Biden travels to Ohio for the third time of his presidency on Wednesday afternoon for a televised town hall. The Cincinnati trip coincides with a critical Senate vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal brokered, in part, by outgoing Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman. And some in the GOP think that the White House's effort to mount a pressure campaign will fall as well.
It is "baffling" that Biden is spending time and money on Ohio over Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, according to Lorain County Republican Party Chairman David Arredondo.
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"You know, some of the other borderline states that they've got to try to hold on to, especially for the Congress and the Senate next year," he said.
Biden lost Ohio to former President Donald Trump last year by 8 percentage points. That is the same margin of Trump's triumph over 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
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"There still is interest and activity on our side. I'm not seeing any on the Democrat side," Arredondo stated, listing the economy, the pandemic, immigration, racial anxieties, and crime rises as priority concerns.
"When you get to the point of Lorain County or Mahoning County, which were formerly blue-collar, union strongholds, when you start slipping in those areas, I think it's saying something," he continued about the counties west of Cleveland and covering Youngstown, respectively.
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Ohio has two special elections this year. One of the contests is for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge's old 11th Congressional District. That includes Democratic-leaning Cleveland. The other is for former Republican Rep. Steve Stivers's GOP-safe seat south of Columbus. Stivers quit in May to become the Ohio Chamber of Commerce's president and CEO.
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Though, it is the race to succeed Portman in 2022 that presents Democrats with a solid chance to grow their slim majorities on Capitol Hill. Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, the most high-profile declared contender, is hoping to replicate Sen. Sherrod Brown's victory statewide so the party can override the 50-50 deadlock in the chamber. Vice President Kamala Harris can currently break the tie.
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"There's a little chaos right now in terms of GOP candidates racing to be the staunchest pro-Trump candidate," announced Miami University politics professor Bryan Marshall, who teaches and researches Congress.
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Marshall named former Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel, ex-Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken, and venture capitalist-turned-Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance among the leading contenders.
"I think if this ends up being a really bruising primary, Democrats are hopeful they'll be in the hunt. But as I've mentioned before, Ohio is not the purple state it used to be," he said.
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