Ohio venue tells JD Vance to take his rally elsewhere after reports Marjorie Taylor Greene will attend

Ohio Senate race draws national attention as GOP candidates court far right

Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance, author of Hillbilly Ellegy, found himself looking for a new venue after announcing that controversial far-right Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene would be joining him at a “meet and greet” event.

Mr Vance’s event is set to occur today at a Marriott hotel in Mason, Ohio after The Landing Event Center in Loveland, Ohio, asked him to move the campaign stop.

In statements to The Cincinnati Enquirer, a spokesperson for the original venue explained that the business was inundated with angry messages after it was announced that the Georgia congresswoman would join Mr Vance at his event.

Ms Greene is a frequent peddler of conspiracies surrounding a variety of topics including the 2020 election and Covid-19, and has also faced significant backlash for past comments appearing to endorse violence against Democrats including Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House.

"People are passionate about what they believe. We were wrapping our heads around what was going on. We didn't know there would be a guest,” Jodi Taylor, the event center’s general manager, told the newspaper.

In a Facebook post, the center would claim that “tremendous interest” in Mr Vance’s campaign stop had forced the center, whose website shows a small indoor dining and speaking area, to request the event be moved.

“Due to the tremendous interest in the JD Vance presentation that was scheduled to take place here this Sunday, it has been relocated to the Marriott NE,” read the Facebook post, published on Friday. “We appreciate everyone's interest and concerns.”

Mr Vance’s campaign told the Enquirer that the venue was moved to accommodate a large number of RSVPs.

Facebook commenters thanked the company for “any part you may have had in moving it out of Loveland”, while some angrily questioned why the event had even been considered in the first place.

“I must ask why you would ever have even considered hosting an event with Marjorie Taylor Greene or anyone endorsed by her. She has promoted the execution of fellow Americans, attacked Jewish people, tried to overturn a valid American election and has done nothing but drive division and hate in the country I fought and sacrificed for,” wrote a man named Don Moss, whose profile indicates that he recently worked for a veterans’ organization supporting Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan.

"It doesn’t matter what we do," Ms Taylor told the newspaper. "We have both sides upset."

Ms Greene was recently banned from Twitter for good from her personal account after repeated violations of the site’s misinformation policy in early January. The final straw appeared to be a post falsely claiming that the US government was ignoring deaths of Americans who received the Covid-19 vaccine.