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Politics Chat: Suddenly, Ohio Is At The Center Of Presidential Race

joe biden
Andrew Harnik
/
AP
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill Biden, right, speaks at Amtrak's Cleveland Lakefront train station, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020, in Cleveland.

After Donald Trump won Ohio by a convincing eight percentage point margin in 2016, there was an assumption by many Republicans and Democrats that Ohio would not be a factor in the 2020 presidential contest.

But that was then; this is now.

WVXU Senior Politics Analyst Howard Wilkinson talked with News Director Maryanne Zeleznik about how Ohio has suddenly become a very competitive state, with polls showing Joe Biden with a small lead or in a dead heat with Trump. Biden may not need Ohio to be elected president, but Trump most likely does. He can't afford to lose states he picked up four years ago. And there is the great truism of presidential politics - no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio.

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