Valley gets international attention

Journalists from around the globe look at swing state

The presidential and vice presidential candidates haven't come to the Mahoning Valley, but the area has attracted journalists from other countries wanting to know what locals think about the election.

Rudi Rotthier, a reporter for Knack, a weekly news magazine in Belgium, has spent the past week in the area and will be here through Wednesday, the day after the election, talking to voters about the race between President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Democrat Joe Biden.

"This is a swing area within a swing state," Rotthier said.

The other reason he came? The 1995 Bruce Springsteen song "Youngstown" was "in my mind and I wanted to see the area," Rotthier said.

"I'm hoping this area is a good indicator of what the rest of the state and the rest of the country is thinking," he said. "This area is probably a good place to see where the election is going."

Rotthier pointed out that Trumbull County flipped from being a reliable Democratic area during presidential elections to backing Trump four years ago and that the president came close in Mahoning County in 2016.

Rotthier has spent the past five years in the United States traveling for assignments for the magazine. His next stop is "the place with the most interesting election results."

Lukas Ondercanin, foreign news reporter for SME, one of the largest newspapers in the Slovak Republic, is talking remotely with Mahoning Valley voters about the election.

Based in Bratislava, the country's capital, Ondercanin said he chose Ohio for its reputation as a swing state in presidential elections and selected the Mahoning Valley because he knows someone here.

"Slovak readers do not follow the results very closely, but I wanted to show some opinions of voters from the state where the results are not as obvious," he said.

Ondercanin added: "The results in Ohio can show some kind of trend in the U.S. since the state itself is as divided as the whole country. And also I prefer to talk to voters in a state that is not obviously Republican or Democratic."

During his discussions with local voters, Ondercanin said: "I understand that the division between the two parties would be difficult to overcome" as the voters spent most of the interviews attacking "the other candidate rather than talking about the policies of their favorite."

NHK of Japan was in the area last week, primarily focused on the closure of the Lordstown General Motors complex as part of a television report on the presidential election and American manufacturing.

Hideharu Watanabe, a producer, said they picked Ohio "because the latest poll shows that support for Trump and Biden are almost tied in the state," and specifically chose the Mahoning Valley for the Lordstown closure.

"We (wanted) to know the reality of the area and how people are feeling about this presidential election," he said.

His impression of the area was the people "are very kind and hardworking, no matter which side they're on. Their political position and who they support for the next president are based upon their daily life -- jobs, family, economy, etc. -- and very understandable. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to meet these local people and hear their stories."

The United Kingdom's BBC Radio 5 Live -- which broadcasts news and sports -- is returning Monday to Youngstown. BBC 5 will broadcast live Monday from M7 Technologies in Youngstown.

The station also came to M7 right before the 2016 presidential election to discuss the race and the importance of Ohio and specifically the Youngstown area.

Among the guests who spoke in 2016 and are returning Monday include David Skolnick, this newspaper's politics writer.

A reporter with BBC 5 said the team is coming back because Ohio is a "bellwether state" and it was pleased with the results from the 2016 visit to Youngstown.

A news team from Israeli television station KAN was at the Mahoning County Board of Elections on Tuesday talking to early voters.

"As voters left the early voting center, they asked who they were voting for and why," said Thomas McCabe, the board's deputy director. "They asked me about the process and turnout."

dskolnick@tribtoday.com