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President Donald Trump has won Ohio three times, including by 11 points just two years ago. That history has left Democratic candidates hesitant when it comes to campaigning against Trump, fearful of alienating his supporters come Election Day.
On Saturday – at a rally headlined by former President Barack Obama for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and Senate candidate Sherrod Brown – the party ticket set the past aside and came out swinging.
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The different approach shows how Democrats now believe Ohio is competitive again. Polls show Ohio has close races for U.S. Senate and governor and for several congressional districts, including a handful long held by Republicans. The GOP candidates have responded by campaigning here with Trump several times. Trump is set again to campaign in Ohio on Wednesday.
During his speaking slot, Brown tallied off what he said were three corrupt billionaires financially propping up the political campaign of his opponent, Republican Sen. Jon Husted: “Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Donald Trump.”
The crowd of thousands that filled Cleveland’s Public Auditorium – which holds around 10,000 people – responded with deafening jeers.
“Lock him up. Lock him up” they chanted.
That was Brown’s only mention of Trump in his 20-minute speech. But it nonetheless represented a departure from the approach Brown took during Trump’s first midterm in 2018. Back then, Brown was a U.S. Senator, and cast himself as pragmatic enough to work with Trump on the right issues.
Acton, who spoke just before Brown, didn’t reference Trump at all. She instead hit on affordability issues that Trump once used in the past to win over the state. When she raised the negative campaign against her aired recently by her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, she ignited boos from the crowd.
Ramaswamy’s ad, which has drawn rebuke from many top state Republicans and has dominated national political news, features Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur. In it, she said Acton has lied about her upbringing, including a time Acton said she lived in a tent as a child.
Acton and her mother both have said they haven’t seen each other since 1978, when Cledith Arthur, Acton’s then-stepfather was charged with raping her. Donna and Cledith Arthur moved away to evade the charges and the prosecution eventually was dropped. Ramaswamy has called the ad an example of tough campaigning equivalent to some ads Acton’s campaign has released.
“You may have heard I grew up with a lot of abuse and neglect,” Acton said Saturday. “And now my opponent has chosen to intentionally exploit my childhood.”
Ramaswamy has said the ad isn’t meant to question that Acton was abused – it only questions whether she lived in a tent as a child.
Saturday’s headlining speaker took on Trump full-bore. Obama spent most of his speech criticizing and ridiculing the Republican president, saying he’d broken his promises to reduce the cost of living and avoid foreign wars. Instead, Obama said, Trump launched a war in Iran that has caused diesel prices to spike to record level and cause regular gas prices to rise above $4 a gallon. He said voters should elect Democrats to help rein Trump in.
He also joked that Ramaswamy and Husted have been avoiding Trump. It’s true that they’ve largely kept the president out of their campaign commercials. But they they’ve both appeared at each of Trump’s visits here.
“They’re acting like they never heard of him. ‘Donald who?’” Obama said.
Obama’s visit in Ohio, his first since 2018, was in itself remarkable. In the last midterm election in 2022, Senate candidate Tim Ryan, the most competitive Democrat that year, conspicuously distanced himself from the national party to appear more to the Trump voters who were once Democrats.
Brown, for instance, who was seeking re-election in 2024, didn’t encourage then-President Joe Biden to campaign here and didn’t publicize it when national Democrats did show up. Brown lost to Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, and Ohio didn’t attract a single presidential campaign visit.
During his speech, Brown made a reference to the potentially shifting political winds.
“The national media’s never gonna write off Ohio ever again,” Brown said.
In statements, both leading Republican candidates criticized Democrats for campaigning with Obama.
Ramaswamy campaign spokesperson Connie Luck referenced technical issues the federal website for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, had when it first launched in 2010.
“Seniors paid for that mess with cuts to their Medicare,” Luck said. “Amy Acton cheered it on then, and she won’t stand up for Ohio seniors now. Ohioans can’t afford a liberal governor who shows up for Obama but never shows up for them.”
Husted campaign spokeswoman Amy Natoce said: “The sight of Sherrod Brown and Barack Obama together again should send shivers down Ohioans’ spines. The Brown-Obama duo gave us higher taxes, less jobs and wide-open borders. Ohioans are ready to retire Sherrod Brown once and for all by electing Jon Husted on Nov. 3.”
Like Democrats, Republican candidates are spending their final days before the election campaigning across the state. The state GOP launched a statewide bus tour on Friday that included a stop in the Cleveland area and two in Central Ohio.
At one of the stops at a pizza place in suburban Columbus, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou said Trump’s supporters in Ohio offered the state party a path to victory.
“If we turn out the vote in this state, we’ll win everything just like we did two years ago when we reelected Donald J. Trump,” Triantafilou said.
Ramaswamy also appeared at the event, using his speech to criticize Acton’s tenure as state health director and ran through his plan to cut property taxes and to more aggressively attack fraud in the state’s Medicaid program.
“We’re asking every one of you to do your part to get out and vote, to get nine other people out in this community out to vote with you, make your vote count 10 times over, to make sure that we protect common sense over insanity, that we protect freedom over socialism and communism, that we protect the rule of law over lawlessness and criminality in our streets,” Ramaswamy said.
The vibes around the Republican event were nonetheless a little negative. Jay Edwards, the Republican state treasurer candidate, referenced discord among Ohio Republicans over Ramaswamy’s ad featuring Acton’s mother, which he blamed on the media.
“Divided we could fall, but together we’re going to win this thing,” Edwards said. “…They’re trying to tear the Republican Party apart. We cannot let it happen.”
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State Government and Politics Reporter
I follow state government and politics from Columbus. I seek to explain why politicians do what they do and how their decisions affect everyday Ohioans. I want to close the gap between what state leaders know and what voters know. I also enjoy trying to help people see things from a different perspective. I graduated in 2008 from Otterbein University in Westerville with a journalism degree, and have covered politics and government in Ohio since then.
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