Pretend I'm Running, Please, Just Pretend, Because I Am On The Ballot!

Please, don't mention data centers. 

Gov. Mike DeWine was in Springfield, Ohio about 15 miles from where President Donald J. Trump wrapped up his curmudgeon rant in Vandalia. The old fart came back to Dayton to support Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), two Republican candidates facing tougher opponents.

Husted framed the race as the ultimate firewall for the Republican Senate majority, declaring that a victory in Ohio is required to stop the "radical left" agenda.

Ramaswamy focused on lowering the cost of living for Ohio families and pushing an aggressive pro-business environment. Despite recent public disagreements regarding immigration policy between Trump and DeWine, Ramaswamy leaned into DeWine's formal endorsement of his campaign to project party unity.

Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), a longtime ineffective lawmaker from the Dayton area and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), the shithead former car dealership owner who has the ex-son in law Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) putting his paws on his daughter Emily.

We got some real winners here....

DeWine skipped the entire affair. Didn't even greet the president when he arrived at Dayton International Airport.

The 80 year old president is doing his get out to vote stump speech to get Republicans motivated despite their frustrations with the economy.

Trump closed out the evening by urging his base to treat the midterms with the same urgency as a presidential election cycle.

"We do great when I'm on the ballot. When I'm not on the ballot, people don't go and vote so much. Pretend I'm running, please, just pretend, because I am on the ballot."

In a highly localized policy moment, Trump spent several minutes defending the massive data centers powering artificial intelligence infrastructure. Recognizing them as a contentious issue regarding local resources and power grids, Trump firmly backed them, stating, "There's so much money to be made for Ohio. You can't just turn them off. They'll go to China." He also praised Senator Husted's legislative efforts to regulate and integrate them into local communities.

The ineffective Mike Turner and Bernie Moreno went to that curmudgeon's rally.

With the local economy feeling the sting of recent major layoffs in nearby Springfield and climbing grocery costs, Trump attempted to reassure voters that manufacturing was returning nationally. He aggressively targeted the high cost of living and soaring gas prices, pinning the blame directly on ongoing global conflicts, specifically referencing the broader economic fallout from his administration's war on Iran.

Trump dedicated multiple segments to slamming the state's top Democrats—former Senator Sherrod Brown (running against Jon Husted) and gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton (running against Vivek Ramaswamy). He accused them of wanting to dismantle his administration's policies, warning the crowd that a Democratic congressional majority would spend all their time trying to impeach him.

Trump's momentum was temporarily broken when a protester inside the gymnasium interrupted him by shouting about the "Epstein files". The individual was quickly escorted out by security while the crowd drowned them out with chants, but the moment highlighted the tension outside the venue, where hundreds of counter-protesters had gathered with Epstein-themed signs targeting the GOP ticket.

I am so sorry. The president is just not showing Ohioans any form of empathy.

DeWine and First Lady Fran DeWine attended the funeral service for Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student, at St. John's Missionary Baptist Church in Springfield.

Damas Bel committed suicide after he was placed on an ankle monitor by ICE. He was relentlessly bullied and depressed. He would end up walking in front of a semi truck when he stopped his vehicle on Interstate 70.

DeWine, who has explicitly opposed the Trump administration's revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants, spoke to the family and called the loss a tragedy for the country.

DeWine explicitly stated beforehand that he would not attend Trump's rally, opting instead to focus on the community service in Springfield. During the rally, Trump addressed the crowd and spoke about Springfield, following his administration's major policy shift ending TPS protections for roughly 340,000 Haitians earlier in the summer.