The presidential campaign of Democrat Kamala Harris is spending $90 million over the next three weeks airing commercials in battleground areas as well as Youngstown and Toledo even though the vice president has essentially no chance of beating Republican Donald Trump in Ohio.

The Harris campaign said the “$90 million paid media buy will target voters in every battleground state and expand the campaign’s reach into markets like Marquette, Alpena (both in Michigan), Toledo, Erie and Youngstown — markets where the Trump campaign is ceding the airwaves as their candidate spends this crucial stretch consumed by personal grievances and his latest conspiracy theories instead of communicating with the voters who will decide this election.”

Now you’re probably wondering why the Harris campaign is spending money to air commercials in the Youngstown and Toledo television markets.

Location, location, location.

First, some background.

It’s a given that Trump will win Ohio again in November for several reasons.

Trump won Ohio by about 8% in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and the same margin four years later against President Joe Biden. Trump remains popular in Ohio.

All of Ohio’s executive branch elected officials are Republicans with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown the only elected statewide candidate running as a Democrat winning in the past decade.

Democrats won Ohio Supreme Court races in 2018 and 2020, but they ran without their party affiliation on the general election ballot. The Republican-controlled state Legislature changed the rules starting with the 2022 election to include affiliation for candidates running for the state’s highest court. That led to Republicans winning three Ohio Supreme Court races in 2022.

Ohio had a lengthy and rich tradition of being a presidential swing state.

It wasn’t that long ago that presidential candidates spent an inordinate amount of time campaigning in Ohio.

But Trump’s strong wins in 2016 put a virtual halt to that in 2020 – along with the COVID-19 pandemic.

And if Trump and / or J.D. Vance, his vice presidential running mate and a U.S. senator from Ohio, campaign during this election cycle in the Valley, it will largely be to boost the candidacy of Republican Bernie Moreno, who is challenging Brown in one of the most important Senate races this year.

With all that in mind, why is Harris spending money to run ads in Youngstown and Toledo along with seven battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin?

Because Youngstown’s TV market includes Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania, which is likely the most important swing state in this election.

Also, Toledo’s TV market includes Lenawee, Monroe and Hillsdale counties in Michigan. Michigan is seen as a vital state in the so-called Blue Wall that Democrats depend on during presidential elections, but can swing Republican.

These counties in Pennsylvania and Michigan are not well populated and Trump won all of them by large margins in 2016 and 2020. But Harris’ campaign has accumulated so much money that it can afford to go to those places.

With polls showing a very tight race between Trump and Harris, voters in Mercer, which has a population of about 110,000, and Lawrence, with a population of about 86,000, will be important because they’re in Pennsylvania.

Trump beat Clinton by 0.72 of a percent in Pennsylvania in 2016 and Biden beat Trump by 1.17% four years ago.

Trump in 2016 beat Clinton by 0.23 of a percent in Michigan, becoming the first Republican to win the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988, and lost in 2020 to Biden by 2.78%.

In Michigan, Lenawee has about 100,000 residents, Monroe has 155,000 and Hillsdale has 45,000.

While Ohio won’t play a factor in this presidential election, Youngstown’s and Toledo’s proximity to two key swing states could.

There may be some who believe the Harris ad buy is a sign that Ohio can be won by the Democrat.

If that were the case, her campaign would be spending money in the state’s major markets: Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton.

But that’s not the case.

Others contend this is being done to help Brown. However, there’s little doubt that Brown is going to outperform Harris in Ohio so that argument is weak.

Have an interesting story? Contact David Skolnick by email at

dskolnick@vindy.com.