Ohio is a critical battleground in next month’s midterms elections. NPR’s Scott Simon traveled to the state’s 9th Congressional District to hear from voters about their priorities.
Ohio is a critical battleground in next month’s midterms elections. NPR’s Scott Simon traveled to the state’s 9th Congressional District to hear from voters about their priorities.
Ohio is a critical battleground in next month’s midterms elections. NPR’s Scott Simon traveled to the state’s 9th Congressional District to hear from voters about their priorities.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Did you vote two years ago, may we ask?
WILLIAM WATKINS: Did I vote two years ago? I actually don’t remember. Wow. Oh, yeah. I did. I voted. And I’m regretting my vote right now. I voted for Trump.
SIMON: We begin this hour in Ohio, a critical battleground in next month’s midterm elections. We visited the state’s 9th Congressional District, including city of Toledo. And when we asked people in diners, machine shops, and on streets what they were most concerned about, one worry kept coming up.
WATKINS: Oh, the cost of gas is outrageous.
THOMAS HAMILTON: And it was over $4 a gallon there for a while, so my car’s broke down. I’ve been riding the bus.
TAMYRA FRAZIER: Gas, for sure.
SIMON: William Watkins has been working in factories and making deliveries and recently enrolled in a machining class at Toledo’s Cherry Street Mission, a nonprofit support group.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL SQUEAKING)
SIMON: He hopes to land a better-paying job with steady benefits and is raising a young daughter.
WATKINS: Oof. Jesus. This economy has been rough. Like, it’s bad. I had a truck. Like, I’d rather walk sometimes than take that truck where I’m going. I remember when I first learned how to drive. Gas was $2. I’m like, I’m not buying no $2 gas. I would darn near cross five highways to get $2 gas right now.
SIMON: We asked why he voted for Donald Trump in 2024.
WATKINS: I just felt like, with him being the businessman that he was, that he would be able to help the country out a little better. I don’t want to say I was wrong. But us common folk that go to work every day and work hard for our money on a normal job – it’s really hurting our pockets.
HAMILTON: This one right here is going to be for our cup holders or our coasters. Excuse me.
SIMON: Thomas Hamilton is in the same machining class. He’s separated from his partner and trying to support five boys.
HAMILTON: If I got to work two and three jobs, plus come here, I don’t get to see my kids. You know, that’s not a benefit for them. That’s hurting them ’cause now they got to grow up without a father around. Trump seems to me like – a lot of the principles and stuff that I seen when he first took office, and everything sounded good – everything sounded great – you know, it’s just kind of fizzled out. I don’t think he really has kept his word.
(SOUNDBITE OF CASH REGISTER RINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED CASHIER: Twelve,13, 14, 15, 20.
UNIDENTIFIED CUSTOMER: All right. Thanks a lot.
UNIDENTIFIED CASHIER: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED CUSTOMER: Thank you, everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED CASHIER: See you later.
SIMON: There are 19 pies on the menu at Schmucker’s diner in Toledo, from apple pie to strawberry rhubarb. Michael Crockett is a retired factory worker and is having breakfast with his grown daughter, Zhane. She says she often has to figure out what to do without.
ZHANE CROCKETT: I would say, like, a year ago, it was $35 for a full tank? Now I’m paying about $55, $60 to fill up. So that’s eating away.
MICHAEL CROCKETT: I’ve controlled my lifestyle. I think I got it down to a science. I eat one time a day. But that came with getting older, and I found out that eating isn’t necessarily my best friend because I overeat. So that’s how I cut down on my budget (laughter).
SIMON: President Trump won many traditionally Democratic working-class votes from Ohioans over three elections. But Tamyra Frazier of Toledo, who works two jobs in home and healthcare to support her daughter and voted for President Trump in 2024, now says…
FRAZIER: He started wars – wars that did not need to be started. I feel like Trump should just – don’t stick his nose in other people’s business. He should just stay and worry. We got so much work to do with our own people.
SIMON: Early voting opened this week. Outside of a polling station in Defiance, Ohio, about an hour from Toledo, we met Jerry Brittsan, who had just cast his vote. He wore a hat in the autumn sun that said, veteran.
JERRY BRITTSAN: I support the president. And I think that when you look at the stock market and all these other type things, I think the country is on a rebound.
SIMON: What would you say to people who say, look, you know, the price of gas. I’m working two and three jobs. It’s hard to commute between jobs. I have to spend much more money than I did before on food. This is making uncomfortable choices for me and my family.
BRITTSAN: I think it’s going to be temporary, although, from the oil-and-gas-type thing, I think that’s going to change.
SIMON: Another early voter, Angela Hearne, told us that taxes were the most important issue to her. But also…
ANGELA HEARNE: People’s lifestyle? I don’t care. But don’t impress it on me – that kind of stuff. I can live here fine and happy. But I don’t need to know your religion or your sexual whatever. I don’t care. I don’t care who you pray to. I don’t. But don’t have to express it on to me.
SIMON: And that helped you…
HEARNE: Yes.
SIMON: …Make your decision to vote…
HEARNE: Oh, yes.
SIMON: …One way or another. Yeah.
HEARNE: Yes.
SIMON: What about an issue like inflation, the cost of living?
HEARNE: That also. We always lived within our means ’cause that’s the way we was brought up. So we always kind of watched our Ps and Qs. If we couldn’t afford it, we didn’t buy it.
SIMON: Do you think the war in Iran is helping your family or America?
HEARNE: Personally, right now, this – no. It isn’t. But maybe later on, it will be.
