Is Ohio that much different than the other blue wall states? PA, WI, MI?

[NNguyenMD]

[rzemanfl]

1. Remember 2004? n/t

[SheltieLover]

2. Seems easier to hack

Remember Blackwell?

Just guessing.

[Laelth]

14. Diebold is based in OH. n/t

-Laelth

[SheltieLover]

22. That explains it!

Not sure if possible, but I hope there is a way for our new admin to pass a Fed law requiring paper ballots.

[Laelth]

27. I don't think so.

Elections are governed by state law. That’s probably a good thing. It’s harder to hack 50, unique systems than a single, national system.



-Laelth

[Wednesdays]

37. Although, as you see even today

The election is really decided by a handful of states. So one would only need to hack those locations.

[Laelth]

41. I am convinced that FL WAS hacked ... again.

But that wasn’t enough to carry the election for the hackers, and that’s my point.

-Laelth

[Proud liberal 80]

3. A lot of it is a mix

Of West VA, Kentucky, and Indiana.

[Captain Zero]

7. THIS along the borders and there are still rural farming areas in

the north central and eastern areas. Although I was looking at a map and can't figure out why Dayton and Toledo wouldn't be blue?

[OilemFirchen]

45. Dayton and Toledo are blue this year.

In fact, both Montgomery and Lucas counties in toto went for Biden.

[ok_cpu]

12. That's a great observation

NE OH and Youngstown very similar to MI, WI, PA. Columbus and Cincy vote as any urban area. The rest is IN, WV, KY.

[Claustrum]

4. Ohio long has been a swing state when PA, WI, MI were the blue wall.

So yes, Ohio has always been different than PA, WI, and MI.

[llmart]

5. Yes.

A lot of educated Ohioans left the state in the 80's. I was one of them. I'd never go back there now. Too many of them are stuck in the past.

[Buckeyeblue]

16. I left after college in the early 90's.

The problem is very few people actually move to Ohio. But a lot of people move out. No matter where I've lived or traveled, I always find fellow Buckeyes who left home for good.

[llmart]

20. I left after I graduated from college also.

I've never heard anyone that left say, "I really want to go back."

My roots run deep in Ohio and I still have a few siblings left there, but absolutely no intention of ever moving back.

I've also never heard anyone say they want to vacation in Ohio. LOL

[Wounded Bear]

24. The old saying: "It's a good place to be from...far from."

[Buckeyeblue]

47. I still have family and friends there as well.

Under the right circumstances I would move to Columbus. But that's about it.

And you're right...tourism is not high on Ohio's revenue generating list.

Once upon a time, Ohio had two democratic Senators, even though the governors tended to be Republicans.

[llmart]

49. You wouldn't want to be too far out from Columbus though.

There's a lot of rural areas that are loaded with rednecks.

[Buckeyeblue]

54. Oh yeah. I'm from Springfield. We lovingly refer to it as Springtucky.

[llmart]

56. Had never heard that term.

Too funny and too true. I'm from NE Ohio so I can crow a bit. Growing up I remember the adults referring to southern Ohio people as "the hillbillies that moved up here to ruin our state".

[Buckeyeblue]

60. That's true of my family. WV hillbillies that moved to Ohio.

[treestar]

59. We often observe many OH license plates

when going on vacation in the summer. It seems like everyone in OH leaves for vacation! Maybe no one goes. The Rock and Roll Museum should help!

[llmart]

64. I moved to North Carolina.

Within a couple of weeks everyone from Ohio suddenly wanted to visit me!

[Skraxx]

6. Yes, GOP Leadership Rigs it from Top to Bottom, Just Like FL

[SheltieLover]

25. This!👆

[blueinredohio]

29. Amen to that and all the small minded people who are never going to change.

[JI7]

8. Young and liberal leaning types tend to leave the state

so the amount of conservatives increases. Similar to Iowa.

[blm]

9. Ohio's Republican network controls every aspect of the election process

and has been running it like a mob family since 2000. A Dem has to completely overwhelm the vote just to squeak by.

[Doremus]

63. Very true. Kkkarl rove flipped results for W

And protected himself and his bosses by offing his IT guy.

[link:https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republican-it-guru-dies-in-plane-crash/|

[TwilightZone]

10. Yes.

The north is somewhat ideologically similar to the others, but the south, SE, and SW are more like its neighbors - KY, WV, and IN.

[Tribetime]

11. It is but Ohio should have been a dead heat and

MI PA and WI should have been 8 to 10%

[radius777]

19. +1. The Rust Belt has shifted red,

just as the Sun Belt is shifting blue.

MN however did return to 2012 margins (7 points).

[Tribetime]

55. I for one cannot believe the polling was that far off again

These people do nothing but polling for a living and they adjusted from 2016 I just don't believe they were wrong

[Roland99]

13. OH and FL have had republican-led legislatures and owned the Governor's mansion for TOO long

[Baitball Blogger]

44. +1000

Definitely a correlation.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

15. There's too many poorly educated people here.

I worked with mostly-rural people at a recent job, and they repeatedly blew my mind with their lack of basic knowledge, especially in science. And almost all of them were Republicans too.

The two biggest dummies moved here from WV, though.

