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SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — <\/span>Sipping tea from beer mugs with his co-workers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing.<\/p>\n Bos has two daughters, with a third due in January. At the grocery store,<\/a> five items cost as much as a full cart once did. And on Wednesday, Bos and nearly 1,400 other people were laid off from their jobs at what had been the Navistar truck factory in southwestern Ohio.<\/p>\n The layoffs \u2014 occurring just three days before President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> rally on Saturday at a nearby high school \u2014 were large enough to basically erase an entire year of job growth in the greater Dayton, Ohio, area. And they are one reason why Bos, 30, plans to spend the final weeks before the November election<\/a> canvassing votes for Democrats.<\/p>\n Asked how many times he had voted for Trump, Bos held up three tattooed fingers. But he said he\u2019s done with the president.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething has to change politically in this country,\u201d said Bos, a member of the United Auto Workers<\/a> who identifies as a centrist. \u201cSeems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n This year\u2019s election is a test for the working-class coalition<\/a> that lifted Trump into the White House and gave majorities to Republicans in the House and Senate. The outcome will be decided in places like Dayton, which once sprouted factories because it led America in patents per capita. The Wright brothers\u2019 airplane, the cash register, the stepladder and the electric car starter were all invented in this city of 137,000.<\/p>\n Trump’s blunt talk and status as a celebrity businessman<\/a> initially helped him around Dayton, where voters sensed that politics as usual had failed them. Republicans secured wins in the larger metro area, but this year, the party is vulnerable with voters who are disgruntled about inflation, the Iran war<\/a> and a president who seems unsympathetic to their struggles.<\/p>\n An Ohio race could help determine control of the Senate.<\/a> Republican Sen. Jon Husted is facing a challenge from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is trying to harness that disenchantment as he attempts a comeback<\/a> two years after losing his seat.<\/p>\n Trump’s visit to the Dayton area is part of what he says will be a 32-day marathon of rallies<\/a> to try to convince the public that the economy is better than they think.<\/p>\n \u201cAll over the country, they\u2019re building factories, plants \u2014 manufacturing\u2019s coming back,\u201d Trump said on Thursday at a truck plant<\/a> in Texas. \u201cThe only thing we\u2019re doing badly at is public relations.\u201d<\/p>\n Americans increasingly blame Trump<\/a> for the high cost of living with just 17% approving of his handling of the issue. Trump has largely sneered at concerns about affordability, but he has promised to give people $5,000 checks<\/a> if Republicans win the House and Senate next month \u2014 something Bos said he found offensive.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like a bribe, a slap in the face, and, like, that we\u2019re all ignorant,\u201d Bos said.<\/p>\n The Dayton area has shed about half of its 90,000 factory jobs since 1990, according to federal data, after the North American Free Trade Agreement<\/a> shifted many jobs to Mexico where auto parts could be made more cheaply. That trend accelerated after China joined the World Trade Organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n As steady paychecks vanished, drug addiction and crime increased. Things seemed to hit bottom after the 2008 financial crisis, prompting Phil Plummer \u2014 who was then Montgomery County Sheriff \u2014 to enter politics.<\/p>\n \u201cMy jail was 40% drug addicts, 50% mental health patients, 10% criminals,\u201d said Plummer, who has been a Republican state representative since 2019. \u201cWe got it upside down \u2014 that\u2019s what drove me to the state house.\u201d<\/p>\n Plummer, the Montgomery County Republican chairman, is now on the ballot for the Ohio state Senate and stressed that Trump has been what keeps the GOP’s coalition of businesses and working-class families together.<\/p>\n In recent years, the local economy has improved as the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base<\/a> expanded, now directly employing 38,000 people. The base’s innovations have attracted new aerospace companies to the area, including Joby Aviation<\/a>, the Sierra Nevada Corporation and Electra.<\/p>\n The White House pointed to the $850 million investment by aircraft maker Electra \u2014 along with announcements in Ohio from Honda, Stellantis<\/a> and others \u2014 as evidence Trump’s policies were creating jobs.