Suburban and rural Ohio women vote based on motherhood

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mothers from suburban to rural Ohio are voting this year to ensure a better future for their children.

“I always dreamed of having girls,” Bridget Baum said.

Baum, a mother of two, fulfilled her dream.

“It’s really special to raise two girls in this environment,” she told OCJ/WEWS, sitting on a couch in her living room.

She combines her daughters’ love for Taylor Swift with her love for democracy.

“The Harris/Walz friendship bracelet seems to be the best accessory this election season,” she laughed, showing off dozens of handmade pieces of jewelry with messages like “We fight, we win” and “Madam President.”

Baum lives in Pepper Pike, an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of Cleveland.

Pepper Pike has about 6,800 residents, according to the U.S. Census. It regularly ranks among the state’s top 10 wealthiest towns, with neighboring villages like Moreland Hills and Hunting Valley also making the top spot. The median household income in Pepper Pike is about $200,000, compared to the state median of $65,000.

The area is home to only one K-12 school, the Orange City School District, which has historically been one of the wealthiest school districts in Ohio.

It’s also a politically energetic city. Pepper Pike is a Democratic stronghold, with 83% of its voters voting to protect abortion access in 2023.

Baum is one of nearly 890,000 voters in Cuyahoga County, the state’s bluest area. Sixty-six percent of voters chose President Joe Biden in 2020 and hopes even more will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

Baum’s main goal is to ensure access to abortion.

“Being a woman and having daughters, I want to make sure they have the same protection that I have always had,” Baum said.

She is excited to vote for Harris, but not just because of her support for reproductive health care.

“I care deeply about public education — public services are very important to me, whether it’s Social Security, whether it’s taking care of women who have just had babies, whether it’s subsidizing child care,” Baum said.

Even her friends who weren’t previously involved in politics are hanging up signs, donating to Democrats, and talking about how significant it is to vote.

Baum said she attributes all of this up-to-date action to reproductive rights.

“I think the overturning of Roe was a turning point, especially for suburban women and all women,” she said.

White suburban women led Trump in 2016, but many of them have switched to former President Joe Biden in 2020, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

Baum believes women are becoming more aware of the risks as time goes on. While she fully supports Kamala and is excited about her, she is “terrified” by a Trump presidency, perhaps even more so than she is excited about the Democrats.

“I think he speaks for the minority and that if we don’t get him out of office, we’re going to have problems with our public education, our health care, our social services,” she said. “I don’t want my daughters to see a president who uses language like Trump, who disrespects women, who looks down on women, who clearly doesn’t care about people who are different from him.”

From the city to the countryside

Finding election signs in Cleveland isn’t challenging. For suburban moms, decorating their lawns is a sense of activism — and it’s the same for country moms. In Wayne County, you’ll just see different candidates.

“I just have to trust that the Lord is in control,” Jess Beck said as a horse and buggy drove by.

In the petite village of West Salem, Beck’s whole world is teenagers.

“You always look at the choices you make and how they affect your children because they always affect your children,” Beck said.

Sitting in a park near her home, the mother of three said she has experienced it all: homelessness, hunger and the uncertainty of paying medical bills.

“I go to the grocery store and try to feed them, but it’s hard,” the mother said. “You want to give them a good life, and it’s getting harder and harder.”

According to the U.S. Census, West Salem has a population of about 1,500. The median household income is $61,000, which is lower than the state median of $65,000.

There are about 70,000 registered voters in Wayne County: 6% are Democrats, 27% are Republicans and the remaining 67% are unaffiliated.

In the 2020 election, 67% of the vote supported former President Donald Trump, while in West Salem County, Trump received 76% of the vote.

“I think everybody’s a little burned out and just overdid it with a lot of this stuff, and we want to get back to a good place,” Beck said. “The only candidate who’s really talking about it is Trump.”

The economy is a major reason he’s running, but it’s not the only reason. He also wants more security, in schools and on the southern border.

“I would like to see someone who could actually come in and take matters into their own hands and take some of these issues for us, take some of that burden off the American people so we can catch our breath,” she added.

The nation is ill right now, Beck said, especially with school shootings and violence against children. Her heart sank when one of her teenage sons wrote to her saying he had to evacuate from school because of an energetic shooter threat. Fortunately, that didn’t seem credible, she said.

As a nurse, she also believes the government pays too much attention to drugmakers and not enough to lend a hand average Americans lower their health care costs.

“I need insurance and reassurance that I’m OK,” she said. “I don’t think we have a good system for that.”

She said deep down she would like to see a woman president, but that woman is not Harris.

“I’ve been through the last four years with her as vice president, and I don’t see what I want to see in a female president,” Beck said. “I want to see a woman who comes in strong, united, who really wants to make some changes — and I’d like to see more of that from her as vice president.”

Solution

The real divide is in priorities: Many suburban mothers said their top priority was reproductive health care, while all rural mothers said it was the economy.

Beck understands why suburban moms feel that way, she said. She wouldn’t have an abortion herself, but she wants other women to have that choice. As a nurse, she advocates for access to health care, but she said she has more pressing issues in her life.

“Your station in life has a lot to do with it — if you’re more on the side of having more money, you might not see the economy as tough and you might be inclined to put those kinds of things first,” Beck said. “But I’m just a regular old person. I have almost no money.”

Baum also expressed understanding, but added that Harris’ plans would better support working mothers.

“They need to be honest with themselves about what a Trump presidency would actually do, and not just assume that Kamala is going to be anti-economic,” Baum said. “You can look at her outlook, her tax plans, her expectations for the economy, and see that that could work for them as well.”

Despite their differences, it is clear that both mothers want what they believe is best for their children.