Free Republic

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Matt Borges has become something of a Donald Trump whisperer. When the Ohio Republican Party chairman calls, the GOP nominee for president listens. Trump toned down his attacks on John Kasich, who challenged him in the primaries, after Borges told him it would be political suicide to pick on Ohio's popular governor. And when Borges believes the New York businessman has gone too far, he doesn't mince words. The two speak frequently by telephone and when Trump campaigns in the Buckeye State. But the contact has intensified in recent days, as Trump's campaign reels from the damaging...

The latest wave of the YouGov/CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker polled likely voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin In a new wave of the YouGov/CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Democrat Hillary Clinton leads her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, in Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The surveys were conducted before the release, Friday, of tapes showing Donald Trump speak in lewd terms about groping women. But a follow-up survey that recontacted the same voters from Friday to Saturday in Pennsylvania and Ohio reveals the vast majority of those who said they would vote for Trump earlier in the week are unmoved about...

Donald Trump is changing some of his advertising plans. He's focusing more than ever on Pennsylvania and Ohio, a sign of the importance his campaign is placing on those two states. The campaign plans to spend almost $1 million next week in Pennsylvania and $1.2 million there in each of the next three weeks, Kantar Media's political ad tracker shows. In Ohio, he'll spend more than $700,000 next week and about $1 million in each of the following three weeks...

PPD/Emerson has Trump +1 in FL . . . but talk about screwy! He is at 18% with blacks and 35% with Hispanics! Sorry, unless you are polling lesbian academics, this is at minimum a 5-point poll and game over. They also have a tie in NV (Team Trump is confident they are up in NV). Emerson has Cankles leading AZ, even though Trump is getting 40% of the Hispanics there? Not a chance in hell. Trump will win AZ comfortably 7-10 points. Interesting info out of Montgomery Co. OH: in 2012 absentees looked like this: R 7,400 D 3,179...

THE BIG IDEA: MIDDLETOWN, Ohio—Many Washington elites, including Republicans, do not know a single person who supports Donald Trump. In this depressed industrial town in southwestern Ohio, it is hard to find anyone who says they are for Hillary Clinton. “I cannot tell you one person I know of who has said to me that they support Hillary. Not one,” said Chris Polleys, who cleans benzene pots at the AK Steel plant here. “I don’t understand how she’s doing anything in the polls. I see Hillary for prison, but there’s no Hillary for president signs anywhere. It’s just impossible for...

Here are some numbers from Montgomery County, OH, a key OH county won by Democrats for the past four elections, if only narrowly. First some caveats: this is today, and things can change. They did in 2014, when the Rs built up a big lead, then lost it for the rest of the election. But more important, Ohio law says that anyone who does not vote in primary is tossed into the “unaffiliated/independent” classification. 2012 R 13,356 D 12,630 I 9,622 2016 R 17,465 D 14,156 I 4,528 This is in large part why some of us—me in particular—were not...

The 180 year old conservative newspaper mainly representing the right leaning Hancock county in Ohio has declined to no endorse either leading presidential candidates. Quoting from the article about why it will not endorse Trump: This year, however, The Courier cannot endorse the Republican Party’s candidate. Americans always put their country first, way ahead of their party, and we withhold an endorsement not to spite the party for selecting Donald J. Trump, but because its nominee has clearly proven to be unfit to be president of the United States of America. Also quoting from the article about why the news...

COLUMBUS — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is pulling away from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Ohio, according to a new Quinnipiac University Poll released Monday afternoon. In a survey of 497 likely Ohio voters conducted in the days after the first presidential debate, 47 percent of respondents backed Trump, versus 42 percent who picked Clinton. Another 6 percent sided with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. Among other results released Monday, Trump was ahead of Clinton in Florida (46 percent-41 percent). Clinton was preferred in North Carolina (46 percent-43 percent) and Pennsylvania (45 percent-41 percent).The results had a margin of error...

PORT CLINTON, Ohio - Every few minutes, the glass door of the Ottawa County Republicans' storefront office would swing open to admit a blast of humid air and another supplicant. Word had gone forth: Headquarters had a new shipment. "We just got a bunch, and were we ever tickled," Carolyn Adams, the county chairwoman, said one afternoon last week. "The first time, they only sent us 50, and they were gone in less than 24 hours. People were desperate." Now she could meet the demand for Donald Trump yard signs, and it was steady - one street-level indicator that the...

