PAINESVILLE, Ohio — In the early 2000s, Lake County was a bellwether for the rest of Ohio and, by extension, the country as a whole. While the vote here has shifted Republican in recent election cycles, it is still a county where voters like Jerry Stokes of Painesville have shown an ability to split their vote.
"I've always been an independent OK, and I've voted both Democrat and Republican," Stokes said. It's an approach he took in watching Tuesday's presidential debate, even flipping between the various cable channels to see what they were saying about it.
"I looked at MSNBC and at what they said. They said Kamala Harris was right. They made Donald Trump look bad. I went over to Fox it was just the opposite," he said. Still, after watching the debate though he says he needs no outside opinion makers to help shape his own in this election.
"Right now I think that Trump is the biggest obstacle to our Democracy since the Civil War."
Susan Fogle, on the other hand, told us that, in the beginning, she was a self-described "never-Trumper" but is now solidly in the former president's corner. An opinion only reinforced by what she saw in the debate.
"What I saw her doing was gaslighting President Trump, taking credit for all of the things he stands for and putting the blame on him for all of the things that they've been doing wrong," Fogle said.
On the square in Painesville, we ran into Mitchell Stuart of Mentor, who told us he was likely to vote for Trump, but "I might change my mind, just depends. I mean I feel like Trump wants to be a dictator but that's basically my opinion," he said. I asked if, having said that, he'd still vote for the former President. "Yeah I'll vote for him."
Like many voters who watched the debate, Ron Colvin at Painesville said it was as expected and unlikely to sway voters or change their minds.
"To me, there wasn't any mind-changing statement by anybody," he said. "I've already got my mind made up."
Party leaders on both sides here in Lake County argue that side by side, it made their job easier.
"Her performance last night vs. Former President Trump's certainly, I think, put a little more wind in the sails of the Democratic side," said State Rep. Dan Troy (D-Willowick).
Lake County GOP Chair Dale Fellows said the economy will be the driving factor in this election and urged voters to judge each by what they've done. "You can see the track record of Donald Trump when he was here and when he was president and see the bad track record of Biden-Harris," he said.
