republican donald trump has won ohio, a state with 18 electoral votes that his campaign considered a <u+201c>must win<u+201d> on the path to the white house. mr. trump was declared the victor with 53.3% of the vote when the associated press called the race with 68% of precincts reporting. no republican in modern history has won the white house without also winning ohio<u+2014>a fact that raised the stakes for mr. trump<u+2019>s victory there. ohio voted twice for president barack obama, but the state looked more in play this year. its large population of blue-collar voters, many of whom had cast ballots for mr. obama or sat out of the past few elections, put their allegiances with mr. trump. the gop nominee<u+2019>s success in attracting white, working-class voters raised the prospect during the campaign that the republican party could attempt to take an unexpected path to the white house through the largely white and slow-to-diversify upper midwest. mr. trump promised to capture the rust belt with his populist messages on trade and immigration. though the clinton campaign<u+2019>s ground operation in the state was superior to mr. trump<u+2019>s, with many more campaign offices and a more sophisticated voter-turnout plan, early voting patterns in some counties pointed to lackluster democratic interest. mr. trump also benefited from the coattails of an unparalleled door-knocking operation led by the state<u+2019>s republican u.s. senator, rob portman, who is up for re-election. demographic data isn<u+2019>t available for early voters in ohio, but african-american turnout in early voting dropped nationwide. that may have hurt democratic nominee hillary clinton in ohio. african-american turnout was central to mr. obama<u+2019>s ohio wins.
donald trump wins ohio - wsj
michelle hackman