Final Campaign Weekend Begins As Candidates Hunt For Votes
COLUMBUS, Ohio—The final weekend before Election Day tasked candidates with making a decision on how to spend the final hours of the campaign.
In Franklin County, more than 124,000 voters have cast early ballots, but the hunt for votes continues.
Worthington’s Mike Duffey, a Republican candidate for State Representative, spent Friday afternoon walking the neighborhood he grew up in in hopes of connecting with as many voters as possible.
“I’ve hit the entire district door-to-door, so I’m just coming back to the people that I’ve known,“ Duffey said. “When I hit this first, it was the very beginning of spring. So it’s been a long time since I’ve been here, probably six months or so, so I’m coming back to my roots.“
At the North Market in Columbus, State Auditor candidate David Pepper, a Democrat, parked his campaign RV with a goal of catching voters on their lunch break.
“You try and go everywhere, but there are some key areas and I think central Ohio is clearly one of the swing areas,“ Pepper said of the decision to campaign in Columbus.
“There’s still a lot of undecided voters out there so we are still in persuasion mode.“
In east Columbus, Libertarian Travis Irvine’s third-party campaign for Congress does not have the money to compete conventionally in his quest to represent Ohio’s 12th Congressional District.
“It’s door-to-door, yard signs, phone calls and TV ads, and we’re hoping we make some kind of impact,“ Irvine said.
Irvine is hands-on in his approach, working fast to cover as much ground as possible before time expires.
“We’re still trying to reach people who probably don’t even know they have a third choice on the ballot, as opposed to going back to the people we have talked to and reassuring them, ‘Hey, we’re still at it, don’t forget’...Ii’d love to talk to everyone for 10-to-15 minutes, but I can’t. I’ve got to keep moving.“
