Sandusky County to welcome Trump today
CLYDE — When President Donald Trump arrives in Sandusky County on Thursday, he will become the first sitting president to visit the county since William Howard Taft, an Ohioan, in 1912.
“This is history in the making,” Sandusky County Republican Party Chairman Justin Smith said Tuesday. “We’re very excited.”
In contrast, Chris Liebold, the Sandusky County Democratic Party chair, said Tuesday that this might not be a good time for presidential candidates to stump for votes in the county.
“The reality on the ground here is that we have a 10% unemployment rate, the highest in Sandusky County since the recession, and we have 17 COVID-19 deaths,” Liebold said.
Trump is scheduled to fly into Cleveland about 1 p.m. Thursday and arrive in Clyde about 2:45 p.m. to tour the Whirlpool washing-machine plant and speak about revitalizing the country’s manufacturing industry and renewing investment in American-made products.
The trip will be Trump’s first to Ohio since the coronavirus pandemic arrived in full force in March. He was most recently in the state in January for a rally in Toledo.
The GOP’S Smith said he believes Trump is visiting the Whirlpool plant because it is doing “good things” for the community and the economy is improving.
The visit “shows us that Ohio is the most important state when it comes to elections,” Smith said.
Smith said he is confident that Trump will win Ohio, and he believes that recent polls indicating the president trails Democrat Joe Biden might not align with Ohioans’ actual view of the president.
Trump won Sandusky County in 2016 by more than 22 percentage points, and the county has long sided with Republican candidates. The GOP holds all three county commission seats and the 88th District seat in the Ohio House of Representatives.
Liebold, though, said the polls could be a factor in Trump’s decision to visit Clyde.
Sandusky County is known for its industries. In addition to the 3,000 employees at Clyde’s Whirlpool plant, the county boasts a large contingent of blue-collar workers who remain in industrial jobs despite the pandemic.
A White House news release touted a 2018 decision by Trump to uphold a 50% tariff on imports of large, foreignmade residential washing machines. The tariff decision aided Whirlpool, which announced the immediate creation of 200 jobs at the plant in Clyde, a city of 6,200.
Liebold countered that much of the work to impose tariffs on foreign manufacturers such as LG and Samsung in the washing-machine wars was done by Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and Rob Portman, a Republican, and by Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. When Obama was in the White House in 2012, anti-dumping legislation was passed targeting products from Mexico and South Korea.
Liebold said of Trump: “Is he going to acknowledge the role that other people have played, or is he going to take all the credit for himself?”
The tariffs raised the cost of washing machines and dryers in the U.S. by 12%, according to a University of Chicago study.
Trump’s visit means work for local officials to ensure the safety of the traveling party and the people expected to rally in support of Trump or protest his visit.
Clyde Police Sgt. James Snell said it is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
A Facebook event was created for the public to welcome the president. Organizers plan for Trump supporters to line Route 20 as the president travels to the Whirlpool plant.
After his stop, the president plans to return to Cleveland for a fundraising event Thursday evening.
Sandusky County was home to the nation’s 19th president, Rutherford B. Hayes, who served one term, from 1877 to 1881. The county seat, Fremont, is home to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums.