Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has begun to break through Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s Electoral College firewall, switching Ohio, Florida and Iowa from 2012 and holding on to North Carolina.
Ohio was less of a priority for the Clinton campaign, which saw victories Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Florida and North Carolina as their avenue to denying Trump the requisite 270 electoral votes. Trump has since won two of those four states.
The Clinton campaign held high-profile rallies in Ohio during the final week of the campaign, bringing out LeBron James, Beyonce and Jay-Z to stump for the former secretary.
Meanwhile, Trump made the state a priority, focusing heavily on trade deals that have hurt blue-collar workers in southeast Ohio and the Mahoning Valley. He held his final rally in the state on Friday in Springfield.
Despite his success, he did not receive the full support from top officials in Ohio. Most notably, Gov. John Kasich, a one-time opponent of Trump’s during the GOP primary fight, withheld his support throughout the campaign and did not speak at the Republican National Convention in Clevelend.
Kasich announced in early October that he would not support Trump on Election Day in the wake of the release of a video showing Trump making lewd remarks about women on a hot microphone. He ended up voting for Sen. John McCain for president.
Trump also lost support after the video’s release from Sen. Rob Portman, who previously supported Kasich in the GOP primary and announced subsequently that he would vote for Trump. Portman was one of many Republicans to withdraw their support following the video’s emergence, including New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte and McCain.
The campaign also had a contentious relationship with Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges, having publicly cut ties with him in mid-October after Borges made a series of critical remarks about Trump. He announced soon after that he would after all vote for Trump.
With the Buckeye State victory, Trump accomplished one thing that 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney could not four years ago, who lost the state by 3 percentage points to President Obama.
