By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
David Pepper, chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, said that Donald Trump’s appearance in Toledo on Thursday was a tribute to the state’s importance in the presidential race.
Pepper was speaking at a press conference held by the Democratic Party in the morning before the president’s first campaign rally of 2020.
The importance of Ohio was emphasized at that rally as well. Several speakers urged those attending to volunteer to keep the state in Trump’s column, and Trump said that returning to Ohio for this rally signified the state’s importance.
Pepper noted that Barack Obama also came to Toledo for a major campaign rally.
The Democrats gathered outside in Promenade Park along the Maumee River, just a few blocks from the Huntington Center where Trump’s “campaign stunt,” as Pepper called it, was to be held later that day.
The press conference, Pepper said, was to call attention to Trump’s “broken promises.” It was intended to rebut in advance the president’s characterization of his record.
The Democratic chair recalled in the 2016 campaign,Trump urged Ohioans not to sell their homes because he was going to revive the economy.
But General Motors closed the Lordstown Assembly plant.
That closing affects more than the auto workers, said David Thimlar, of the United Auto Workers. That hurts the business owners who sell those workers flowers, pizza, and coffee.
And, Pepper noted, while Thimlar still has his job, his counterpart at Lordstown did have to move out of state.
At first Trump said the closing wasn’t important, but then he attacked union leaders, Pepper said.
In 2019, Pepper said, the state was on track to lose 4,000 jobs, the first decline in jobs in the state since 2009 as the great recession set in.
Trump’s “trade war by tweets” has hurt Ohio’s farmers, manufacturers, and consumers, Pepper said.
State Rep. Lisa Sobecki said that Trump promised to reduce the cost of health care. She singled out dramatic increases in the cost of insulin which can now cost a patient $5,700 a year.
She asserted that people are paying more for care, and many continue to lose coverage.
Ohio, the Democrats maintain, is one of eight states where the number of uninsured residents has risen.
Pepper attributed this to the ongoing attacks on the Affordable Care Act.
Sheena Barnes, a member of the Toledo Board of Education, said that the Trump Department of Education led by Secretary Betsy DeVos has weakened public education by taking funds away from public schools to benefit charter schools.
Student debt, she said, also continues to hinder college graduates.
“Ohio students can’t plan on the future if they can’t pay for it,” she said.
A number of candidates for office gave brief introductions at the end of the press conference.
One of those was Nick Rubando who is running to challenge U.S. Rep. Bob Latta in the Fifth District. He said it was “kind of wild to be downtown walking on the streets and see so many people with Donald Trump hats on.”
Some had waited overnight so they could be the first to enter.
“It’s kind of surreal,” he said. In a campaign the candidate is surrounded by “like-minded people.”
It’s important to get out of that bubble, he said. “We go out in the community and talk to people who don’t necessarily believe in things we believe in because we want to show them that we’re offering a way we can really improve their lives.”
Rubando said it as important for the Democrats to make their presence felt during Trump’s visit.
“We want to take a stand. It’s important to show that there are people here in Northwest Ohio who do not believe in hate, who do not believe in Donald Trump’s rhetoric and want to see positive change.”
(A story on President Trump campaign rally in the evening will be posted later.)
