US President Donald Trump took his midterm campaign push to Ohio on Saturday, telling a rally in Vandalia, near Dayton, that he expects a "big surprise" in the November 3 elections and claiming his Democratic opponents do not know what is coming. "Just get out and vote," he told supporters. "If you do that, we're going to win, and we're going to win big."
The rally is part of what Trump describes as a 32-day blitz of events. After stops in solidly Republican Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama, Ohio is a more competitive test. Trump was backing Senator Jon Husted, gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and other Republicans in House, Senate and state races.
The Senate contest is among the most closely watched in the country. Husted was appointed to the seat vacated by JD Vance, now vice president, and faces Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former three-term senator who lost to Republican Bernie Moreno two years ago. Democrats have little visible path to a Senate majority without winning Ohio. Senator Tim Scott, who leads the Republican Senate campaign arm, said the race has tightened to "dead-even." In the governor's race, Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, is in a close fight with Democrat Amy Acton, the state's former COVID-era health director, despite a large fundraising lead.
Trump won more than 55 percent of Ohio's vote in 2024, but his approval ratings have since fallen. Polls show Americans frustrated with the cost of living, and just 17 percent approve of his handling of it, according to figures cited by the Associated Press. Petrol prices in Ohio have risen 35 percent over the past year to an average of $4.16 per gallon, according to AAA, amid the US-Israel war on Iran. Canadian retaliatory tariffs, a response to Trump's trade policy, affect roughly $3bn in Ohio exports, CBC reported. Days before the rally, nearly 1,400 workers were laid off at a truck factory in nearby Springfield. The plant's buyer, Canadian armored-vehicle maker Roshel, says it aims to protect and eventually expand the workforce, and some laid-off workers expect to be rehired within a year.
Data centres, the large facilities that power artificial intelligence, have become a flashpoint. Voters across party lines worry about their effect on electricity prices, farmland and water. Brown has attacked Husted for attracting them to Ohio as lieutenant governor, accusing him of giving Big Tech billions in tax breaks while Ohioans "foot the bill." Husted sponsored a Senate bill that would push utility regulators to charge large power users more, but nearly all Democrats blocked it. Trump defended the industry at the rally, saying there is "so much money to be made for Ohio" and warning the facilities would otherwise "go to China."
The election will test whether the working-class coalition that returned Trump to office holds amid economic strain. Trump has argued the economy is better than voters feel, and the White House points to investments by firms such as Electra and Honda as evidence of job creation.