Former President Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, returned to Middletown, Ohio, on Monday as the senator's hometown sits at the crossroads of the heartland crisis that has shaped American politics in recent decades.
"This town was so good to me," the GOP senator said during a rally at Middletown High School in Ohio, from which he graduated in 2003.
"I came from Middletown, Ohio. I’m proud of it," he said, "and I’ll never forget where I came from."
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Middletown has been a heavy-industry hub since the first steelmaker arrived in 1900. Recent history and discussions with local residents paint the picture of a Middle American community that appears to have survived Rust Belt decay better than most.
Yet Middletown also faces the challenges of a post-industrial small town and rural America that has felt ignored by Washington, D.C. elites for decades.
Even with a steel-mill anchor, Middletown trails the nation in several measures of success and opportunity.
Simmering discontent fueled by similar situations has fomented the political upheaval captured by Trump’s Make American Great Again revolution.
"Middletown is a working, blue-collar community more than anything," Zachary Johnson, a clerk at Central Pastry, told Fox News Digital on Monday.
Vance shouted out Central Pastry, a 75-year-old family-owned local landmark bakery, during his rally Monday.
Here's a look at the city "that made" Vance.
Steelmaker Armco arrived in Middletown in 1900, giving the city of 51,000 residents today its industrial heartland identity.
"We are a town that has a rich history in steel manufacturing," Middletown communications director Clayton Castle told Fox News Digital.
Armco later became AK Steel.
It was acquired in 2020 by Cleveland-Cliffs, which touts itself online as the "largest flat-rolled steel company in North America and a leading supplier of automotive-grade steel."
It operates Middletown Works, which is the largest employer in the city, said Castle.
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The city spokesperson added, "Most people, when you ask them — they work themselves or know somebody who works or worked in a steel factory at some point. Steel is ingrained in the fabric of our community."
Ohioans voted for the winning candidate in every presidential election from 1964 to 2016.
The streak ended in 2020, when Trump earned a sizable 53% to 45% victory in Ohio over national winner Joe Biden.
Middletown represents the complex mix of cultures and urban-rural contrasts that make Ohio an important bellwether of American political trends and a top prize in presidential politics.
It’s located 30 miles northeast of Cincinnati and 20 miles southwest of Dayton.
The city developed along the east bank of the Great Miami River; the west bank remains almost completely rural.
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Interstate 75, which connects Miami, Florida, to Chicago, Illinois, before finally ending on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, passes just east of downtown Middletown.
Middletown is located in Butler County, which broke even heavier for Trump in 2020 than did wider Ohio.
More than 61% of voters in the county pulled the lever for Trump in the last presidential election, compared with just 37% voting for Biden.
The conundrum caused by the ever-growing role of government and environmental regulations in big business is evident in a recent announcement by Cleveland-Cliffs that it’s investing $1.3 billion in its Middletown foundry – with an additional $500 million from the Department of Energy.
"This investment will secure 2,500 jobs at Middletown Works, where the unionized workforce is represented by the International Association of Machinists," the Journal-News of Butler County reported in March.
"This is absolutely huge for the men and women who work here, and for the community," Shawn Coffey, union president of Local 1943, told the local publication.
The investment is to "accelerate industrial decarbonization technologies" and create "substantial reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions," Cleveland-Cliffs said in a March statement.
Vance's rise to national prominence came with the success of his 2016 autobiography and cultural critique "Hillbilly Elegy," which offers a stark look at the struggles and fates of families and communities of rural Appalachia — including his own.
"Hillbilly Elegy" became a Ron Howard-directed movie in 2020. This past weekend it soared back into the Top 10 list of Netflix films, the result of Trump's VP pick of Vance and the senator's speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee late last week.
The book is based upon his family's heritage in rural Jackson, Kentucky.
It’s about 60 miles southwest of Butcher Hollow, Kentucky — made famous as the home of country music queen and "Coal Miner’s Daughter" Loretta Lynn.
As Vance notes in his bestselling book, his great-grandparents left the hills of eastern Kentucky seeking a better life in industrial Middletown.
Vance lived most of his childhood in Middletown, moving from house to house with a mother suffering from addiction.
He spent summers with his grandmother – his "Mamaw" – in Jackson, living among and observing the cultural decay of poor, rural America that became the source of "Hillbilly Elegy."
He explained the complicated existence in the book.
"My address is where I spent most of my time with my mother and sister, wherever that might be. But my home never changed: my great-grandmother's house, in the holler, in Jackson, Kentucky."
Middletown is 200 miles north of Jackson.
But, according to Vance, the two communities are tightly connected by culture, values and small-community struggles.
"Thanks to the massive migration from the poorest regions of Appalachia to places like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois, hillbilly values spread widely along with hillbilly people," Vance wrote in "Hillbilly Elegy."
"Indeed, Kentucky transplants and their children are so prominent in Middletown, Ohio (where I grew up) that as kids we derisively called it ‘Middletucky.’ People have struggled to get out of Jackson for decades; now they struggle to escape Middletown."
The city's population is 78.4% White and 11.8% Black, compared with 75.3% and 13.7% nationally, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
Middletown has a lower population of Asian, Hispanic, Native and foreign-born citizens than the United States as a whole.
But its residents are more likely to be multiracial: 6.6% of Middletowners are of two or more races, compared with just 3.1% nationally.
About 21% of the city's residents are under age 18, and 18% are over 65, almost exactly the same as national figures.
The 2020 U.S. Census reports that 34.3% of Americans have a bachelor's degree or higher level of education; in Middletown, that figure is only 16.1%.
The median household income in Middletown is $50,457, well behind the national figure of $75,149; meanwhile, 19.2% of Middletown residents live in poverty, compared with 11.5% nationwide.
The small city has produced an impressive number of hometown heroes who could "escape Middletown" through excellence in athletics.
Philadelphia Phillies All-Star Kyle Schwarber, UFC fighter and Olympic Gold Medalist Kayla Harrison, basketball Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas, and Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter all were raised in Middletown.
The Middies football team plays on Cris Carter Field at Barnitz Stadium.
Brooklyn Decker, the former Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover model and wife of retired tennis star Andy Roddick, also once called Middletown home, according to community spokesperson Castle.
Leave it to an old-school steel city to embrace an "ugly" donut.
A signature sweet sold at Central Pastry is reportedly Vance’s favorite, according to Central Pastry's Johnson, a lifelong Middletown resident.
The buttery, yellow-cake donut is soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside — and is coated in a sugary glaze.
The candidate for vice president said on Monday that the community has plenty to offer for the future.
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"While my life wasn't all that different from a lot of people who grew up in Middletown, Ohio, it was tough, but it was surrounded by loving people, and it was surrounded by something that, if we don't fight, is not going to be around for the next generation of kids," he said in his remarks at his high school.
"And that's opportunity. Middletown had an opportunity — and we've got to make sure it's there for the next generation."
Johnson, the clerk at locally beloved Central Pastry, echoed the message in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"There are many opportunities here and Middletown is really focused on building community," he said.
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"You see it really coming together with sporting events and even stuff like today with J.D. Vance’s rally," he also said.
"The community can wrap its arms around someone who is from here and who could possibly have a big impact on our country and put Middletown on the map. This could be huge for us."
Danielle Wallace of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
