COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday night became the first Republican presidential candidate in nearly half a century to win Mahoning County, a Democratic stronghold in a key Rust Belt area of northeast Ohio and home to reliably blue and union-heavy Youngstown.
Trump won Mahoning County, Ohio’s 12th-most populous, by 1.93 percentage points, according to the county’s unofficial election results. Democrat Hillary Clinton, who lost Ohio in 2016, won Mahoning by 3.27 points.
Democrats had won Mahoning, the principal county of the Mahoning Valley, since 1976, when Jimmy Carter won the presidency. Trump won 50.27% of the vote this year, the first time a Republican won a majority of the vote in Mahoning County since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.
Democratic challenger former Vice President Joe Biden earned 48.34% of the vote, the worst performance for a Democrat since 1972.
Presidential results in Mahoning County
| Votes | % | Candidate | Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| 58,601 | 50.27% | Donald Trump | Republican |
| 56,346 | 48.34% | Joe Biden | Democrat |
| 956 | 0.82% | Jo Jorgenson | Libertarian |
| 425 | 0.36% | Howie Hawkins | Green |
| 237 | 0.20% | Write-in |
Trump also improved on his 2016 performance in surrounding counties. In Trumbull County, for example, home to the suburb of Warren, the President defeated Biden by 10.36 percentage points. That’s up from his 6.26-point victory over Clinton four years ago.
Biden actually improved on Clinton’s performance in Trumbull by about 500 votes, but Trump gained around 4,700.
Mahoning County was not a complete wash for Democrats, however. The Associated Press declared Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan re-elected to Ohio’s 13th congressional district, which includes Youngstown and Warren.
Mahoning County voters preferred Ryan to Republican challenger Christina Hagan by 13.9 percentage points. Ryan barely lost Warren County, by slightly more than 1 point.
