GREENE COUNTY — The midterm election is weeks away, and what voters decide in our state could determine the balance of power in Washington.
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Over the last several weeks, we’ve seen the president and vice president making several campaign stops in Ohio.
Vice President JD Vance was in Middletown in August and was in Lima on Friday.
President Donald Trump was just in Vandalia on Oct. 3, and he’s in Youngstown Monday night.
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We asked voters about the focus on Ohio for the mid-term and those visits Monday.
Some liked the attention.
“They’re in Ohio, and they’re pushing for what they think the state needs, I guess is what I want to say,” Kim Daily of Cedarville said.
Other voters do not.
“That attention, no, negative, in my opinion,” Karen Watts of Xenia said.
“The president has limited resources of time, and the fact that they’re coming back to Ohio tells me they think it’s still in play,” Mark Caleb Smith said.
News Center 7 spoke to Smith, the director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University, about what repeated campaign stops from the White House say about Ohio ahead of the midterms.
“I think it says that Ohio is important, for one. I mean, they’re certainly looking at the potential control of the Senate hanging in the balance. And so the Senate race, I think, is driving a lot of this concern out of the White House,” Smith said.
And what they signal about Ohio midterm politics.
“It also says that Ohio is close. Clearly, I think, if they thought that this was really decisive for either party already, they just wouldn’t be spending much time here,” Smith said.
Election Day is three weeks from tomorrow.
Smith says he expects to see more of Trump and Vance on the campaign trail here in Ohio between now and then.
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