CLEVELAND — “Ohio one more day,” former Vice President Joe Biden told supporters inside a hangar at Burke Lakefront Airport as he kicked off his final day of campaigning for president with a car rally as he looked to light a fire under those who haven’t yet voted to get out tomorrow.
“Ohio, in 2008 and 2012 you placed your trust in me and Barack. In 2020 I’m asking you to trust me again,” Biden said. He had another year on his mind — 2018, a year that showed Democrats could win in this state when Sherrod Brown won a third term in the U.S. Senate.
“Sherrod won reelection in 2018, by about the same margin Trump did in 2016,” Biden said. “So when Sherrod tells me to come to Ohio the day before Election Day, I listen.”
RELATED: WATCH: Presidential candidate Joe Biden makes last-minute election appearance in Cleveland
President Trump tweeted Monday that “no president in history has done more for Ohio” than him while outside the airport dozens of Trump supporters chanted “four more years” while waving their Trump flags.
Though they were out of earshot of the former vice president, he had a message for them. “I promise you I’ll work as hard for those who don’t support me as those who do. That’s the job of a president.”
Biden’s visit comes as a Morning Consult poll this morning showed President Trump with a slim lead in Ohio within the margin of error. The Real Clear Politics Average of polls has Trump up just 1.2 percent.
In those numbers, Biden sees the opportunity for a steal in a state Trump needs.
“Trump has to win Ohio as part of his path into a second term,” said News 5 Political Analyst Dr. Tom Sutton of Baldwin Wallace University. “So really Ohio is important for both but it’s critical really for Trump and Biden knows that.”
And history has shown if you’re going to win Ohio as a Democrat, you’ve got to come out of Cuyahoga County with a sizeable lead to offset the Republican margins elsewhere. Today was about rallying the Election Day vote and those still with vote by mail ballots.
“There’s about 40,000 absentee ballots that have not been returned in Cuyahoga County,” Sutton said of the Monday count. “That 40,000 votes could make a difference in terms of Biden possibly winning Ohio.”