By this point in the last three presidential election campaigns, northwest Ohio had received at least one campaign visit from the Democratic presidential candidate. So far this year, however, no city in northwest Ohio has made it on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s calendar, while Republican Donald Trump has scheduled his second rally in Toledo. Mr. Trump is to appear in the Stranahan Theater, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., at noon Wednesday. Nor have any high-level Clinton surrogates set foot on the flat and formerly swampy soil of northwest Ohio so far in the general election campaign — although one is scheduled...

If history is any guide, this election could come down to one state: Ohio. You can almost bet that whoever wins the Buckeye State — Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton — will win the White House. The reason isn't Ohio's 18 electoral votes — plenty of battleground states like Florida and Pennsylvania are worth more. And it isn't because Ohio is a so-called "blue collar" state, because Ohio is harder to define in any singular way. In fact, it's Ohio's incredibly diverse demographic, economic, and geographic makeup that makes it matter so much in elections. I learned that 20 years...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-09-14/ohio-poll

Hillary Clinton and her entire team is in a pure panic about what is happening in Ohio, which everyone knows is a significant swing state. Trump is up 5 points in the latest poll, which prompted Hillary’s campaign to send out an email literally begging for money. You can see a copy of the email below. They are clearly growing more and more desperate by the day as Trump continues to pick up steam. Here is what the email said… Friend — According to a Bloomberg News poll just released, if this election were held today, we’d lose Ohio to...

A new CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday shows Donald Trump opening leads over Hillary Clinton in the key battleground states of Florida and Ohio. Clinton enjoyed a significant post-convention bump earlier in the summer, leading Trump in Florida by 7 points in one July poll, but this latest survey shows Trump ahead among likely voters in the Sunshine State, 47 percent to 44 percent. In Ohio, Clinton led Trump by 4 points in a poll last month, but now she lags behind with just 41 percent to his 46 percent support. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, meanwhile, pulls 6 percent in Florida...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will appear at a rally Wednesday night at Canton Memorial Civic Center, according to his campaign website. The rally begins at 7 p.m. Doors will open at 4 p.m. Tickets are available at his website. This will be Trump's first public appearance in Stark County during the campaign. He appeared at a private fundraiser at Brookside Country Club in August. He's been in Northeast Ohio often in the past month, having appeared in Cleveland on Thursday and at Brook Park and Canfield on Labor Day. He also was in Youngstown on Aug. 15 and Akron...

Hillary Clinton’s prospects for a landslide victory have slid. Democrats’ attempts to take back the House remain a steeply uphill battle. And Americans are still worried about the threat of terrorism.This is HuffPollster for Friday, September 9, 2016. FLORIDA, OHIO, NORTH CAROLINA REMAIN CLOSE CONTESTS - National polls have shown Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump eroding slightly in the first week of September, and now it looks like a trio of crucial swing states might be following suit. Florida - A Quinnipiac poll released Thursday found Clinton and Trump tied at 47-47 in a two-way race, and 43-43 in...

Donald Trump's campaign is planning its biggest ad buy to date — upward of $10 million on commercials airing over the next week or so. The campaign is expects the ads to air as soon as Monday in nine swing states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where the campaign has already been on the air, along with New Hampshire, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney lost eight of those nine states. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has so far been badly outspent by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and groups supporting her....

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden is headed to northeast Ohio to campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The Clinton campaign says exact details of Biden’s trip Thursday will be released soon. He’s expected to attend an event in the Mahoning Valley centered in Youngstown and another in Cleveland. The region is considered critical to winning Ohio, a key political battleground. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been in both Akron and Youngstown this month....

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-08-18/trump-drops-4-9-million-on-paid-advertising

CLEVELAND – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine will no longer be visiting Cleveland on Sunday. Clinton’s campaign tells Fox 8 that the event was canceled due to time constraints. The pair will still be stopping in Youngstown on Saturday night before heading to Columbus on Sunday. (read more)