Ohio’s Trump supporters find hope in the maverick
A biased crowd? Of course. Scorn when Hillary Clinton spoke, and loud applause when it was the turn of Donald Trump? You better believe it. Laughter at his interruptions and jokes. Most definitely. Ohio is one of the election’s most important battleground states; no candidate of either party has won the White House without carrying it since John F Kennedy in 1960.
An average of polls collated by news website Real Clear Politics, currently puts Mr Trump half-a-point ahead of his Democratic rival in Ohio. And the Trump supporters who piled into the Quaker Steak & Lube
restaurant in the town of Cortland on Wednesday, were determined to ensure that their man goes all the way.
As if to bring about good luck, one supporter of Mr Trump even asked the restaurant to switch over the channel from CNN – apparently considered too liberal – to the more conservative Fox News just before the debate got going. Craig Bonar and his wife Wendy arrived having already cast their ballot for the property magnate, something permitted under Ohio’s early voting rules. “I was not going to vote for Trump but then he started acting more presidential,” said Mrs Bonar.
Large swathes of Ohio are prime territory for Mr Trump’s message. The state has lost jobs to outsourcing overseas, seen its young ravaged by heroin and watched as inequality has grown. Frustration with mainstream politicians is high, and the 70-year-old tycoon has attracted voters with his his promise of a ready fix. “They have lost jobs, nobody is doing anything,” said Mickey Fox, 68, who was among the first to arrive at the debate watch party. “People feel disgusted. When you see it over and over again. The politicians keep saying things.” Mr Fox, who worked for three decades delivering soft drinks in eastern Ohio, said he believed Mr Trump could win the state, and with it, the White House.
Do debates really change anything? A single sentence summary of the night would be that Mr Trump’s supporters had no time for Ms Clinton’s answers, and that they accepted the tycoon’s responses readily. Nobody needed to be won over. And when Mr Trump was asked about the many women who have accused him of sexual assault, they accepted his response that they were all made up for whatever reason. People were also happy when Ms Clinton was pressed about her deleted emails.
“I don’t think they’re true. Why have these women waited 30 years,” Regina McManus said of the sexual assault charges. She said that Ms Clinton had been a politician for decades and done nothing. There was no reason to expect she would do any better if she were to become president. “She has had all that time and she’s done nothing,” she added.
Randy Law is the chairman of the Trumbull County Republican Party and responsible for organising the event. “Donald Trump is very popular in this county,” he said. “He’s a candidate who will bring back jobs and help people. People like a straight talker.”