Blue-collar whites still honking for Donald Trump in Ohio

Every few minutes there was the loud blast of a car or truck horn passing the "Honk for Trump!" sign outside the Republican Party's Columbiana County headquarters in eastern Ohio.

"Lock her up!" shouted Anita Fraser, the party's campaign organiser for the county, holding up an anti-Hillary Clinton sign. It's the favourite chant of Donald Trump's supporters.

The honking goes on all day, said David Johnson, the party’s county chairman, sitting inside the office over lunch on Tuesday with local party colleagues, surrounded by Trump campaign paraphernalia.

“We do it also to agitate our neighbour – she’s a screaming liberal,” Johnson said with a chuckle about his friend, who runs a business next door.

According to Fraser, visitors to the office are mostly blue-collar workers and out-of-work coal miners fearful of Clinton’s threat in March “to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business”.

Ohio is a must-win state for Trump. No Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio, and every winning candidate since 1964 has secured victory with Ohio.

Trump is relying on running up the vote in the economically depressed steel, coal and pottery towns along the state’s eastern border and the poor rural Appalachian region in the south.

Forgotten parts

“This is the forgotten part of Ohio and a forgotten part of the country,” said Johnson.

Here, Trump’s promise to bring back manufacturing jobs is winning support in large numbers, particularly blue-collar “Union Democrats” aggrieved by decades of economic decline.

“They like a bit of a renegade around here,” said Republican Tad Herold, a director of the county’s development department. “They want someone to tell the powers that be what they would tell them themselves. People here feel like they haven’t had a voice for quite some time.”

Johnson held up a photo showing Trump’s votes in the east and south in the Ohio primary against other parts that backed John Kasich.

Though he lost to the home- state governor, Trump won 270,000 more votes than Mitt Romney in 2012 and topped Clinton's vote in her primary by 48,000. Johnson viewed these as positive signs for Trump in the November 8th ballot.

“You know what I see here: Brexit,” he said, pointing to the polls showing the Remain side ahead, only for the vote to tip for Leave in the end. “I am not saying it is a slam dunk. That could happen.”

in these struggling parts, Trump’s economic message has turned many Democrats to the Republican party, and local Republicans believe the billionaire can bring out enough voters to offset support from suburbanites who traditionally vote Republican but are turned off by Trump’s abrasive rhetoric.

“A lot of the ‘D’ side are going to sit it out. The Trump people are motivated to vote and that’s how he’s going to win this election,” said Mike Halleck, a Republican county commissioner.

Johnson can testify personally to the decline in the area.

"This was the pottery capital of the United States, " he said. "There used to be over 60 potteries here. Now there is one left."

Johnson’s company, Summitville Tiles, in business for 104 years, used to employ 800 people in three factories.

"Now I have one factory with 150 employees fighting to survive, competing against China, Mexico and the whole rest of the world, who are dumping product in here cheaper than we can make it at a time when regulations are quadrupling at every level of our business."

Trade deals

Trump’s plan to renegotiate international trade deals to block cheap imports from China and Mexico and stem the increase in environmental regulations appeals to people like Johnson.

In his 26 years as chairman, Johnson has never seen the intensity of support Trump enjoys here.

“Take a look at the guys coming in here,” he said. “They’re in blue jeans and baseball caps. These aren’t country-club people. This is all day long.”

Candace McCoy and her husband Gary, who popped in for a sign, like Trump’s plan to “make America great again”. Economic decline cost them their construction company four year ago.

For a decade, Gary has travelled the country, sometimes as far away as Florida, for months at a time to work on construction jobs. At home, new regulations have cost them lucrative fracking contracts from mining companies on their local farm. Their children have moved away to find work.

“It is heartbreaking for a mom – don’t make me cry,” said Candace when asked about the toll it has taken on her family. “I don’t believe in the family being separated.”

Even Trump’s remarks bragging about grabbing women’s genitals have been less of a turn-off in Ohio. Clinton led in every swing state after the tape of her opponent’s comments was leaked last week.

Her polling advantage in Ohio is just a half-point on average, making it the closest of all battleground states.

“When they weigh the lies that Hillary Clinton has already told the American people against Trump’s remarks, they have not changed their stance,” said Tim Ginter, a pastor and Republican state representative sitting opposite Johnson.

Open revolt

The open revolt against the Republican presidential nominee by party officials, including local US senator Rob Portman, over the leaked tape has angered Trump's supporters here.

Harry Yeany, a retired industrial worker, said he turned his Portman yard sign at home upside down next to his Trump one when he heard the senator condemn the candidate.

Bill Cosgrove, an electrician, was so angry at the disloyalty shown to Trump that he visited the Lisbon GOP headquarters, his first to a political party’s office, to pick up a sign.

“You stand behind your horse,” he said. “You don’t stand in front of it and try to stop it.”