Going Home series: Our reporters explore the election from their hometowns – The Cincinnati Enquirer

With the presidential election looming, Akron Beacon Journal reporter Craig Webb heads to his hometown of Conneaut, Ohio, to reminisce and take the political pulse of this recovering Rust Belt town. Akron Beacon Journal

Home, in which journalists from the USA TODAY Ohio network return to the communities where they grew up to share firsthand how the contentious 2020 election is playing out in various corners of this battleground state.

Dave Huser, trustee of the Mt. Healthy Historical Society, speaks about the history of the town at the Historical Society museum in Mt. Healthy, Ohio, on Friday, Oct. 9, 2020.(Photo: Sam Greene/The Enquirer)

Today, nonprofit organizations supply food to the residents of Clovernook Apartments, the new name of my old community, with buildings that are not properly maintained. Mount Healthians I talked to confirm there is criminal activity, and I was stopped and questioned by a security guard on patrol during my visit.

The area doesnt exactly fit the charming and quiet labels people toss around about Mount Healthy, a Democratic territory in the southwestern part of Ohios Trump country. The oft-told story is that the city came up with its name because residents survived the cholera epidemic in the mid-1800s. Prior to that, it was called Mount Pleasant. (Seriously.)

Its a fitting moniker because Mount Healthians will say everyone gets along and no one argues over politics. But there is a deeper layer of neglect and need the small city is trying to address.

Read the full story

Mount Healthy in the Cincinnati area is grappling with the inequities in its own community as makes a choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump Cincinnati Enquirer

Cook Park, Canton Ohio(Photo: Charita M. Goshay, Canton Repository)

Founded in 1892, Crystal Park's residents in the 1960s were a hodgepodge of Hungarians, Greeks, Romanians, a sprinkling of Italians and Portuguese, whites from West Virginiaand Blacks whose families took part in the Great Migration.

Crystal Park also is a perfect illustration of what happened to manyAmerican cities, which means it has its ghosts.

Read the full story

A horse is hooked up to a flatbed wagon at the Byler's Farm in Gallia County on Oct. 21, 2020. (Photo: Albert Cesare / The Enquirer)

After spending a day going up and down those roads talking to Amish families, I get why they like Trump.

Many of them are small business owners who believe they've reaped the benefits of Trump's economic policies. If you're only seeing Trump through that prism, it's easy to understand the support.

These are Old Order Amish in Gallia County, the most conservative group in the faith. They are humble, hard-working people who grow their own food, make their own clothes and raise multiple children.

They don't drive cars. They shun technology. Therefore, they don't experience all the vitriol, angst and anger on the networks and social media about Trump and this election. They couldn't care less about Trump's tweets.

And perhaps the Amish are better for it as the rest of us have a hard time escaping the Facebook squabbles and screaming pundits this election cycle.

Read the full story

Jim Potter points to a photo for himself and his first wife Judy on their wedding day in 1961 on a wall of family photos in his home he shares with his second wife on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020 in Bay Village. Potter tells how his father who was a Democrat switched party affiliation when FDR went for his third term in 1940.(Photo: Mike Cardew/Akron Beacon Journal)

My sisters and I affectionately refer to Bay as the bubble. But in presidential politics, there has been a shift. In recent years Democrats have made inroads in Bay much like in suburbs across the nation.

In 2016, Bay flipped from red to blue. Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton won with 53% of the vote, 10 percentage points over Republican Donald Trump. Four years earlier, GOP nominee Mitt Romney won by 8 percentage points over Democrat Barack Obama.

Read the full story

Cars travel down Glenway Avenue in West Price Hill on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. Glenway Avenue travels all through the west side of Cincinnati.(Photo: Hannah Ruhoff)

Most of the West Side just outside Cincinnati's city limits is still President Donald Trump country, but Joe Biden could get more votes here than past Democrats.

In the West Side neighborhoods of Price Hill, Westwood and South Fairmount, all in Cincinnati's city limits, Hillary Clinton easily won in 2016 beating Trump 71% to 23%.

But once you get to the suburban hillsides and villages of Green Township, Cheviot, Delhi and the more rural communities of Cleves, Harrison and Whitewater Townships, Trump dominated four years ago, 65% to 28%.

Read the full story

Many of the storefronts at the Austintown Plaza are now vacant, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020, in Austintown, Ohio. [Jeff Lange/Beacon Journal](Photo: Jeff Lange, Akron Beacon Journal)

Suburban Youngstown isthe centerpiece of the deep-blue Mahoning Valley that Democrats have reliably controlled for decades.

In 2016,though, something changed. President Donald Trumpcarriedthe Mahoning Valleyon his way to an 8.1percentage point win in Ohio.It was the first time a Republican carried the Valley since 1972, when President Richard Nixon won 86 of Ohios 88 counties in his national landslide.

Inthe combinedMahoning and Trumbull counties where former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, won with more than 60% of the vote, Trump narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton.

Read the full story

Joe Orlando, the retired owner of Orlando Brothers Golden Dawn grocery store grabs a ham loaf mix form the meat cooler at the store on Thursday Sept. 17, 2020 in Conneaut. The ham and pork mixture is made at the store.(Photo: Mike Cardew/Beacon Journal)

Aside from the infamous "Proud Republican" bumper sticker incident, my parents never publicly declared their politics. However, many neighbors proudly bled blue.

That's certainly not the case in Conneaut now.

The sea of Democratic signs of my youth are now a patchwork of political leanings, with signs and flags for both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

I know signs can't vote, but it seems that Trump may have an edge, at least in this small corner of the political landscape.

Read the full story

Jeromesville signs mark the village limits on the north on Ohio Route 89. In the background is a school built in 1929.(Photo: Tom E. Puskar/Times-Gazette.com)

In 2016, Trump triumphed among Jeromesvilles 230 residents who went to the polls by 40 percentage points, 67% to 27%, over Hillary Clinton.

The runaway was even bigger in surrounding rural areas, leading to a Trump blowout, 74% to 19%, in the village and three adjoining townships combined.

It was a microcosm of how well Trump performed in rural Ohio four years ago, from the 71% he won in eastern Ohios Carroll County to the stunning 81% he took in Mercer County on the states western border.

Can he do it again?

Read the full story

Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/10/30/ohio-towns-and-presidential-election/6086265002/

Originally posted here:
Going Home series: Our reporters explore the election from their hometowns - The Cincinnati Enquirer