The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Eric Trump touts for father at party center
Son of candidate tells supporters to get out the vote
Supporters gave a warm greeting to Eric Trump on as he visited the Republican Party Victory Center.
Lorain County supporters of Donald J. Trump need to go to the polls if they hope to make America great again, said a son of the Republican presidential candidate.
Several hundred supporters gave a warm greeting to Eric Trump on Oct. 18 as he visited the Lorain County Republican Party Victory Center. It was the fifth of six Ohio stops as the younger Trump rallied backers on behalf of his father’s campaign for the White House against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
“We’re going to take back this country,” Trump said. “We’re going to return a voice to the American people who haven’t had a voice in so long, and I promise you, we’re going to make you incredibly, incredibly proud.”
He encouraged the supporters to do their part at the ballot box and encourage their friends to do so as well.
“Please, go out and vote,” Trump said to the crowd.
“Go out and vote right now. The center’s right there,” he said, pointing down North Ridge Road in the direction of the Lorain County Elections Board.
“This country is going in the wrong direction,” Trump, 32, told the crowd. “We talk about this every single day.”
He touched on topics ranging from an “assault” on saying the Pledge of Allegiance and on Christianity,
to the national debt and low rankings in education for the United States compared to the rest of the world.
“Trust me, as I’ve driven around this state in the last two days, I’ve seen it firsthand, the manufacturing plants that are shuttered, the factories that are boarded up,” Trump said.
He attacked the nation’s high tax rate and said Obamacare was a costly “absolute disaster” for families.
Trump also decried the treatment of law enforcement officers and military spending, along with the Chinese treatment of President Obama and the actions of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
The event became personal as well. Before speaking to the crowd, Trump posed for photographs with volunteers
inside the Republican Victory Center.
Trump thanked Lorain County Republican Party Chairwoman Helen Hurst and Rep. Jim Jordan, RUrbana, who traveled with him this week.
After his speech, Trump asked the crowd if they wanted to do a big group picture.
Those attending responded with an enthusiastic “Yes,” and much of the audience gathered around Trump in front of blue campaign signs set up behind the Republican Party headquarters. Instead of “cheese,” a campaign staffer told the group to say “Vote!”
The event brought out Trump fans who arrived long before Eric Trump pulled in from Norwalk.
Robert Stottlemire of Elyria was waiting in the driveway at the edge of the road, waving when drivers honked their car
horns in support.
“We’re the Trump train kind of thing, spreading the Trump love,” he said.
Stottlemire described himself as a long supporter of the President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush, but he backed Trump once the candidate beat other Republican contenders in the primaries.
Trump says what he wants, when he wants, Stottlemire said, a characteristic he shares.
“He is who I am and that’s the best part about him,” Stottlemire said. “Of course, he’s got a lot more money than I do.”
Anthony Saxon, 18, a senior at Elyria Catholic High School, held a Trump flag at his first political event. The Nov. 8 election will be his first voting for president, and he attended the Oct. 18 rally with family permission.
“My mom said, if it was important to me, that’s more important than study hall,” Saxon said.
Betsy Rahrig of Grafton Township attended with three of her four children, sons Jagger, 12, and Jackson, 9, and daughter Darien, 8, all clad in white “Trump” T-shirts. They are students at St. Jude School in Elyria.
“I did not get them involved, they got themselves involved,” Rahrig said about her children. “They love Trump.”
The rally was not the first political event for the children, Rahrig said. She added she tells them that politics is about their future so young people need to get involved, including with candidates running for office.
The lesson for the youths: “Just because you can’t vote doesn’t mean you can’t speak,” Rahrig said.