<\/p>\n Dayton rebounded because Republicans and Democrats alike saw the value coming out of Wright-Patterson over the past two decades, said Jeff Hoagland, CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition.<\/p>\n \u201cIn economic development, it takes time, and you have got to give it a little bit of time to bake, and then once it does, then you\u2019re going to have something special,\u201d Hoagland said.<\/p>\n Downtown Dayton has added lofts for housing, and the historic Dayton Arcade complex with its glass dome and mosaic-tiled floors has been renovated into shops, an art gallery and eateries.<\/p>\n On Monday, the gallery echoed with the sounds of an acoustic guitar and flute during a fundraiser for Rose Lounsbury, a former schoolteacher who, for the second time, is running as a Democrat for state representative.<\/p>\n The guests radiated optimism that Democrats might pick up a U.S. Senate seat, a governorship and enough spots in the Ohio House of Representatives to end a Republican supermajority.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a gap between what people want and what they feel is available,\u201d Lounsbury said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to live a life of subsistence. They want to live the middle-class dream and they feel it\u2019s not available like it once was.\u201d<\/p>\n Lounsbury\u2019s Republican opponent, State Rep. Andrea White, was in the state capital, Columbus, during the past week, where she helped lead a push to pass a temporary suspension of the state gas tax<\/a> of 38.5 cents per gallon to offer some relief at the pump.<\/p>\n White said the Republican-led state government has helped to cushion the blow of inflation by flattening the state income tax and reining in property tax hikes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe concept is, put it back in the hands of the people who pay the taxes \u2014 so they have more of their own money,\u201d White said. <\/p>\n The White House said Trump’s tax cuts and trade deals have helped Ohio. But the experiences at what had been the Navistar plant show that policies that were supposed to help the working class were not enough.<\/p>\n His broad tariffs<\/a> failed to boost demand and the plant’s former owner, International Motors, chose to offload the facility. And Trump’s major legislative achievement \u2014 the One Big Beautiful Bill<\/a> \u2014 contributed little to people’s take-home pay, even as it temporarily stripped taxes from tips and overtime.<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t getting a lot of overtime because of the economy,\u201d said Marianne Donnelly, who drove a forklift at the factory. \u201cThere just wasn\u2019t any to be had, very little to be had.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, costs have kept climbing. Donnelly said she buys marked-down beef, pork and chicken and stows them in her freezer. She canceled her subscriptions to The Columbus Dispatch and The Washington Post newspapers, along with some streaming services.<\/p>\n Laid-off workers like Donnelly say they expect to be rehired in six to 12 months by Roshel, a Canadian manufacturer of armored vehicles that is buying the plant. Roshel said in a statement that it’s \u201cworking with everyone involved not only to protect the current workforce, but to more than double it over the coming years through a phased process.\u201d<\/p>\n On the Monday before the layoffs, Morgan Hughes and JoJo Burkhard were knocking on doors in Kettering, a Dayton suburb named after the inventor of the electric car starter. They were trying to convince union members and retirees to vote for Democrats.<\/p>\n The Navistar job had helped Hughes, 35, buy a house at age 21 and work alongside her father. <\/p>\n When her hours were first cut, Hughes moonlighted for DoorDash and got a real estate license. On her wrist, she has a tattoo of a cross and the words \u201cBe Still And Know,\u201d a reference to Psalm 46:10, which speaks to how faith in God can overcome fear.<\/p>\n Hughes said that what union members and retirees want is to be heard after feeling ignored by politicians. Burkhard said inflation and the economy have made it easier to swing voters to their side.<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn\u2019t a hard pitch at all,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd even if they don\u2019t want to stay Democratic long-term, they\u2019ll at least give the candidates a chance this election, which could be a turning point for us.\u201d<\/p>\n After a morning of talking to voters, the pair settled down at a Chinese restaurant for some potstickers, and the weight of the week hit them.<\/p>\n Burkhard cracked open a fortune cookie and tears began to well up. The layoffs meant no work for her, her boyfriend and her mother \u2014 and the words in small print almost seemed prophetic. She said she needed the hope they conveyed.<\/p>\n Her fortune read: \u201cYou\u2019ll find your inner strength to overcome challenges.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n