SIMON: There are statewide races for Ohio’s governorship and a Senate seat, which current polls show to be close. Marcy Kaptur has represented the 9th Congressional District since 1983. She still lives in her childhood home in Toledo and is the longest-serving woman in the history of the U.S. Congress. But a Republican-controlled state legislature redrew her district lines. President Trump won it by seven points in 2024, though Representative Kaptur was reelected.
The district has been redrawn again by the legislature. And Cook Political Report rates this year’s congressional race between Kaptur and former Republican Ohio State Representative Derek Merrin a toss-up. The Merrin campaign didn’t return our request for an interview. But at Bud’s diner on 2nd Street, we ran into…
MIKE MCCANN: Mike McCann. I’m the mayor of the city of Defiance, Ohio.
SIMON: Bud’s is part of the mayor’s daily rounds, where pumpkin and Ohio apple pies have just been put on the menu. The mayor’s a Republican and hands out a business card that has three direct phone numbers.
MCCANN: You know, since I’ve been mayor, we went from about 16,700 folks to probably around 17,100 right now.
SIMON: What are the big issues here at the moment? What has people talking, and what are they worried about?
MCCANN: I think the same thing that everybody’s talking about. Fuel prices are still high. Now, the state of Ohio just put a 90-day rollback on all their gas taxes, which reduced the price of gas by about $0.40 a gallon. That helps. Certainly, that helps. But it’s a 90-day rollback, and we aren’t collecting gas tax right now. So what are we going to do when it comes time to…
SIMON: Yeah.
MCCANN: …Pave our roads and build our bridges and all those things?
SIMON: Are you in accord with the Republican Party nationally? I mean, I don’t – I…
MCCANN: I can…
SIMON: I’m speaking…
MCCANN: Yeah.
SIMON: Yeah. I mean, I’m covering it. How…
MCCANN: Yeah.
SIMON: What do you think of President…
MCCANN: I…
SIMON: …Trump as running things (ph)?
MCCANN: I never agree with everybody on everything.
SIMON: Yeah.
MCCANN: Locally, people don’t agree with everything that we’re doing here.
SIMON: Coming up to these midterms, President Trump says, I want people to think that my name is on the ballot.
MCCANN: I heard that over the weekend.
SIMON: Good idea, from your point of view?
MCCANN: I – you know, I am not a political strategist. I’ll be honest with you. I…
SIMON: You’ve been elected mayor three times. You’re doing pretty well.
MCCANN: Well, I guess nobody else wants the job (laughter). I will say…
SIMON: Yeah.
MCCANN: A couple of years ago, when Trump was on the ballot, that’s the most activity that I’ve seen at my polling location where I work, ever. And people were coming in the door, saying, hey. I’m just here to vote for Trump, and then I’ll get out of here.
SIMON: And as we spoke…
MCCANN: Marcy Kaptur just walked in.
SIMON: Two longtime Ohio pawls (ph) of different parties shook hands.
MARCY KAPTUR: Hi. Hello.
MCCANN: Good morning.
KAPTUR: Good morning.
MCCANN: It was nice to see you.
KAPTUR: Good to see you.
MCCANN: Everything OK?
KAPTUR: Everything’s good.
MCCANN: You’re doing OK?
KAPTUR: Yes. I’m doing all right.
MCCANN: All right.
KAPTUR: Yeah.
MCCANN: We’ve been worried…
KAPTUR: I’m healing.
MCCANN: …About you. Yeah.
KAPTUR: Thank you. Thank you…
MCCANN: I saw…
KAPTUR: …For the primrose (ph).
MCCANN: …The car. I don’t know how you survived.
KAPTUR: They – it was a miracle.
MCCANN: Yeah.
KAPTUR: It really was.
MCCANN: You definitely had a guy…
KAPTUR: I said…
MCCANN: …On your side.
KAPTUR: …I better do my job.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Marcy Kaptur survived a car accident in August and is now back on the campaign trail.
KAPTUR: We live in kind of a crooked state, but that isn’t the case here. So I’m just very proud of what I’ve learned here. The mayor’s helped teach me – hardworking people.
SIMON: I mean, there’s something I’ve got to say. We have a Democrat and a Republican standing here, getting along, complimenting each other. And the smell of pumpkin pie…
KAPTUR: (Laughter).
SIMON: …In this diner is overwhelming. I think a lot of people are going to be saying, this is what America…
MCCANN: Yeah.
SIMON: …Should be.
MCCANN: This is what I was talking to you about earlier. We all need to put the politics aside and do what’s best for our city, do what’s best for our county, do what’s best for our state and do what’s best for our country.
KAPTUR: We’re rebuilding the steel industry. We’re rebuilding the automotive industry. We’re bringing in new industry, and we’ve got a long way to go. And we hope Washington and the financial centers start to see the Great Lakes cities again. They ignored them for a very long time.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL SQUEAKING)
SIMON: And back at the machinist workshop, William Watkins is still thinking over who we’ll vote for.
WATKINS: This country has become more costly with the inflation and tariffs and all that. I mean, hopefully it fits us better in the end. But as of right now, it’s rough.
SIMON: Yeah.
WATKINS: Whatever candidate they do pick, I hope they just have the people in mind because at the end of the day, the people make our nation.
SIMON: William Watkins of Toledo, Ohio – one of the voters who will decide the direction of the next U.S. Congress. Our story was produced by Danny Hensel and edited by Martin Patience. And Bud’s Ohio apple pie was just terrific.
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