In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown discuss how Ohio will factor into Joe Biden's strategy to win the Electoral College.
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In this week's episode:
Is Ohio A Battleground State?
President Trump was in North Carolina last weekend, and he held a big rally in Michigan on Thursday. Joe Biden made campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Michigan this week. But neither candidate has made recent appearances in Ohio.
Could this mean that Republicans see Ohio as a sure bet and Democrats see it as a lost cause?
Television advertising in Ohio is down from past cycles. The group Media Buying reports that President Trump has pulled TV ads that were planned for this week. Biden is only buying TV ads in select parts of Ohio, not statewide.
Biden seems to be focusing more on Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. If he wins those three, plus one more decent size swing state, he wins.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Back in March, Gov. Mike DeWine and state’s health director canceled the primary election's in-person voting because of COVID-19.
After a few days of hand ringing and political posturing, Ohio resumed the election, extended it a few more weeks, and only accepted ballots by mail. It was kind of a mess.
It appears that a lot of Ohio voters don't want to deal with that again, or maybe just don’t want to go to the polls or stand in line in this age of COVID.
The state has already received more than 1 million requests for mail-in absentee ballots, and it’s only the first week in September. During the 2016 election, Ohio did not reach 1 million mail-in requests until well into October.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose says all those mail-in ballots could make election night a little different, with no clear winner in tight races.
Snollygoster Of The Week: Dave Yost
This week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost urged The Ohio State University to sue the Big Ten Conference, and even other Big Ten universities, if the football season is cancelled. He says the university can sue for breach of contract and possibly recover tens of millions of dollars. The university has not commented.
So the state’s top attorney is directing a team of lawyers to prepare a lawsuit that his client, Ohio State, may not even want. But his actions did get headlines.
Send questions and comments to snollygoster@wosu.org.
