TOLEDO, Ohio — Vice President Mike Pence rallied in Toledo Friday—his fourth stop in the Buckeye State within two months.
During his stop, he talked about the economy, jobs and boasted about President Donald Trump’s success in all sectors. At one point, he touched on the coronavirus pandemic, saying he expects a vaccine to be completed soon.
“We are just a matter of a few weeks away from having the first coronavirus vaccine in the world,” Pence said.
As of late September, Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine trial has entered its final stage, with no word on when it could be completed. His speech came as Ohio once again broke another record—four in one week—for the number of daily COVID-19 cases recorded. On Thursday, Ohio recorded 2,425 cases.
During a press conference Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine only had one message to the state: “It is now serious.”
Despite the pandemic, Pence once again called attention to Ohio’s importance in the election.
“With Ohio leading the way, we are going to make Ohio and America stronger than ever before!” Pence said.
It’s a similar speech he gave to hundreds at his Cincinnati rally Wednesday, saying Ohio will decide whether there’s a Republican victory on Nov. 3.
Ohio has been a backdrop of the election, from the multiple visits from both campaigns to the first presidential debate in Cleveland earlier this month.
President Donald Trump plans to make another stop in Ohio Saturday, along with three other Midwest and battleground states: Wisconsin, North Carolina and New Hampshire. He’ll be in Circleville at 12:30 p.m.
Sen. Kamala Harris also plans to visit Cleveland around 9 a.m. Saturday. The visit comes a week after she had to cancel her initial trip because of a COVID-19 scare within the campaign—two people tested positive.
According to a recent polling average from FiveThirtyEight, Trump has a one-point lead over former Biden. Neither candidate has had a more than three-point lead over the other since April. Trump won Ohio by eight points in 2016.
