WASHINGTON — After a few days campaigning in safe conservative territory, President Donald Trump on Saturday takes his midterm tour into Ohio, a battleground state that’s home to one of the top-tier Senate races this cycle.
Trump has embarked on what he says will be a 32-day blitz ahead of the Nov. 3 elections, hitting the deep red states of Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama this week. Saturday’s rally is just outside Dayton, Ohio, where he’ll stump for key candidates in competitive races for the House, Senate and the governor’s mansion in Columbus.
Perhaps the most pivotal of these races is the Senate race. GOP Sen. Jon Husted — who was appointed to fill the Senate vacancy left by now-Vice President JD Vance — is running to win the seat outright. There is likely no path to a Senate majority for Democrats without flipping Ohio, where former three-term Sen. Sherrod Brown is trying to return to the Senate after losing to Republican Bernie Moreno two years ago.
Since last year, Democrats have listed Ohio, along with states such as North Carolina and Maine, as key races to win control of the Senate. And this week, the head of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm said Ohio is among 10 battleground races that are “within striking distance.”
“The good news for us is that Jon Husted is a closer,” Sen. Tim Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters. “We’re seeing the gap that was there between the two candidates, which was just a few points, now it is right at a dead-even race. So this is as tight as ticks, as we say in South Carolina.”
At his rallies, Trump has been trying to convince voters that the economy is better than they feel it is, even though polls show Americans are frustrated with the way he’s handled it. The high cost of living, including gas prices elevated by Trump’s war on Iran, is a top issue in the Dayton area, too. And just days before Trump’s rally, nearly 1,400 people were laid off from a truck factory in nearby Springfield.
Trump’s rally comes as Republicans worry that Husted’s campaign has failed to adequately catch fire with voters in the Republican-dominated state. Brown and allied groups have hammered Husted for his role in attracting data centers to the state when he was lieutenant governor, and the NRSC has pinpointed it as a political vulnerability.
The massive warehouse campuses powering artificial intelligence projects have become a toxic political issue, drawing bipartisan opposition in races across the country, with voters concerned about their impact on electricity prices, farmland and water supplies.
The GOP-controlled Senate tried to advance legislation this week sponsored by Husted that would ask utility regulators to effectively charge large power users more, as consumers struggle with high energy costs. But it was blocked by nearly all Democrats.
“You got to remember, Sherrod Brown was for data centers, and Jon Husted is for data centers being responsible,” Scott told reporters this week. “If a community doesn’t want them, he doesn’t want them either.”
But Trump has become one of data centers’ most vocal proponents, shrugging aside voter concerns and arguing that the U.S. cannot cede advancements in AI to China.
“Senator Jon Husted gave billions in tax breaks to Big Tech to make sure they would build their data centers in Ohio,” Brown wrote on X on Friday, ahead of Trump’s visit. “Now, he’s making Ohioans foot the bill.”
Brown’s campaign also has hammered Husted for donations he’s received from retail magnate Les Wexner, who once employed the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Husted has donated remaining Wexner contributions to an anti-human trafficking charity.
Meanwhile, in the governor’s race, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy faces Democrat Dr. Amy Acton, the state’s former COVID-era health director.
A wealthy biotech entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate, Ramaswamy’s star appeal among conservatives led to quick backing by Ohio Republicans and hopes of an easy victory in the Republican-dominated state. However, despite a massive fundraising lead and more than $12 million spent in campaign advertising, he is now locked in a close fight with Acton with weeks to go until Election Day.
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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro in Washington and AP writer Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
