Biden pushes to flip workingclass Ohio
Almost four years after President Trump cemented his strength among white workingclass voters by winning Ohio, Joe Biden pushed on Monday to put the state back in play for Democrats in November, as he sought to energize the party’s base and court some of those same Americans who powered Trump’s victories across the Midwest.
Campaigning in Toledo, Biden lashed his opponent as an outoftouch plutocrat who has repeatedly betrayed union workers, while playing up his own Irish Catholic, middleclass background and stressing the Obama administration’s efforts on behalf of the auto industry. Lucas County, which includes Toledo, is a traditionally Democratic stronghold, but Trump performed better there in 2016 than the previous two GOP nominees.
“He turned his back on you,” Biden said of his opponent. “I promise you, I will never do that.”
Biden delivered his populist pitch at what the campaign called a “drivein rally” outside the United Auto Workers’ Local 14 union hall, where attendees periodically honked in approval. He focused heavily on economic matters, detailing the challenges facing manufacturing workers in the state on Trump’s watch, but also laced his speech with criticisms of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, which has been Biden’s central message throughout the pandemic.
He accused Trump of “reckless personal conduct,” and said that the president’s behavior since testing positive for the virus had been “unconscionable.”
“The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he seems to get,” Biden said. The campaign said the Democratic nominee tested negative for the coronavirus on Monday.
And he jabbed at the Trump campaign’s decision to use Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U. S. government’s top infectious disease expert, in an ad without Fauci’s consent. “Trump and his campaign deliberately lied,” Biden said. “It was a knowing lie, like we’re being told about everything about this COVID consequences.”
A New York Times/ Siena College poll found last week that Biden and Trump were effectively tied in Ohio among likely voters, with Biden leading, 45% to 44%.