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0000017a-3b40-d913-abfe-bf44a4f90000Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU news team as the politics reporter and columnist in April 2012 , after 30 years of covering local, state and national politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. On this page, you will find his weekly column, Politically Speaking; the Monday morning political chats with News Director Maryanne Zeleznik and other news coverage by Wilkinson. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio gubernatorial race since 1974, as well as 16 presidential nominating conventions. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots, the Lucasville prison riot in 1993, the Air Canada plane crash at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983, and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. And, given his passion for baseball, you might even find some stories about the Cincinnati Reds here from time to time.

Chabot: Trump Should Have Come to NAACP Convention

U.S. House of Representatives

CLEVELAND – U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, the Westwood Republican, has no problem with Donald J. Trump as his party's standard bearer.

But he believes the man who will almost certainly officially become the GOP's nominee tonight at Quicken Loans Arena should have accepted the NAACP's invitation to speak at its annual convention this week in Cincinnati.

"I think it would have been the right thing for him to do; it would have helped his candidacy too,'' the Westwood Republican told WVXU.

Trump certainly should have accepted the NAACP invitation, Chabot said, because his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, spoke to the group Monday at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

"I understand he's busy; he's preparing to be nominated as the Republican Party's candidate for president, and that would keep anybody busy,'' Chabot said. "I think it was a real mistake."

Chabot himself made a speech to the group Sunday night – right before Ohio Gov. John Kasich addressed the NAACP crowd.

"It was a good experience,'' Chabot said. "I think Trump should have been there." 

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.