No Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio, and the Buckeye State’s delegation usually gets prime real estate at the convention because of that. But this time Ohio’s delegates, who are pledged to Gov. John Kasich, are not happy with their location on the floor.
The Ohio delegation is seated to the right of the stage, behind Pennsylvania. First-time convention goers Sherri Carbo and Michelle Schneider, both of southwest Ohio, were asked if they thought that was just a random decision. “Probably not, but I don’t know," Carbo said. Schneider laughed. “Nothing’s by accident!”
Former state Auditor and Attorney General Betty Montgomery, a veteran delegate, said there’s no way it wasn’t a message from the Trump campaign. “I think that was deliberate,” Montgomery said, "because our governor has not come out and endorsed. So it’s just a little bit of a jab in the eye.”
Red state Alabama, swing state Wisconsin, and the traditionally Democratic states of Connecticut, New Jersey, California and Trump’s home state of New York all have the front rows of their sections.
Copyright 2016 The Statehouse News Bureau
