by Nick Castele
Reporting by Tony Ganzer
With nearly all precincts reporting, Donald Trump took the state of Ohio 52 percent to 43 percent over Hillary Clinton. Elected officials in the Buckeye State are split on where their parties should go from here.
Brook Park Mayor Tom Coyne was once a Democrat, and was elected most recently as an independent. This year, he campaigned for Donald Trump.
“He has transformed the Republican Party into the working families, working-class, middle-class of America,” Coyne said. “He’s done it. That’s who voted for him in overwhelming numbers, and that will be his constituency as president.”
Republican State Sen. Frank LaRose said his party should continue to focus on advocating for free markets. He said the GOP has some work to do appealing to minority communities.
“I think that we have been rightfully more focused, at least previously, many of were, on trying to broaden our appeal and reach out to the minority community in a more robust way,” LaRose said. “Not just at election season, but year-round, in the way that we govern, in talking about opportunities for people regardless of their ethnic background and that kind of thing. And I think in some ways that the campaign we just endured set those efforts back a step.”
Meanwhile, Democrats in Ohio suffered a big defeat, and as some ponder how to heal a divided electorate after a difficult campaign season, State Representative Teresa Fedor says it’s Trump who has healing to do.
“It would be nice to see the leader of the free world, if it were Trump, to heal himself on the prejudice, sexism, misogyny,” Fedor said. “I’m not going to go along with that. I don’t know why I would have to heal.”
In Ohio, Hillary Clinton won most of the state’s major urban counties, but much of the rest of the map went to Trump.