U.S. Senate candidates hope to win ‘swing region’ with trips to Miami Valley ahead of election

DAYTON — Election Day is less than a week away and the two candidates who want to be Ohio’s next United States Senator are spending a lot of time in the Miami Valley in the final days of their campaigns.

Democratic candidate Tim Ryan and Republican candidate JD Vance have had multiple stops in the Miami Valley this week. Ryan was in Dayton Wednesday morning to tour the Montgomery County Employment Opportunity Center on W. Third Street and Vance was in Dayton on Monday.

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Both have plans to return to the area in the coming days, including the night before the election, when Vance joins former President Donald Trump for a rally in Dayton.

News Center 7′s John Bedell spoke with Dr. Mark Caleb Smith, the director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University. When asked, he said the Miami Valley voters will determine who wins the Senate seat, explaining the increase campaign emphasis from both camps.

“Even when you look at places like Greene County, Warren County and Clark County, President Trump won those counties in 2020, but his margins were smaller than in more rural parts of the state. And so a media market exists here. It’s a competitive area, and so you could call this a swing region within Ohio,” Smith said.

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