COLUMBUS – With less than two weeks to go before Election Day the Democratic and Republican parties’ ground games in Ohio are kicking high gear.
On the first of two weekends of early voting, former president Bill Clinton will appear in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati (see below).
Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama will be in Ohio Monday and Tuesday.
RELATED: More Republicans now think Clinton will win
A conservative advocacy powerhouse says it is launching a massive get-out-the-vote effort in Ohio aimed at electing Republicans in the battleground state.
Americans for Prosperity-Ohio tells The Associated Press the mobilization campaign will launch Thursday. It’s set to include phone calls, mailers and door knocks across the state by more than 200 unpaid volunteers.
Progressive groups, including the AFL-CIO labor umbrella, American Federation of Teachers, NextGen Climate and Planned Parenthood Votes, said Wednesday they’ve put together a coordinated campaign to mobilize the former “Obama coalition” in favor of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The coalition says it plans to reach Ohio college voters with text messages, digital ads and “fun” events.
Scheduled appearances by candidates, surrogates in Ohio:
Sat., Oct. 29,10:30 AM: Roberta Steinbacher Atrium, Maxine Goodman Levine College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University
1:30 PM: Congressional Black Caucus Early Vote Event, King Arts Complex, 867 Mt. Vernon Avenue
5:00 PM: Early Vote Event, The Word Family Life Center, 693 Fresno Road, Forest Park
A national AP/GfK poll shows Clinton leading Trump nationally by a 14-percentage-point margin among likely voters, 51-37.
Millions of votes that have been cast already point to an advantage for Clinton in critical battleground states — Florida and North Carolina, both must-win states for Donald Trump — as well as Nevada, Colorado and Arizona and, of course, Ohio.
The furor over Donald Trump’s provocative rhetoric and his treatment of women has helped shake usually rock-solid Republican support in the state’s suburbs, giving rise to hopes of taking the swing state in Clinton’s campaign.
The southwest Ohio suburban region typically provides 2-to-1 margins for the Republican. In his book “The Bellwether,” Kyle Kondik describes the three counties around Cincinnati as a GOP “super-county.”
Yet there are many indications that Clinton is pulling more support than usual this year among suburban Republicans.
One Ohio Republican, James Stepp of Warren County, says a Trump presidency would damage the GOP for years to come. Stepp says he’s backing Clinton.