In the 2024 presidential election, Democratic strategists and Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign were hoping that their "Blue Wall" in the Rust Belt — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — would shield them from a Donald Trump victory. But President-elect Trump won all of those states after losing them in 2020.
While Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin have fluctuated between Trump and the Democratic nominee in presidential elections, Ohio has been Trump's strongest Rust Belt state: He won Ohio three elections in a row.
In an article published on January 13, The Guardian's Andrew Gumbel examines the loyalty that many Rust Belt voters have had to Trump even though he didn't bring about the manufacturing revival he promised in 2016.
A resident of the Youngstown, Ohio area told The Guardian, "We feel left behind. People who've lived here all their lives are working two or three jobs just to pay their bills."
Sonja Woods, a former General Motors worker and a United Auto Workers (UAW) official, told The Guardian, "We've been lied to, let down. It’s disappointing…. Nobody showed up in Youngstown this time, not Trump or Kamala. There are a lot of bitter people, and I'm one of them."
Gumbel explains, "Trump…. comes across as someone who doesn't pretend to be anything other than what he is, and that perceived authenticity counts for more with many Youngstown voters than his character flaws or even his policy positions. They'd rather have his gut instincts, ugly as they often are, over the carefully scripted messaging of a Democrat like Kamala Harris or even a mainstream Republican."
Dave Betras, a former Democratic county chair in Ohio, believes that his party has a major image problem in the Buckeye State.
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Betras told The Guardian, "American voters have a unique ability to smell b------t, and they smell b------t with the Democrats…. Most Americans think the system is rigged. And Trump shuffled the deck on us. Not only does Trump say this thing is rigged, but he says: 'I know, because I rigged it. I was part of the rigging.'"
Tim O’Hara, a former UAW president in Lordstown, Ohio, agrees that Democrats have let the working class down in the Rust Belt but stresses that supporting Trump is not the answer.
O'Hara told The Guardian, "I never liked Trump even when he was only a builder in New York.… because he stiffed union workers and he generally seemed like a douchebag. One thing I wasn't then and I'm not now is a racist, misogynistic, uninformed dips--t who enjoys supporting a rapist, felon, traitor.… These people have no clue yet what they've done, but they will find out."
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Read The Guardian's full article at this link.