President Donald Trump is embarking on his second trip to Ohio in the last two weeks to campaign for his party’s picks for governor and Senate, underscoring how Republicans are playing defense in the final stretch to the midterms.
As Trump is set to rally in Youngstown on Monday, his back-to-back visits to the state comes on the heels of mounting questions about how his campaign blitz began in a series of friendly red states like Texas, Alabama and Nebreska earlier this month.
Vice President JD Vance, an Ohio native, just visited Lima, Ohio, on Friday, too. The last time either Trump or Vance were in one of the seven 2024 swing states was North Carolina in mid-September. Trump, however, will campaign in battleground Arizona and Georgia later this week, in addition to stops in more normally reliably Republican states, including Montana and Alaska.
Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Senator Jon Husted both trailed their Democratic challengers by 4 points and 3 respectively, according to a polling average by FiftyPlusOne. The Buckeye State was once a traditional battleground state before becoming reliably Republican after Trump’s 2016 presidential victory.
In interviews with MS NOW near a shopping center in Youngstown, some Trump voters were uncertain about supporting Ramaswamy, but leaned towards backing Husted over former Democratic Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.
“He’s an unknown factor,” Trump supporter Lucie Thompson of Girard, Ohio, told MS NOW, explaining why she’s on the fence about Ramaswamy in the gubernatorial race, while she plans to vote for Husted in the Senate race. “I don’t know. He’s not really ever held any political offices that I know of.”
Meanwhile, many Trump supporters lined up for the Trump rally in downtown Youngstown on Monday that MS NOW spoke with are more certain about their votes.
Bill Groom, a Trump voter donning a MAGA hat outside Covelli Center, where the rally is set to take place, told MS NOW while he currently plans to vote for Ramaswamy and Husted but that he believes Ohio Republicans could face a tight election in November because “a lot of people in Ohio are on the fence about things.”
“I think a lot of it has to do with the economy, and Ohio is definitely – and along with the United States — inflation is out of control,” Groom said. “I’m curious to see how Vivek and Trump are going to handle things.”
National headwinds are weighing down Republicans with Americans frustrated with the cost of living and the war with Iran. The average price of gas in Ohio was $3.87, as of Monday, according to AAA, while diesel was above $6. Under Trump, 13,000 manufacturing jobs have been added to the state’s economy, according to St. Louis Federal Reserve data, but voters in central Ohio told MS NOW that the sector still hasn’t fully recovered.
As Trump’s political team and the Republican Party attempt to shore up Trump’s base to defend GOP’s majority in the House and the Senate, the president has urged his supporters to “pretend” that he’s on the ballot in November to encourage his base turnout.
Joe Carter, a veteran and an independent voter from just down the street who said he has never voted for Trump, came to see the president and the Republicans he’s backing out of “curiosity.”
Carter said he has yet to make up his mind on who he wants to vote for Ohio’s gubernatorial and Senate races but added he’s looking for candidates who give him “the most inspiration for who’s going to run this country and how they’re going to run it, and where we’re going in the future.”
Eric Putnam, a 33-year-old who voted for Trump in the past three presidential elections, said he’s voting in his first-ever midterm election this year. He only started closely following politics in recent years.
Trump’s political team says voters like Putnam are exactly who they are hoping to turnout in the midterms: people who support Trump but may not overwise vote outside of the presidential race. Putman personally believes Trump backing specific Republican candidates “it really kicks people to go and vote.”
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