United Mates: What US town of Sidney, Ohio, thinks of Trump v Harris
Ohio picked the president for 14 elections in a row from 1964. See how locals in the town of Sidney will be voting in our United Mates series.
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Ohio is America’s ultimate bellwether, picking the president for 14 elections in a row from 1964.
But that streak – longer than any other state – ended in 2020 when the Buckeye State bucked the national trend to Joe Biden and overwhelmingly backed Donald Trump.
This time around, while support for the former president is reportedly softening statewide, the residents of the regional city of Sidney remain fully behind the Republican candidate.
It’s difficult to find anyone even considering voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
And what is perhaps her most potent campaign issue nationally – restoring the right to abortion – is what makes her and the Democratic Party so toxic among these Sidneysiders.
This comes up time and again around the picturesque square at the heart of the city.
Bethany Kirkpatrick, who is helping out at a right-to-life group’s thrift shop, says she is voting for Mr Trump because “he stands for what I believe in … I’m against abortion completely”.
A few doors down at a coffee shop that wouldn’t be out of place in Sydney, nursing student Kira Cheadle similarly plans to back Mr Trump in November for his pro-life position.
James Richardson, who is volunteering for a religious group outside the historic courthouse in the square, says he bases his vote “on following what God wants us to do”.
“I’m not saying all Republicans are great, but I will say that there’s very few Democrats I would ever vote for because of their beliefs on abortion,” the retired police officer says.
“I will always vote for God and against the evil of this world.”
And across the road in the city’s busy barbershop, Sidney’s Grace Baptist Church pastor Jim Alter is praising Mr Trump as “more conservative than any president of my lifetime” – even if he says the 78-year-old’s “past immorality is a real problem for me”.
Barbershop owner Andy Steenrod avoids sharing his voting preference as he cuts Mr Alter’s hair.
Nevertheless, he is happy to banter with his customers, saying he would put his money on Ms Harris because “the stage is set right now in the United States for a female president”.
“This is like the United States men’s Olympic basketball team. If you were betting in Vegas, you’d put your money on them,” he says.
“I would say Kamala is more like the Australian breakdancer,” Mr Alter replies.
Sara Gumbert, a college student working at the coffee shop, says her neighbours are “going to have to be” ready for the US to have a woman in the White House.
She is a rare Democratic supporter in Sidney, ready to vote in a presidential election for the first time.
Asked about the politics of her community, she says locals “all sort of want the same things”, but they are divided on specific issues like abortion.
“As a young woman in America, I really feel like women’s rights are on the ballot this year, and so for me it’s really important not only to have women supporting women, but also to secure my rights as a woman living in America,” she says.
Sitting outside the shop, retired small business owner Joe White doesn’t have a problem with the idea of a female president.
“My wife was vice president of my company for years – she could run a company better than I do,” he says.
He just thinks Ms Harris is “the worst candidate”, especially compared to a businessman like Mr Trump who has a “good understanding of the way things actually work”.
Like many Republicans in Sidney, the grandfather is more than willing to defend Mr Trump’s rap sheet.
He is particularly frustrated with the criminal charges laid over his effort to overturn his defeat in 2020, saying “everybody knew that election was fraud”.
“Anybody with half a brain knows that Joe Biden could have never got 81 million votes. He got 15 million more votes than Barack Obama – that’s totally impossible,” Mr White says.
“I’m not off the wall, this is just common sense.”
He would be preaching to the converted if Mr Alter could hear him.
The pastor says Mr Trump is the “third president removed from office by our intelligence agencies”, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Watergate scandal that ended Richard Nixon.
Mr Alter reckons Mr Trump’s New York hush money conviction – for which he is due to be sentenced next month – “wouldn’t stand up in Venezuela” and that the January 6 riot at the US Capitol was the “only unarmed insurrection in the history of the world”.
“My hope is that President Trump will do everything he can to dismantle the deep state,” he says.
For Ms Gumbert, January 6 is central to her fears about Mr Trump’s potential re-election.
“I think it’s really interesting the way that people reacted to that, and also that people kind of forgot about it afterwards,” she says.
But fellow student Ms Cheadle – who admits she is “not very educated” about politics – thinks all politicians are corrupt in some way.
Mr Richardson acknowledges Mr Trump “says things he probably shouldn’t say”, although he still trusts him because he “spoke the truth”.
By contrast, the religious group volunteer thinks Ms Harris has “completely flip-flopped on everything she believes, but she’s going to change back right after she gets elected”.
On the outskirts of Sidney at his family’s alpaca farm, Rick Paulus is similarly scathing. Asked for his views on the Vice President, he laughs and says: “That’s enough said.”
“If you vote for her, you don’t care about the candidate, you don’t care about this country,” he says.
Mr Paulus is also motivated by his faith, and he says while Mr Trump is “not the perfect candidate”, he is confident he shares his values and has “a genuine love for this country”.
Like many other Sidneysiders, despite his fervent belief in the Republican candidate, he is at peace with the prospect of Mr Trump potentially winning Ohio but losing the election again.
“My trust is not in Trump or the election process for this country,” Mr Paulus says.
“My trust is in the Lord, Jesus Christ … I was very shocked that Trump lost last time. I know why he lost, because I don’t believe the election was fair, but I know that God’s in control.”
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