Ohio backed Trump big time in 2024, casting 54.8% of its vote for him and his running mate, Cincinnati Republican J.D. Vance. Nationally, Ohio’s Trump-Vance tally was a runaway win, given that ticket’s national share of the vote was 49.7% of the total, while the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket gleaned 48.2%.
According to 2023 federal data, Wood County (Bowling Green) ranked No. 1 among Ohio counties in soybean production. Last year, that county’s voters cast 54.6% of their votes for Trump.
Ohio’s other big soybean producing counties were even more enthusiastic for President Trump last year, according to federal agricultural data and Ohio election returns.
Among other big soybean-producing counties: Clinton (Wilmington), voted 76.6% for Trump; Darke (Greenville), 82%; Fayette (Washington Court House), 76.9%; Hardin (Kenton), 76.8%; Huron (Norwalk), 71.3%; Madison (London), 71%; Mercer (Celina), 82.7% for Trump; Paulding, 77.2%; Pickaway (Circleville), 73.5%; Putnam (Ottawa), 83.5%; Seneca (Tiffin), 67.9%; and Van Wert, 78.5%.
Democratic President Barack Obama enraged Republicans when he said, amid Democratic victories that “elections have consequences.” Yes, indeed, as Republican rural Ohio – even before it loses its hospitals thanks to the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act – is finding out, elections do indeed have consequences. But sometimes they’re not the ones president’s voters wanted.
Statehouse rustics periodically heave themselves out of their seats to tell fellow General Assembly members that agriculture is Ohio’s No. 1 industry. If that’s really so, those legislators will take a break from, say, persecuting trans people, and instead fight Trump antics that are squeezing Ohio’s farm families.
The Statehouse joke known as congressional re-districting is drawing fire from people who need to know some plain truths: Of course General Assembly Republicans are stalling: The longer they delay, the greater their advantages thanks to Ohio’s current redistricting rubrics, set by cosmetic “reforms” voters OK’d last decade.
Then, last year, thanks to deceitful ballot language engineered by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, of Upper Arlington, and an apprentice, Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, of Bowling Green (and permitted by Ohio’s Supine – oops, Supreme – Court) Ohioans rejected a ballot issue to create a citizens’ commission to fairly draw congressional and legislative districts.
Given that Republicans enjoy an unjustified majority of Ohio’s U.S. House seats – 10 Republicans, five Democrats – there is no reason for Statehouse Republicans to advance redistricting until they can perfect boundaries that could retire at least two Democrats now in Congress – U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, of Toledo, and Emilia Sykes, of Akron.
True, redistricting can be dismissed as an insiders’ fight, especially given an Ohio congressional delegation that, as now peopled, exhibits scanty distinction.
But the GOP-run U.S. House’s roll-over-and-play-dead reaction to Trump’s imposition of what amounts to martial law in U.S. cities is perilous to Americans’ liberties. And the U.S. Senate’s “leadership” – both parties – is just a tedious cavalcade of cliches. That’s not responsible, constructive government. It’s show-biz in a country that needs real leadership, not low-brow entertainment.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
About the Author