Trump Chillicothe Rally Live: Husted and Ramaswamy Work the Crowd as the President Lands in Ohio
The Shoemaker Center program is underway in Chillicothe: Sen. Jon Husted told the crowd Sherrod Brown's best achievement was losing two years ago, Vivek Ramaswamy pitched slashing property taxes back to pandemic levels, and Air Force One touched down at Rickenbacker at about 6:05 p.m. ET ahead of the president's 7 p.m. remarks.
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio - President Donald Trump's third Ohio campaign stop of the midterm cycle reached its program hour Wednesday evening at the Shoemaker Center on the Ohio University Chillicothe campus, with the two Republicans he came to lift working the crowd ahead of his scheduled 7 p.m. ET remarks. Trump landed at Rickenbacker International Airport at about 6:05 p.m. ET, the Columbus Dispatch reported in its live coverage, on his way to Ross County - a county he carried by 39 percentage points in 2024 - six days before the November 3 election decides control of Congress and Ohio's governorship.
Sen. Jon Husted, appointed to serve the remainder of Vice President JD Vance's Senate term and now facing former Sen. Sherrod Brown, closed the pre-program with the night's sharpest attack. Brown has 'been in office for over 50 years,' Husted said. 'Can you name a single thing that he's done to make their life better?' The closest answer he had heard, he said, was that Brown 'lost two years ago to Bernie Moreno, and that made my life better.' Husted also advocated prohibiting undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses and framed the final days as a football slugfest: 'at some point one team breaks and the other team wins. Are you going to break?' The crowd answered, 'No.'
Gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy, speaking at 6:11 p.m. ET, attacked Democrat Amy Acton over her pandemic tenure as state health director - 'I am running against a woman who has already shown you who she is' - and pitched ending sanctuary cities and slashing property taxes back to their levels at the end of the pandemic: 'Put that money in your pocket where it belongs.' He did not mention the campaign ad featuring Acton's estranged mother that has drawn backlash and, per the Dispatch, has helped move forecasters to rate the governor's race as leaning Democratic, with polling suggesting Acton might hold a slight lead.
The undercard filled the late afternoon: treasurer candidate Jay Edwards said Appalachian Ohio believes in 'God, guns, and getting illegals out of here' and compared Brown to 'a cat that showed up on your porch in 1974'; Treasurer Robert Sprague, running for secretary of state, pushed Issue 3, which would put Ohio's photo ID requirement in the state constitution. Outside, about a dozen protesters worked the entrance line, and Chillicothe Mayor Luke Feeney - whose city lost hundreds of jobs when the Pixelle paper mill closed in 2025 - offered the president a different message hours before the rally: 'Show some kindness.' The president's own remarks file tonight on the verified speech.
