Gone was the pro-gun rights conservative Democrat; gone was his connection with the voters.
The voters had not changed. The Democratic Party most certainly had. The Republican Party changed, too, as it inherited so many of those disaffected conservative Democrats, many of whom had voted for former President Barack Obama twice. The biggest change, he explains, has been along the eastern spine of the state, “From Ashtabula County along Lake Erie down through Trumbull, Stark, and Mahoning Counties, all the way down Washington County — these areas were historically mostly Democratic strongholds, but all of them voted for Trump in 2020.”; Ohio will have 17 Electoral Votes in 2024.