[lindysalsagal]

17. I would assume the rural/urban ratio is much different than MI and WI.

Outside of Pittsburgh, it's not a manufacturing rustbelt: It's farmland, and more fundie in their churches. Plus, it's just much whiter.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[NEOBuckeye]

18. Not really

Our major cities are progressive bastions. But our State Dems are very weak. Term limits and successive decades in which the Republicans held the majority and won the rights to apportionment really marginalized the Democrats at the state level here, and wiped out our bench.

We were poised for a long-term comeback under Gov. Ted Strickland as recently as 2010, but the state party ran a clueless campaign in the midst of the economic crash, and that’s how we ended up with Kasich, and the Repubs gerrymandering the state to the extreme because they won control of apportionment. There couldn’t have been a worse time for Ohio Dems to lose.

Also, brain drain with so many young and educated people fleeing Ohio because of the stupid running rampant here.

[BainsBane]

21. Besides being reliably red?

[BusyBeingBest]

23. More Jesus-y.

I have some family ties there.

[roamer65]

26. Ohio is a hybrid of MI and KY.

Toledo and Cleveland are more like MI, Cincy is more like KY.

[Happy Hoosier]

28. Ohio has a very "Southern" south.

A little less than Indiana, but....

[Buckeye_Democrat]

32. Absolutely.

There are parts in Southern OH where the Southern accents are stronger than many parts of KY and elsewhere too.

I took a fishing trip with a friend at Paint Creek Lake years ago, and my buddy said the locals we encountered reminded him of the movie "Deliverance".

"Aintry?! This river don't go to Aintry!"

My friend was genuinely frightened by them and their obvious animosity towards "Yankees" like us. I was wary, but I'd already encountered those types of people and knew they were mostly harmless.

It's still a little mind-blowing how they were so different, though.

[luvs2sing]

53. So much truth to this.

It took me a long time to overcome my “southeastern Ohio drawl”. Everyone I grew up with in Licking County either was from Kentucky or sounded like they were.

I’ve been in Columbus since 1977 and love it but, honestly, you get outside the outerbelt and it’s a whole different culture.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

61. What disturbed us the most during our fishing trip...

... to that part of SSW Ohio was the general animosity towards us.

Friendly people with a Southern drawl wouldn't be so bad, but many of those locals acted like we didn't "belong" there... despite how we lived only about 70 miles from them!

That area of Ohio used to be focused on coal-mining, so I tried to keep in mind how there was probably a lot of struggle there for their families.

The farming community in Northern KY where my parents were raised was much nicer and better educated, but there was surely more financial stability there over the years.

[luvs2sing]

62. I get it.

I used to roam southern Ohio, from Adams to Belmont counties, on genealogy hunts. No way would I feel safe doing that now, even though my ancestors founded or were original residents of a lot of those counties.

[LisaL]

30. OH has 3-4 large blue urban counties.

My county (Franklin) went for Biden by 30 points. Cuyahoga (Cleveland) went for Biden by 34 points. But it's not enough because of all the rural voters in the rest of the state.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

34. My county barely voted for Biden, but it's not as urban.

Dayton area.

[LisaL]

36. Happy to say mine is as blue as ever.

30 point lead for Biden.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

39. My county barely voted for Trump last time.

So there was improvement here, like I sensed, but it obviously can't be extrapolated to the rural areas anymore.

[LisaL]

42. No matter how hard we try, we can't seem to outrun the rural counties here.

NT

[we can do it]

58. Akron also blue.

[samplegirl]

31. Ohio is nearly all red

Can’t wait to move from here!

[LisaL]

33. Urban counties are not getting any redder.

They are blue. Biden won my county by 30 points.
But rural counties seem to be getting redder.

[treestar]

57. But then Obama won it twice

What was different? Just Obama having more charisma?

[StevieM]

65. I think Ohio is moving right, like the way Iowa is

It is similar to what happened in Missouri, which used to be a battleground state. But starting in 2000 it became a solid Republican state.

There is a limit to this comparison. I don't think Ohio, or Iowa, is going to become as right wing as Missouri is. They won't be unwinnable for the Democrat. But it will take a big national victory to get a very narrow win in those places.

In 2016 we lost Ohio by 8 points while winning the nationwide popular vote for 2 points. So it ran 10 points behind the national average. In 2020 we lost Ohio by 8 points. This time we will win the nationwide popular vote by 4-5 points, so Ohio will be 12-13 points more conservative than the national average.

[SweetieD]

35. Ohio and Indiana are more aligned with their border state Kentucky.

[bif]

38. Yep, they're a bunch of hicks.

But I'm from Michigan, so I have to say that!

[llmart]

51. LOL

I say that and I'm from Ohio but live in Michigan, so I don't have to say it.

[llmart]

51. LOL

I say that and I'm from Ohio but live in Michigan, so I don't have to say it.

[Mr. Sparkle]

40. imo , right wing hate radio has put mid western states permanently in the gop camp.

[berni_mccoy]

43. Yes absolutely. I grew up there, the son of a WV Hillbilly

There is a thing called the Hillbilly highway and Ohio is largely influenced by that worker migration. And I will tell you it ain’t much different than WV as I been there many times.

[llmart]

50. I had a sister-in-law from WV...

I still refer to as my hillbilly sister-in-law. She had no problem openly using the "n" word.

Needless to say, I had very little to do with her. She's dead now. Karma's a bitch.

[ismnotwasm]

46. Lotta forced Birthers in Ohio.

My daughter lives there, she has friends that seem perfectly reasonable except about abortion.

[gollygee]

48. Yes - it's a bit Indiana-ish nt