President Donald Trump brought his midterm campaign blitz to southwest Ohio on Saturday night, urging a packed crowd in Vandalia to turn out for Republican candidates exactly one month before Election Day.
Speaking at Butler High School in the Dayton suburb, Trump told supporters to act as if he himself were on the ballot in the November 3 midterms. “Please pretend that I’m on the ballot, and you need to turn out for a midterm victory,” he said. The rally was aimed at boosting Sen. Jon Husted, who is facing former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump declared the country was living through a “golden age of America” and called his administration’s first two years “the most consequential” in history. He devoted a large portion of his remarks to defending the rapid buildout of data centers, a contentious issue in Ohio. “There’s so much money to be made for Ohio. You can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China,” he said, arguing that blocking the tech projects would hand an advantage to Beijing in the race over artificial intelligence.
The president also endorsed legislation sponsored by Husted that would stop data centers from raising electricity costs and require developers to pay their own way. Ramaswamy addressed the crowd as well, telling supporters the state needs a governor who will collaborate with, work with and partner with the president. Other speakers included Rep. Mike Turner and Sen. Bernie Moreno, while former NFL coach Jon Gruden appeared at the event to praise Husted’s work ethic from their shared Ohio roots.
Trump acknowledged the political headwinds. National polling averages put his approval at 38 percent, with more than 60 percent of Americans disapproving, and a new Suffolk University/USA TODAY Ohio Network survey found his approval in Ohio at just 35 percent. The average price of a gallon of gas in Ohio is $4.08 compared to $3.05 a year ago, while inflation has risen from 2.7 percent to 3.4 percent and the national unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2 percent after a disappointing jobs report Friday. “These fake polls, they don’t account for one thing,” Trump said. “They don’t account for the fact that Trump is out campaigning.”