But the real party was taking place in a corner of the room as members of the Butler County Republican Party held a celebration to mark the end of their months on the campaign trail.
By the end of the night, when it appeared Donald Trump would be elected the 47th president of the United States and his running mate, JD Vance, a Middletown native, would be Ohio’s first elected vice president, most of the party-goers had called it a night.
But before that they came out in droves to support Trump and Vance. Just over 62% of voters in Butler County voted in favor of the Republican candidates. In his hometown of Middletown, the Trump/Vance ticket received 62 percent of the vote.
Tuesday’s night event attracted some of the biggest names in Butler County politics, but also those who worked tirelessly for local and national candidates, said Jennifer Barlow, Trump 2024 campaign chair for Butler County.
People watched the results on Fox News on large-screen TVs flanked by life-size cardboard cutouts of Trump and Vance. They posed for selfies in a photo booth that included plastic bags as props in reference to President Joe Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage.”
Barlow organized the party after putting her life on hold to volunteer for the campaign.
“I do it because I love my country,” Barlow said. “I need to help the country be as good as it can be. I have grandchildren and children and I need the country to be a good place for them.”
She believes Trump and Vance will “take our country in the right direction.”
Barlow has been impressed by Vance, a 2003 Middletown High School graduate who was elected to the U.S. Senate two years ago. Vance, 40, has become the third-youngest vice president in American history.
“He’s a very kind man and I’d trust him with my child,” she said. “I wish he was my son.”
She believes Vance’s upbringing in Middletown and his Appalachian roots, both well documented in his best-selling 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and in the 2020 film adaptation directed by Ron Howard, formed him into the man he is today.
“We are as we grow,” Barlow said. “We are what we learned. He went through so much turmoil and he came out of that in such a positive way.”
Vance’s mother, Beverly Aikins, took to Facebook on Wednesday to celebrate her son’s win.
“Too big to rig,” she wrote. “Popular vote by more than five million. Two hundred seventy seven electoral votes and still counting. Trump Vance 2024.”
Kim Harsch, 61, of West Chester, recently retired from GE Aerospace. She hopes Trump and Vance improve the economy.
“Who can withstand the last four years?” she asked. “People can not afford groceries.”
The youngest person at the Republican rally was Ben Nguyen, 17, a senior at Lakota West High School. He wore a Trump red baseball hat and an X marked on his hand indicated to the bartenders he was too young to drink alcohol.
But his youth didn’t stop him from soaking in the excitement of having a Butler County native as vice president.
“We are going to have one of our own in the White House,” he said. “We ware going to have a friend in the White House who will remember all the people in Middletown, Ohio.”
After Trump’s second term ends in four years, Vance could be in line to be the next president.
Few could have predicted Vance’s meteoric rise in the political arena.
Once an outspoken critic of Trump, Vance was credited by the former president for helping him return to the White House. Just eight years ago, when Trump was preparing for his first presidential run, Vance questioned whether he was “America’s Hitler” and later labelled him a “moral disaster.”
Then Vance’s opinions shifted dramatically by 2020. He slowly embraced Trump’s politics, then was endorsed by Trump during the 2022 Ohio Senate race when Vance narrowly defeated Democratic congressman Tim Ryan for Ohio’s open seat created when U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, retired.
“People’s opinions change,” Vance has said about his thoughts on Trump.
Two days after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., he called Vance and offered him the vice president position.
After being selected, during interviews, Vance repeated unverified claims about Haitian immigrants allegedly eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. While there was no evidence to support these claims, Vance said it was important to draw attention to pressing issues such as immigration.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance had told CNN.
On Tuesday morning, Vance, accompanied by his wife, Usha, and their three young children voted at St. Anthony of Padua Church on Victory Parkway.
After meeting with local and national media for about five minutes, Vance turned and started to walk toward one of the U.S. Secret Service vehicles. But first, his two sons wanted to jump off a wall and into their father’s arms.
On Wednesday, Vance took to X and thanked Americans for making him the vice president.
“THANK YOU! To my beautiful wife for making it possible to do this. To President Donald J. Trump, for giving me such an opportunity to serve our country at this level.
“And to the American people, for their trust. I will never stop fighting for ALL of you.”
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