Little more than a week after a campaign visit from President Barack Obama, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan are returning to the Buckeye state for a four-day campaign trip.
A solo Romney is scheduled to make an appearance for what the campaign is calling a victory rally in Westerville, Ohio, on Wednesday. The event is scheduled for 8 a.m. at the Alum Creek Park Amphitheater, about 20 minutes away from Ohio State’s campus.
The pair is scheduled to campaign together in Kettering on Tuesday, before Romney is scheduled to continue on to stops near Dayton, Columbus, Toledo and Cleveland on Tuesday and Wednesday. According to campaign information, Upper Arlington-born golfer and OSU alumnus Jack Nicklaus is scheduled to make an appearance at the event.
Romney made his last stop in Ohio Sept. 14 where he attended a campaign rally at Lake Erie College in Painesville, and a fundraiser in Fox Springs Farm in Kirtland Hills.
Ryan was in Ohio Sept. 12 for a campaign event in Owensville.
The pair made their Ohio debut last month for a campaign rally in Powell, about 30 minutes away from campus. During the Aug. 25 morning event, they spoke on small business and the economy.
Wednesday is set to be Romney’s first trip to Central Ohio since then.
While Obama has made several trips to the swing state during this election cycle, he has made four trips to OSU’s campus in the past two years.
Obama was in Columbus Sept. 17, where he spoke at Schiller Park in German Village. The president talked about job outsourcing to a crowd of about 4,500.
Obama said in response to a conference call question from The Lantern that the Ohio youth vote is one reason he has visited OSU’s campus four times in two years.
“If Ohio is doing well, then America is gonna do well,” he said.
Romney’s vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan made a visit to the ‘Shoe during the Sept. 1 Buckeyes kickoff game against the Miami Redhawks, his alma mater. He attended a private tailgate party and at least some of the football game. In an interview with The Lantern, OSU President E. Gordon Gee said he went to visit Ryan during the game, but the vice presidential nominee did not sit with him in his private box.
According to a recent Gallup poll 48 percent of the overall national population supports Obama, while 46 percent supports Romney. In swing states, those numbers remain the same.
Gallup did not post recent numbers specific to Ohio voters, but according to a Fox News poll on Politico, 49 percent of Ohioans support Obama and 42 percent support Romney, with the remaining percent recording they didn’t know, aren’t planning to vote, or answered ‘Other.’
With such a close election, Ohio as a swing state has become a battleground for each of the candidates. In the 2008 election, Obama carried all 12 swing states, and no Republican candidate has ever won a presidential election without carrying Ohio.