‘Asset? I think it’s a disaster’: Ohio voters aggrieved as president prepares to visit | Ohio

KElly Savage-Radich grew up in a Republican family in Ohio and voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. But today, the mother of three, who lives in the Montgomery County suburb of Dayton, faces the prospect of having to sell one of her family’s vehicles due to the high cost of gasoline. Her grocery bill increased by about $100 a week.

She places the blame squarely on the Trump administration.

“He wants his name on everything,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I don’t care whose name is on the Kennedy Center.”

That wasn’t the only topic on her list of grievances — Savage-Radich also addressed the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year. She said: “The shooting of an American citizen dead in the street, and no one has been held accountable? I have two daughters and I’m trying to teach them all the freedoms this country has, but I feel like our freedoms are being taken.

“For the people who always say, ‘Don’t tread on me,’ they certainly have no problem now.”

On Saturday, Trump will travel to Montgomery County, which he narrowly lost in 2024, to rally behind two struggling Republicans in key Ohio elections: incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy, the Ohio gubernatorial candidate.

Ohio has been solidly Republican for more than a decade. Trump has won Ohio by a considerable margin in the last three presidential elections, and the state has not voted for a Democratic president since Barack Obama in 2012. The Republican Party holds a supermajority in the state legislature.

But the president’s popularity in the industrial Midwestern state has plummeted during his second term, and his presence could be more of a hindrance than a help.

A Marist poll of nearly 1,300 registered voters in Ohio conducted late last month found that 56 percent of participants disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president.

In two important primaries held earlier this year, Republican turnout in Montgomery County was only two-thirds that of Democrats. In the Republican gubernatorial primary last May, turnout fell by 33%, or 362,000 votes, compared to the previous primary, held in 2022.

In a U.S. Senate race that could help decide which party controls the national political landscape, Husted is voting behind his Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown. Although Ohio has elected Republican governors in six of the last seven elections, Ramaswamy, a billionaire former Republican presidential candidate who until recently was one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, is also voting behind Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee.

Other prominent Ohio Republicans have recently made headlines for the wrong reasons. Rep. Max Miller, who until allegations of domestic violence and child abuse surfaced against him last summer had close ties to Trump, faces strong opposition to keep his congressional seat from an ironworker’s union. (Miller has denied all allegations and has not faced any criminal charges. The House Ethics Committee is investigating the allegations.)

Montgomery County, a mix of urban, suburban and rural communities, has been a swing county for decades: In the presidential election two years ago, Trump lost it by just 1,201 votes, one of seven of Ohio’s 88 counties to lose to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

With just a month until the midterm elections, the county’s top Republicans admit they’re in a fight.

“You know, it’s been slower (than previous election cycles), but it’s picking up. Honestly, I haven’t seen a lot of energy on either side, but we’re getting more interest, people are getting engaged,” said Phil Plummer, chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party and a member of the Ohio House of Representatives.

“Obviously our candidates who are knocking on doors are hearing about the affordability issues. But we tell them: we didn’t create this, the Democrats created this, and it’s hard to fix it in two years.”

Plummer said that under the Biden administration, too much money was printed in the form of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal tax breaks and capital spending, which has fueled higher costs today. Democrats say Biden’s increased spending was aimed at combating the 2020 pandemic-induced economic recession and point out that Trump’s war on Iran cost Americans more than $44 billion.

“Obviously the war (against Iran) hasn’t helped when it comes to oil prices, but Ohio is considered the number one state for business in the country. We’re moving the ball forward in Ohio; we’ve lowered the property tax and reduced the income tax,” he said. “So we’re doing our best.”

Few residents care to talk politics in the neighborhoods of Dayton, Montgomery County’s largest city.

“Trump? I think he’s a disaster,” said a woman who declined to give her name as she stood outside a tattoo parlor in the Old North neighborhood, a working-class neighborhood north of downtown Dayton.

Caring for his disabled mother on the porch of his home, Bill, a former nurse and Republican voter who asked not to be fully identified in order to speak freely, disagreed and said the broader focus on rising gas prices was misplaced.

“The price has always been very high, and people buy a lot of gas at $2.99, but act like it’s out of control when it’s at $3,” he says, adding that he hasn’t yet decided whether he will vote in the midterms.

“It seems like everyone is making more money, even with the most menial jobs.”

Independents are expected to play a major role in choosing Ohio’s next governor and in the Senate race between Husted and Brown.

Nearly 38 percent of Ohio voters, or 2.9 million people, are independents, according to the Independent Voter Project.

Independent candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, Sandeep Dixit knocked on hundreds of doors and met with thousands of Ohioans while on the campaign trail in Northeast Ohio’s 13th District. He says the main issue voters are talking about is hateful language coming from the political class.

“People understand that if we continue to take extreme positions, the country will tear itself apart,” he said. “That’s problem number one.”

Dixit would not say which parties he has voted for in the past, but believes Ohio Republicans have performed well on the rule of law. However, “when it comes to empathizing with people and understanding what they need, there is a completely extreme ideology” among Republicans, he said.

For Savage-Radich, there have never been clearer choices.

“I will never vote for Ramaswamy, I don’t believe anything he says – I don’t believe anything any Republican says right now because every time I check something they’re lying,” she said.

“And now we’re like friends with China? This is crazy. I thought the Republicans were the party that was so opposed to China?”

She said she didn’t know much about Acton, the Democratic nominee. Republicans attacked her for enacting Covid-related restrictions during the pandemic, but Savage-Radich noted that she worked as director of the Ohio Department of Health under a Republican governor.

“She didn’t do anything that Mike DeWine didn’t ask her to do, and he’s a Republican governor,” she said. “To be honest, I think I’m going to vote Democratic all the way, for everything. Because I don’t want it to happen like that.”