Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance wave to the audience at the end of a pre-election rally in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) has an unusual request for Vice President JD Vance: Please come campaign for Ohio Republicans.

In a newly released video, the Democratic lawmaker sarcastically appeals to the Vice President for “help” in breaking the GOP’s decade-long supermajority in the state legislature.

Highlighting Vance’s recent trip to Hungary to promote “anti-democratic policies” for Viktor Orbán — a campaign that ultimately failed when voters overwhelmingly rejected those policies — Isaacson ironically asks Vance to bring that exact same losing “energy and magic” back home to Ohio.

Isaacsohn’s video touches on the idea that unfortunate events tend to happen right after Vance gets involved, including his brother’s landslide mayoral loss in Cincinnati last year, the failed Iranian peace negotiations and Pope Francis’ death happening a day after the vice president met him.

Ohio elections

Isaacsohn was first elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 2022, and his colleagues voted the 37-year-old to become the Democratic minority leader last June. He leads a Democratic caucus that has been outnumbered by a Republican supermajority in Ohio’s lower chamber since 2012.

The Ohio GOP has controlled both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship since 2011, giving way to Republican policies that have gutted funding for public schools, gerrymandered the state’s maps, cut taxes for high-income earners and led to the largest corruption scandal in state history, among many other controversial laws.

Isaacsohn and Democrats in the state are looking to capitalize on the Republican party’s unpopularity in President Donald Trump’s second term to break the GOP supermajorities, which could limit Republican veto-powers regardless of which party controls the governor’s mansion next year.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton is also looking to flip the governorship against her likely Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy. Acton has tightened the race in recent polls, while Ramaswamy’s campaign has endured several controversies.

Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) also hopes to reclaim a Democratic seat against incumbent Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH). Polls suggest a statistical tie in a tossup race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate after the 2026 midterms. Brown also garnered a significant $12.5 million fundraising haul in the first quarter of 2026, while the Republican Party’s largest Senate PAC dedicated $79 million for Husted.