J.D. Vance has taken the lead over his Democratic opponent in Ohio’s Senate race since debating him earlier this month, according to the latest polling.

The Republican political outsider faced Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) in a pair of debates held on October 10 and 17, and since then Vance’s poll numbers have seen a bump.

Vance is up by 4.1% over Ryan in a Cygnal poll, beyond the poll’s 2.58% margin of error. The poll was conducted from October 14-18 and surveyed nearly 1,500 likely voters in Ohio.

Ryan still leads by about 8% among Independents, but his popularity among those voters is not enough to put him in the lead.

Notably, Vance leads by a huge margin among Ohio voters who have an unfavorable view of President Joe Biden, 72% to 19%.

Biden has struggled to keep his favorability and job approval numbers above water in recent weeks. Nearly 53% of people have an unfavorable view of the president, compared to as low as 38% when he was elected, according to some polls. His job approval numbers are even worse, with about 54% of people saying they disapprove of the job Biden is doing, according to Real Clear Politics.

Other polls had shown Vance beating Ryan but only within the margin of error, essentially putting the candidates in a dead heat.

According to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, Vance now leads Ryan by 2.5 percentage points.

One earlier poll in September had shown Ryan with a statistical lead, but the most recent polls either show Vance leading or the candidates tied.

Vance, a venture capitalist who first became known through his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” is running on a platform of being a “conservative outsider” who “knows what it’s like to live in a left-behind community” and will fight for normal Americans.

On Monday in their last debate before the election, both Vance and Ryan went on the attack, sparring over racism and immigration, among other topics.

Ryan accused Vance of “peddling” an anti-immigration conspiracy theory called “white replacement theory.” Vance accused Ryan of “slander” and called him “disgusting” for those accusations.

“Here’s exactly what happens when the media and people like Tim Ryan accuse me of engaging in great replacement theory,” Vance said from the debate stage.

“What happens is my own children — my biracial children — get attacked by scumbags online and in person, because you are so desperate for political power that you’ll accuse me, the father of three beautiful biracial babies, of engaging in racism. We are sick of it,” said Vance, whose wife is Indian American.

Vance also defended his stance on immigration control.

“You can believe in the border without being a racist,” he said.

In their earlier debate, Ryan attempted to paint Vance as part of a fringe element, saying he is “running around with the election deniers, the extremists.”

Vance responded that Ryan is focused on the wrong concerns.

“I find it interesting how preoccupied you are with this at a time when people can’t afford groceries,” Vance said.

The Ohio Senate election is one of several closely watched Senate races this election cycle, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, and New Hampshire.

A new facebook poll of conservative-leaning physicians helps to dispel the popular left-wing narrative that doctors unanimously believe in providing medical treatments for minors who identify as transgender. 98% of the 54 physicians polled, which consisted of both Medical Doctors (MD) and Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), were not willing to facilitate a child’s medical transition.

A private Facebook group composed of conservative physicians in the United States conducted the poll asking members their attitudes towards transgender care, and more specifically how they felt about assisting patients’ transition. Of the 54 who responded, 41% were not comfortable facilitating the medical transition of patients–adult or child–except for the few rare cases of patients being born with diagnosed ambiguity. 

31% of respondents believed that while adults should be able to access transition services, they would not personally participate in the process.15% said they would participate in transitioning adults, but not pediatric patients.

The respondents asked to remain anonymous, as they are concerned that voicing dissent in the current political climate may jeopardize their career. “On the ethical plane I care for all patients with genuine concern and attention,” replied one of the physicians to the poll. “In general I think any transition in gender involving surgical or hormonal alterations is very concerning. I think it is a trend that is fraught with potentially very negative outcomes for the patient. One of my biggest complaints is how clear are the patients on the permanent loss of fertility and normal sexual function.”

The permanent loss of fertility and normal sexual function is a direct result of the standard protocol for “gender affimring care.” If a child takes puberty blockers at Tanner stage 2 (the first signs of puberty) and proceeds to cross-sex hormones, they will be permanently sterilized and never able to achieve an orgasm.

Proponents of puberty blockers in youth who claim they are completely safe, effective, and only a “pause button on puberty” rely entirely on referencing their approved on-label use, which is to treat precocious puberty, not how they are increasingly being used off-label to treat gender dysphoria. 

A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) is the gold standard method for demonstrating a causal relationship in science. No RCT has ever studied the effects of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria, which is why the FDA has never approved the use of Lupron and other puberty blocking drugs for that purpose.

“I consider it profoundly immoral to mutilate a healthy body (via hormones or surgery) because of a mental or emotional problem or confusion,” wrote another female physician. “Gender transitioning is analogous to cutting off a healthy leg for someone with body integrity disorder/body dysmorphia. It is not the correct medical treatment because it doesn’t address the underlying issue. The data on gender transition shows no reduction in mental health problems (including suicide).”

Studies that claim “trans” youth are at elevated risk of suicide are commonly compared with average mentally healthy teenagers, which is deeply misleading. When researchers compared “trans” youth with teens suffering from similar mental health problems, there was little difference in suicide rates between the groups.

The gender-affirmation model, adopted by hospitals across the country, prevents medical professionals from questioning a child’s self-reported transgender identity, and from exploring possible underlying factors causing their dysphoria. The standard protocol for gender affirmation is administering puberty blockers, followed by cross-sex hormones and then surgery, if desired.

At least one physician who responded to the poll is a parent of a teenager who identifies as transgender. “There is SO MUCH pressure to support early treatment. I am just not comfortable with anything irreversible,” she wrote. “That said, I support and love my child. This agenda is making it very difficult for individuals that are truly suffering from gender dysphoria and not just part of the trend. It makes it hard as a parent to know which we are dealing with.”

Teens with rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) are known to have very high rates of anxiety, depression, history of sexual trauma, anorexia, and eating disorders, all of which typically precede their gender-related distress. Gender distress may be a symptom of a troubled teenager, but it is incorrectly being treated as an underlying cause. 

While the US under the Biden Administration is moving full steam ahead to allow children unmitigated access to medical transition, several European countries like Sweden, Finland, and the UK have changed course to a more cautious approach.