Historians and political scientists say that framing the wins as ‘Ohio’s working class has come home’ is too simple

At its peak, the Mahoning valley was once the beating heart of the US’s steel economy – a hardscrabble, heavily unionized Democratic bastion in north-eastern Ohio. But de-industrialization, sparked by the mass closure of steel mills in the late 1970s, transformed the region.

Tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs disappeared. Populations declined. And support for Democrats slowly, but surely, faded. In 2020, Mahoning county voted for its first Republican presidential candidate – Donald Trump – in a generation.

Democratic doctor wins over Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur endorsed by Donald Trump

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Democrat Amy Acton was elected governor of Ohio on Tuesday, after an ugly contest in which her rival Vivek Ramaswamy spent millions of dollars on deeply personal attack ads featuring her estranged mother.

Acton, 60, will become the first woman to serve as Ohio’s governor, ending 16 years of Republican control.