There are MAGA cult members in every state. And the rural areas are red, just like every other state with rural areas. I don't think it's fair to call it a very, very red state for the past 20 years though. Sherrod Brown has been one of our senators for nearly that whole time. We voted to enshrine women's reproductive rights in our Constitution in that time. We voted to legalize marijuana in that time. If you just look at presidential elections, then yeah I guess you could reach that conclusion, but you'd be ignoring a ton of other really important data points to get there.

It's also not fair to call it red now. We have a Democrat governor, 5 of the 8 Congress seats this cycle were won by Democrats, and a Republican Senate seat was taken back by a Democrat. At most you could call the state purple, but it's leaning more blue than red.

Anyways, yeah I was using hyperbole when I said people treat it like a war torn hellhole. To put it more accurately, people treat Ohio like it's some backwards red state full of rednecks when that truly just is not the case. It's just like any other state where the rural areas are red and the cities are blue. Telling people "thoughts and prayers, I hope you're able to escape" is ignorant of reality, and wholly unhelpful.