2020 presidential election

You would think that, at some point, this gerrymandering trick Ohio Republicans played eight years ago to create a Democrat-proof district for U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot would wear thin.

On the morning of Saturday, June 22 – exactly 500 days before the 2020 election – the Hamilton County Republican Party hopes to fill the Sharonville Convention Center with the GOP faithful for a gigantic pep rally that will feature Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, President Trump's campaign press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and a cast of thousands.

Is Hamilton County blue? Or is it purple? No point in asking whether or not it is still red; that train left the station some time ago.

But it's time to settle this blue-purple hash once and for all – and the 2020 general election is the time to do it.

Alex Triantafilou, the chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, would be well-pleased on the morning of Saturday, June 22, if the traffic on Chester Road in Sharonville is bumper-to-bumper with cars trying to make their way into the parking lot of the Sharonville Convention Center.

For the time being, an Ohio group has pulled out of a ballot issue this year to have the state join a nationwide movement to bypass the Electoral College and elect the president by popular vote.

How's this for bad campaign optics?

Ordinarily, a U.S. senator endorsing the president of his own party for re-election would be nothing out of the ordinary.

That's what you would expect the senator to do, right? Under ordinary circumstances, that is.

I suppose this debate over whether Ohio is a red state, a purple state, or blue state with a very faint pulse is going to go on for quite a while.

Starting out a possible run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination is an ambitious project in the best of circumstances. But starting out with a well-respected national poll showing that 77 percent of American voters say they don't know enough about you to form an opinion about you – good or bad – might make you think you are running in quicksand.

No one can accuse Ohio's newly re-elected U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of letting the moss grow under his feet.