President Trump returned to Ohio on Monday for the second time in 10 days to play defense in a state that twice helped deliver him to the White House.
He rallied in Youngstown, the heart of the industrial belt that helped fuel his rise, to marshal support for two of the Republican Party’s most vulnerable candidates this cycle: Senator Jon Husted, who is vying to retain his seat, and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is competing for the governorship.
They will need this area to break their way on Election Day in three weeks, with polls showing tight races in a state that Mr. Trump won in 2024 by 11 percentage points.
“Ohio is going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it,” Mr. Trump said. “America belongs to those who love it.”
The Mahoning Valley, where he spoke, was battered by globalization. Many voters here grew up as Democrats but became Republicans after Mr. Trump persuaded them that he would fight for them when no one else had. Now, with prices persistently high and Mr. Trump’s approval rating hovering near a record low, officials with both parties see those voters as up for grabs.
“The Youngstown area for decades used to vote Democrat, and then you ran for office in 2016 and flipped it red forever,” Mr. Husted said on Monday in the arena, standing beside Mr. Trump. “Is that right, folks?”
The crowd whooped and cheered. There were at least two sections with large areas of empty seats.
On Monday, Mr. Trump announced two offerings to show voters in the region that he had their back: a new Defense Department facility, which he said would be based in Cleveland, to repair submarine components as well as a promise to make sure that a heat provider for Youngstown remained open.
In other battleground races, including in Michigan and Iowa, Republican candidates have tried to distance themselves from Mr. Trump. But in Ohio, the down-ballot candidates have stayed close to the president, relying on him to turn out the base in a year when Democratic enthusiasm appears to be high.
In addition to Mr. Husted and Mr. Ramaswamy, Representative Max Miller, the embattled congressional candidate accused of physically abusing his ex-wife and young daughter, was in the audience on Monday. (Mr. Miller has denied the allegations.) So was his estranged father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno, the Republican who beat Mr. Husted’s Democratic opponent, former Senator Sherrod Brown, two years ago.
Mr. Trump returned the favor by lavishing praise on the candidates — most of all on Mr. Husted, a former football player, who appeared to have impressed the president with his physicality.
“I don’t do this with men very often,” Mr. Trump said. “I started examining his body, because I didn’t know he was a great athlete.”
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