhan, head of a PAC supporting AAPI candidates.

The thing is, like tens of millions of Americans, I’m not an economic populist. I’m conservative and far more pro-free-trade than Ryan is, putting me out of step with many in both parties. And if I were running against him, I would quibble about the amount of blame that can reasonably be laid at the feet of the Chinese government for complex economic problems in a rapidly changing economy. I’d be in disagreement with Ryan on the basis of his very simple argument, just as I disagreed with Donald Trump on this point. I’d also probably lose, which is another part of what’s at stake, here.

It’s a policy argument, not a cultural argument, and one that attempts to address real concerns of Ohio voters. Economic populism was, pre-Trump, a Midwestern Democrat’s bread and butter. Trump won labor union households in Ohio in 2020 by 12 percentage points over Biden, the culmination of a 35-point swing away from Democrats since Obama’s 2012 run. That is a swing in a crucial demographic that cannot be repaired with accusations of racism.