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Mahoning County Republican Party moves into its new headquarters
BOARDMAN
When you walk into the new Mahoning County Republican Party headquarters, it’s impossible to miss the wood-carved elephant furniture and large decorative elephant-head wall hanging.
On top of the elephant head is a cap worn by former county Republican Chairman Clarence Smith, who donated the head and furniture from his world travels. Elephants have been the symbol of the Republican Party since the 1870s.
“One of the first things we did was put the elephant head on the wall,” said Mahoning Republican Chairman Mark Munroe.
The party has spent the past three-plus months turning a former fitness center – at other times it was a Christian book store and a tanning salon – into its headquarters at 8381 Market St. in Boardman’s Adamas Square Plaza.
“There were mirrors all around the location,” Munroe said.
The party kept three large mirrors on one wall.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new location will be at 5 p.m. Friday. A public open house will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Party officials didn’t want to move from 621 Boardman-Canfield Road, Republican headquarters for 20 years, but didn’t have a choice, Munroe said.
Architectural Ceramic Products, which owned that building, informed Republicans late last year that it was selling the building and the party had to look for a new place for its headquarters.
Sitting inside 8381 Market St., Munroe said, “It came as a shock. We were faced with something we had to do in short order. I was initially concerned about [this location] because it would take so much work. We had to clean the place out.”
But party officials decided to take the new location – about 3,000 square feet, which is 1,000 square feet smaller than the previous headquarters.
“What’s been so gratifying is volunteers did nearly all the work,” Munroe said.
The party spent about $10,000 in out-of-pocket expenses and received about $50,000 worth of donated work, he said.
The headquarters has a platform stage with a large-screen television, meeting space and the elephant furniture along with a conference room, a kitchen, an office and a storage area. The party painted the headquarters and had carpet installed late last week.
People have been coming into the office or calling headquarters looking for signs for Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Munroe said.
Mahoning Republicans have no Trump yard signs so they ordered 500 at the party’s expense and will be selling them for $10 each to recoup the cost, starting with Saturday’s open house.
Yard signs for any candidates are almost always given away.
During the March primary, about 21,000 Mahoning County voters without party affiliations or registered Democrats cast Republican ballots, largely to vote for Trump. Trump lost the Ohio primary by 11 percentage points to Gov. John Kasich, but won by 13 percentage points in Mahoning County.
“We want to reach those new 21,000 Republican voters,” Munroe said. “I’ve been stunned by the walk-in traffic during these last few months from people backing Donald Trump. It’s unprecedented.”
Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras says once those who voted for Trump in the Republican primary learn about the candidate’s “anti-American worker” beliefs, they won’t vote for him.