Republicans Are Struggling Everywhere. This State Is the Epicenter.

By Christopher Caldwell

Mr. Caldwell is a contributing Opinion writer and the author of “The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties.”

At the start of this year, the largest underlying trend in national politics still seemed to be the transformation of longtime swing states into Republican bastions. Florida, Iowa, Ohio: The closer you looked, the more invulnerable President Trump’s party seemed.

The situation in Ohio was stark. In 2022, the governor, Mike DeWine, had beaten his Democratic opponent by 25 points. A year ago, the Trump-allied biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor, held nearly a double-digit lead over his Democratic........

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