YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton will appear together at a campaign stop here Monday, the president’s reelection campaign confirmed early today. The site of the rally is pending -- not official announced. But sources are now confirming that the event will take place at the Covelli Centre Monday afternoon.
The Youngstown appearance will be one of three the Obama and Clinton will make jointly Monday, just over a week before Election Day. The trip will be the president’s second visit to the Mahoning Valley this year -- his first was a campaign stop in July in Poland. Vice President Joe Biden has visited twice this year.
In the 2008 presidential election, Obama carried Mahoning County with 62% of the vote, slightly less than the margin Democratic presidential candidates typically rack up in the region.
Seeking to chip away even more at the margin, Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, came to Youngstown just prior to the Ohio primary in March. His running mate, Paul Ryan stopped in September at the Original Hot Dog Shoppe in Warren. And this month Ryan conducted a town-hall meeting at Youngstown State University. A subsequent photo op at the St. Vincent De Paul Society dining hall downtown attracted national attention when it appeared Ryan and his family had washed already-cleaned dishes for the cameras. The society’s local president criticized the political visit as unauthorized by the nonprofit organization. It was subsequently revealed that some dishes were purposely left for the Ryans to wash for the photo op because they were arriving after the soup kitchen finished serving for the morning. Coverage of the incident ranged from CBS News to Jon Stewart's Daily Show.
Ohio’s 18 electoral votes are seen as increasingly pivotal for both the Obama and Romney campaigns, and both candidates and their surrogates have stepped up appearances in the state. Romney is campaigning in Cincinnati and Defiance today and Ryan has an eight-stop, two-day bus tour scheduled this weekend.
The most recent poll for Time magazine shows Obama with a five-point edge in Ohio, driven in part by early-voting efforts in the state.
Obama and Clinton will also visit Orlando and Prince William County, Va., Monday. The campaign said details about the visits are forthcoming.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.