Dayton hosts March on for Freedom event to encourage civic participation

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By Steve Mehaffie, WHIO.com and Trinity Corbett

DAYTON — The “March on for Freedom” voter turnout bus tour made a stop in Dayton, Ohio, to encourage early voting and civic participation ahead of the upcoming election.

The event featured music and food as part of an effort to generate excitement around voting.

The stop comes as Ohio sees heightened campaign activity, including recent visits from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

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Daniel McKelvey serves as the route coordinator for March on for Freedom. He explained that the organization chose to stop in the region to coincide with the start of early voting.

“We wanted to come up to the Midwest as y’all get started with early voting to be able to just make it exciting, you know, come out, talk about the elections, get some food, listen to some music,” McKelvey said.

He emphasized that voting should be an enjoyable process for community members. “But we want to make sure that folks also take joy in the experience of their civic duty,” McKelvey said.

State Rep. Desiree Tims helped host the event to help local voters prepare for the polls. Tims emphasized the importance of voter resources and education.

“We want to make sure that people have as many tools in their toolbox to exercise their right to vote,” Tims said.

Tims noted that Ohio’s status as a battleground state encourages higher turnout among residents. “For a while, we’ve been training,” Tims said.

“And I’m really excited that we are in battleground status again, because that means more voters are gonna participate.”

State Sen. Willis Blackshear Jr. also attended the event to address voters who question the impact of their ballots.

Blackshear highlighted how policy decisions affect daily living costs. “I would say that politics affects every aspect of our lives when it comes to food, gas, I mean, you name it, housing,” Blackshear said. “So it’s important that people do their civic duty by voting.”

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