NewzWASHINGTON (AP) — Sipping tea from beer mugs with his coworkers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing. Bos has two daughters, with a third due in January. At the grocery store, five items cost as much as a full cart once did.
And on Wednesday, Bos and nearly 1,400 other people were laid off from their jobs at what had been the Navistar truck factory in southwestern Ohio. The layoffs — occurring just three days before Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday at a nearby high school — were large enough to basically erase an entire year of job growth in the greater Dayton, Ohio area. And they are one reason why Bos, 30, plans to spend the final weeks before the November election canvassing votes for Democrats.
Asked how many times he voted for Trump, Bos held up three tattooed fingers. But he said he’s done with the president. “Something has to change politically in this country,” said Bos, a member of the United Auto Workers who identifies as a centrist.
Trump is campaigning in this area on Saturday This year’s election is a test for the working-class coalition that lifted Trump into the White House and gave majorities to Republicans in the House and Senate. The outcome will be decided in places like Dayton, which once sprouted factories but shed about half of its 90,000 factory jobs since 1990 after the North American Free Trade Agreement and trade with China made it cheaper to buy auto parts from abroad. Trump’s blunt talk and status as a celebrity businessman initially helped him around Dayton, where voters sensed that politics as usual had failed them.
But voters this year are disgruntled about inflation and the war in Iran. An Ohio race could help determine control of the Senate. Jon Husted is facing a challenge from former Democratic Sen.
Sherrod Brown, who is trying to harness that disenchantment as he attempts a comeback two years after losing his seat. Trump’s visit to the Dayton area is one of what he says will be a 32-day marathon of rallies to try to convince the public that the economy is better than they think. “All over the country, they’re building factories, plants, manufacturing’s coming back,” Trump said on Thursday.
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