In his latest TV ad, which is titled “Fox News Friends” and, according to NBC News, is set to initially air exclusively on Fox News, the Ryan campaign touts compliments that he has received from the likes of Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, and Bret Baier. “Watch what happened when Congressman Tim Ryan tried to remind his fellow Democrats that most Americans don’t actually support open borders,” says Carlson, a supporter of white nationalist conspiracy theories, in a clip shown alongside a graphic that reads “Tim Ryan ‘Against Open Borders.’”…

While running as a Blue Dog–style Democrat who gets along with Fox News hosts may seem like an antiquated strategy in 2022, Ryan, a onetime presidential candidate, has taken painstaking steps to portray himself as a political maverick disconnected from the economic crises currently plaguing the ruling party. He has frequently condemned trade deals signed by Democratic presidents, which he blames for allowing China to steal manufacturing jobs from the Rust Belt, and has voiced support for Trump’s “America First” economic policies in two ads. “When Obama’s trade deal threatened jobs here, I voted against it. And I voted with Trump on trade,” Ryan says in one of the ads. “I don’t answer to any political party.” In other campaign ads, the 10-term Democratic lawmaker stressed the need to pass “a real tax cut for workers” and expressed his steadfast support for police.

“I’m a unique kind of Democrat. I’ve taken on the Democratic Party. I’ve run against Nancy Pelosi. I’ve gotten in fights with Bernie Sanders,” Ryan said in a May appearance on Fox News, adding that he’s “agreed with Trump on renegotiating NAFTA, on being tough on China.” He said he didn’t want his candidacy “obscured by the normal Washington, D.C., food fight, left-right, kind of red-blue stuff,” and that it’s “about being Americans first.”