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Trump-ull County goes red

WARREN — For the first time in decades, voters in Democratic-rich Trumbull County selected a Republican for president.

Donald Trump won 50.8 percent of the vote, while Democrat Hillary Clinton took 44.4 percent, according to incomplete and unofficial results from the Trumbull County Board of Elections.

Clinton won Mahoning County with 50.2 percent of vote, while Trump drummed up 45.3 percent, according to incomplete and unofficial results from the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

“We’ve turned it into ‘Trump-ull County,'” said Randy Law, chairman of the Trumbull County Republican Party. “This is not a real surprise, thanks to all of the people knocking on doors and making phone calls, all of the hard work from independents, Democrats who switched, union folks who went against the grain, retired union folks.”

Law said he would have liked to see more of the down ballot Republicans ride on Trump’s wave of victory, but the election set the scene for Republicans to start influencing Trumbull County politics more.

Dan Polivka, chairman of the Trumbull County Democratic Party, said while it is disappointing the county didn’t go for Clinton, the local party candidates had a great showing.

“Voters went out strongly for (Trump) and we have to respect the voters and move on, but we have a lot of local candidates that won and I am proud of that,” Polivka said. “The local candidates worked together and they worked hard, we won every position.”

Mark Munroe, chairman of the Mahoning County Republican Party, said even though Trump lost the county, he is “thrilled with the way he performed.”

There were a lot Democrats who crossed over to vote for Trump, and a “tremendous amount of enthusiasm” for the businessman and reality television star, Munroe said.

Republicans also failed to turn any of the local races red in Mahoning County, Munroe said.

“That is the big disappointment,” Munroe said. “We had the best slate of candidates we’ve had in several years and they worked hard to ensure a quality competition.”

The rest of the night was sure to be a “nail biter,” said David Betras, chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.

“I am happy to see (Clinton) won Mahoning County, and that all of our local Democrats won,” Betras said. “But it’s going to be a long night.”

Libertarian Gary Johnson won about 2 percent of the votes in each county, according to incomplete and unofficial results from the boards of elections.

rfox@tribtoday.com

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