After a month of flying over and around or sending her family and famous surrogates instead, Hillary Clinton has returned to Ohio.
The Democratic nominee for president laid out her plan for an economy that “works for everyone, not just those at the top” during a rally in Toledo on Monday afternoon. Hours later in Akron’s Goodyear Hall and Theatre, she urged a couple thousand fans to knock on doors and get their friends to vote.
In the 36 days before voting concludes on Nov. 8, Clinton is counting on high voter turnout to overcome Republican rival Donald Trump’s relentless in-person visits to Ohio and other battleground states.
Clinton, last in Ohio on Labor Day, is white-knuckling a shrinking lead in the polls. A Quinnipiac Poll released Monday put Trump ahead in Ohio by five points. Clinton leads in Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, each hotly contested by Trump and also tested in the poll.
In Toledo, Clinton pointed out dozens of volunteers who walked around with clipboards and voter registration forms.
“Who here is planning to vote?” Clinton asked the Akron crowd of 2,600, according to a fire marshal’s estimate provided by her campaign.
The crowd erupted in applause, waving “Ohio for Hillary” signs. “Well, that is good because this is the most crucial election of our lifetimes,” Clinton said, telling voters to check their voter registration status online and reminding them that “friends don’t let friends vote for Trump.”
Stumping Trump
Clinton gave her remarks to a crowd half the size Trump drew when he spoke last month at the University of Akron.
Perhaps more telling than how many warm bodies could be packed in each venue were the scores of chairs upside down and unused in the press pool, indicating the outsize attention the media give Trump rallies.
With no teleprompter, Clinton took the usual shots at Trump, blasting his advantageous business deals and bankruptcies, calling his tax plan a windfall for rich people like himself and condemning his treatment of companies he hired but did not pay.
“When I think about the way my opponent has taken advantage of people,” she said, naming contractors who got “stiffed” after furnishing Trump hotels with pianos and marble, “I have to say I am really glad my dad [who owned a drapery shop] didn’t get a contract from him.”
New attacks
Her speech, nearly identical to the one she gave earlier in Toledo, threw in a few new jabs inspired by recent investigative reports.
She criticized Trump for not paying his taxes, citing a New York Times story that reviewed leaked tax returns authenticated by a former Trump accountant. The documents show Trump, a billionaire real estate investor who took a $14 million family loan to start his business, was eligible to spread $915 million in losses in 1995 to avoid up to $50 million in taxes for 18 years.
“For a long time, we’ve been saying where are your tax returns,” Clinton said.
In the past 40 years, only Republican Gerald Ford refused to release the documents. Clinton reminded the crowd how she pressed Trump to release them in the first debate, which the Quinnipiac Poll showed swing state voters believe she won by a margin of 2-1.
“He’s a liar. He’s a thief,” said Gary Day, a retired steelworker who traveled from Youngstown to hear Clinton speak. “I paid all my taxes.”
There’s no indication that Trump’s use of the tax code was illegal. The Trump campaign said he’s paid million of dollars in excise, property and other taxes.
Still, the revelation doesn’t bode well for some. “It says to me that he is not in touch with middle class America. He’s not truly able to help the workers because he’s not been in that situation,” said DeShania Mitchell, 42, of Akron, who attended the Clinton speech with her father.
Turning out votes
Clinton would take the White House if the election were held today, according to betting agencies, poll aggregators and respected prognosticators, like Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball.
But Trump would take Ohio despite his blusters and bad press. The disparity, political experts posit, has to do with Ohio’s independent voters.
“In some states, figuring why one candidate is doing better than the other takes some head scratching, but not in Ohio,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “Trump’s 19-point lead among independent voters tells us almost all we need to know.
“Secretary Clinton must close that gap to come back in the Buckeye State.”
Speaking in Akron, Canton, Toledo and Cleveland in the past two months, Trump has criticized free trade, a villain in the eyes of many working class, white Ohioans left jobless by Mexican and Chinese imports, said Rep. Christina Hagan, R-Alliance.
“Trump’s message resonates 1,000 times more than Clinton’s in this area,” said Hagan, who introduced Trump in Canton last month and, per his campaign’s request, made herself available to media Monday.
Hagan bounced her 10-month-old daughter Josaphine in her arms and called Trump’s not paying taxes a “frivolous detail.”
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.