BUDAPEST — U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio traveled to Hungary to help improve Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's polling ahead of the Hungarian election scheduled for Sunday.

During his trip, Vance praised Orbán's approach to higher education as a model for American conservatives. "The closest conservatives have ever gotten to successfully dealing with the left-wing domination of universities is Viktor Orbán's approach in Hungary. I think his way has to be the model for us — not to eliminate universities, but to give the choice between survival or taking a much less biased approach to teaching." "Children should be able to go to school and get educated and not indoctrinated," Vance added.

Orbán has served as prime minister of Hungary for 16 years. His government has accused the Central European University of issuing both Hungarian and American degrees without proper authorization, using foreign funding to outcompete domestic institutions and meddle in Hungarian affairs.

The Central European University was founded by George Soros. Orbán's criticism of Soros has included antisemitic tropes. In 1989, Orbán received a Soros Foundation scholarship to study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.