President Donald Trump told supporters in Youngstown, Ohio, on Monday night that Democratic gains could make him “the last Republican president in the history of our country,” as he campaigned for two GOP candidates locked in tight statewide races three weeks before the midterm elections.
Speaking at the Covelli Centre, Trump argued that if Democrats regain power they would add electoral votes, Senate seats and House members and reshape the Supreme Court. “I will be the last Republican president,” he said, urging the crowd to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”
Two toss-up races
The rally was aimed at boosting Sen. Jon Husted, who faces former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, and gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running against former state health director Amy Acton. Most public polls show both contests as statistical dead heats in a state Trump carried comfortably in each of the past three presidential elections.
Trump called Husted “one of the most respected men in Washington already” and praised Ramaswamy as a “great friend,” while sharply attacking their Democratic opponents. Husted told reporters his campaign had “a lot of energy and momentum,” and Ramaswamy pledged to be “the most conservative governor this state has ever seen.”
Economy and promises
The president renewed his pledge to send $5,000 to American adults if Republicans hold Congress and predicted oil prices would “drop like a rock.” The national average price of regular gasoline stood at $4.35 a gallon on Monday, according to the Youngstown Vindicator.
Trump also announced that Cleveland had been selected for a new submarine component repair center and said he had directed the Energy Department to help address a looming shutdown of downtown Youngstown’s steam-heat system.
A smaller crowd than past visits
It was Trump’s second Ohio stop in nine days and his third rally at the Covelli Centre. The Vindicator estimated attendance at 2,500 to 3,000, well below the roughly 7,000 who turned out in 2017 and 5,500 in 2022, with sections of the arena closed off.
Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Anderson criticized the visit, recalling Trump’s 2017 promise in the same arena that factory jobs would return to the Mahoning Valley before the General Motors Lordstown plant closed in 2019.
The midterm elections take place Nov. 3, with control of both chambers of Congress at stake.
Sources & Credits
Reporting based on: The Vindicator; WFMJ; WTOV; Mediaite.
Image: “Covelli day” by Jbugos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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