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Trump to talk foreign policy at invite-only event at YSU
and Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will deliver a “major foreign-policy address” at an invitation-only event Monday at Youngstown State University, according to a prominent local supporter of the candidate.
Columbiana County Republican Party Chairman Dave Johnson, who co-hosted a Canton-area fundraiser for Trump earlier this week, also said he and other Republican county chairmen are giving out about 350 tickets to “community leaders and organizers” to the event that will take place in the Chestnut Room at YSU’s Kilcawley Center. The location can hold up to 750 people, according to Shannon Tirone, YSU’s associate vice president for university relations.
The event is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. As of late Friday, the Youngstown stop was the only item on Trump’s schedule for Monday.
“It’s not going to be a rally; it’s going to be a foreign-policy address by invitation only,” Johnson said.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, also will be at the YSU event, Johnson said.
Seth Unger, Trump’s campaign spokesman in Ohio, confirmed Trump will be at YSU but declined to comment further.
Tirone said she was getting many phone calls Friday from people wanting to secure tickets for the event, but that’s being handled by the state and county Republican parties.
Youngstown Police Chief Robin Lees said his department probably will be largely responsible for traffic control, but other than that, there will not be a lot it will be doing out of the ordinary. He noted that YSU has its own police department, so it will be taking the lead in matters such as security at the event along with the Secret Service.
Lees said his department will cooperate with the Secret Service, and some of the department’s specialty units, such as the bomb squad, will be made available should they be requested.
During a Friday campaign stop in Girard, ex-Gov. Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, blasted Trump for critical comments the billionaire businessman has made about a Gold Star family, the military and prisoners of war.
“Donald Trump’s record is appalling,” said Strickland, adding that the nominee “is unfit to be the president.”
While Trump lost Ohio’s Republican primary March 15 to John Kasich, the state’s governor, he did exceptionally well in the Mahoning Valley and in Appalachia.
Mahoning and Trumbull are the two most-populous counties of the 28 in the state Trump won during the primary. Kasich won the other 60 counties.
Trump got 51 percent of the vote in both Mahoning and Trumbull, beating Kasich by 13 percentage points in Mahoning and by 17 percentage points in Trumbull.
Trump also got 47 percent of the vote in Columbiana County compared with 37 percent for Kasich.
“Ohio is the battleground state in this election, and the biggest metropolitan area to back Trump was Youngstown, and the leading institution in the area is YSU,” Johnson said. “It’s fantastic that he’s coming to Youngstown to do this.”
In Mahoning County, 6,171 Democrats voted Republican in the primary, and 21,801 voters without party affiliation cast Republican ballots.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office provided a list with percentages of registered Democrats who voted in the Republican primary in the state’s 88 counties. At the top of the list was Mahoning with 26.72 percent, Trumbull was third at 19.93 percent, and Columbiana was 14th with 8.86 percent.
During a discussion at last Monday’s fundraiser in the Canton area, Johnson said he “urged [Trump] to focus on eastern Ohio.”
That event, Johnson said, raised $1.2 million for Trump’s campaign.
David Betras, chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, said those who crossed over to vote for Trump in the primary will reject him in the general election when they learn about his record.
RealClearPolitics.com, a website that aggregates polling data, has Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leading Trump in Ohio by 2.6 percentage points.
Clinton campaigned with U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, her vice-presidential running mate, and their spouses July 30 at Youngstown’s East High School. Clinton won the Ohio primary over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and won the Democratic primary in the state in 2008, but lost the nomination to Barack Obama.
On March 12, three days before the Ohio primary, Clinton campaigned at M7 Technologies in Youngstown. Trump had a rally the day before the primary at Winner Aviation at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna.
Tirone said the university is open to the Democratic nominee, too.
“Just as we’re happy to be hosting Trump, we’re putting feelers out there to be able to host Clinton as well,” she said.
Clinton campaigned Oct. 17, 2008, at YSU on behalf of Obama.