WASHINGTON, D.C. — The former General Motors plant in Lordstown was mentioned in primetime in night two of the Republican National Convention.
“In 2019, when General Motors closed its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, President Donald Trump refused to standby and watch it happen,” Vice President Mike Pence said in a pre-recorded video.
Youngstown truck driver Geno DiFabio stood next to Pence and credited President Trump with bringing Lordstown Motors to the old GM plant.
“President Trump says this is how we fix it,” DeFabio said. “And I thought, well that’s a simple solution. There’s no other president who could’ve done that. There’s no one that’s even tried to do it.”
It was a clear reminder on Tuesday that Ohio will play a key role this November, especially its blue collar suburbs.
“So those big suburban, urban areas around the metropolitan cities, that’s where the president is going to have to do some work,” Rep. Bill Johnson (R, 6th Congressional District) said in a virtual interview on Tuesday. “But he can make up a lot of ground here in eastern and southeastern Ohio.”
While Johnson said the president has significant support in his rural Ohio district, he and fellow Ohio Republican Rep. Warren Davidson said the Trump campaign will have to convince voters that a second Trump term is the only way to bounce back from hurdles like the pandemic.
“There’s a lot of concern about COVID for sure, but net of that scenario, you look at the past and the president’s results were phenomenal,” Davidson (R, 8th Congressional District) said in an interview last Saturday. “And who do Americans trust to lead us back to that kind of economy?”
Johnson echoed him on Tuesday: “Don’t get lost in the fog and the cloud of COVID-19. Remember what things were like before COVID-19 came on the scene.”
The question looming over all of this: Will voters personally impacted by coronavirus, or former GM workers in Lordstown who remember the president saying ‘don’t sell your house,’ be willing to not get lost in those experiences and instead keep their trust in Trump?
Johnson said the president and his team are covering their bases to make sure of it.
“Yes, the campaign is listening,” Johnson said. “They’re asking questions. You know, what are people in your district saying? What are the needs and concerns? Are there things that the president needs to address that hasn’t been addressed?”
