Vice President JD Vance will rally for Republican candidates at the Sharonville Convention Center on Wednesday, Oct. 21, bringing a midterm campaign stop to the doorstep of Montgomery, Blue Ash and Sycamore Township.
The Ohio Republican Party announced the event over the weekend. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. and the first speakers take the stage at 11:30 a.m., according to WLWT.
Fox 19 reported that Vance will champion Sen. Jon Husted, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat he was appointed to after Vance became vice president, and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. WLWT noted the Ohio GOP had not confirmed the full speaker lineup beyond Vance, though a promotional email featured Husted's image prominently.
The rally is open to the public. Each person can reserve up to four tickets through the Ohio Republican Party's website.
The Sharonville stop marks Vance's first Greater Cincinnati rally of the midterm cycle, WLWT reported. He cast an early ballot at the Hamilton County Board of Elections on Oct. 9 before heading to a campaign event in Lima, Fox 19 reported. He said at the time that he voted for Husted for Senate and Ramaswamy for governor.
President Donald Trump has made three Ohio-area stops in recent weeks, visiting Vandalia on Oct. 3 and Youngstown and Highland Heights, Kentucky, on subsequent trips.
Both statewide Ohio races remain tight. A Marist Poll conducted Oct. 15 through Oct. 18 found former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, leading Husted 48% to 44% among likely voters in the Senate race. That four-point gap falls within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. In the governor's race, Democrat Amy Acton led Ramaswamy 50% to 43% among likely voters.
Mark Caleb Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University, told Dayton's WHIO in an earlier interview that the repeated White House visits signal how competitive Ohio is. "If they thought that this was really decisive for either party already, they just wouldn't be spending much time here," Smith said.
Early voting is already underway in Ohio. More than 450,000 ballots had been cast statewide as of Oct. 17, according to WLWT's reporting on Ohio Secretary of State data. Election Day is Nov. 3.
