Springer revs up Warren crowd during Nina Turner campaign stop

Staff report

WARREN

A lot of people had a really good time seeing and meeting celebrity talk show host Jerry Springer outside of the Trumbull County Board of Elections.

It was easy to tell he had arrived Thursday afternoon when a few people in the crowd of 100 or so started to chant “Je-Ree, Je-Ree” the way the audience does on his raucus television show known for fights and bad language.

And when state Sen. Nina Turner, a Democratic Party candidate running for Ohio secretary of state arrived, the former Cincinnati mayor turned politician again, supporting Turner’s call for Ohio to make voting easier.

He said Republican initiatives are frequently aimed at reducing the political power of low-income and middle-income Ohioans.

He imagined an Ohio in which all residents were required to vote. “If you had to vote, would we have had to wait 70 years to see health care? The reason we don’t get laws for middle- and low-income people is because low- and middle-income people don’t vote,” he said.

“I just want people to have unfettered access to the ballot box,” Turner said of her reason for running for secretary of state, the office that oversees Ohio voting. “The ballot is the greatest [economic] equalizer we have.”

Stella Economos of Warren said she had come to the event because she had watched Springer’s show so many times. “I just wanted to meet him,” she said.