A sign supporting Donald Trump in front a junkyard downtown Springfield, Ohio in the United States, on September 23, 2024. (Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images / AFP through Getty Images).
PARMA, Ohio – After serving nearly three month in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion – a unit in the country’s military made up of fighters from overseas – Manus McCaffery has become a hometown hero. Parma, Ohio is home to one the largest diasporas in the U.S., with roots in Ukraine.
The now 23-year old U.S. veteran was injured in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast months after Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine launched 2022. He spent the next few years raising money for Ukraine’s armed forces by holding fundraisers in Parma.
McCaffery, who is on a mission to increase support for Ukraine in Ohio among conservatives, attended a discussion in Parma, organized by the German Marshall Fund of United States, this October. This was less than a week before the U.S. Presidential election.
The event was part the fund’s “Whistlestops For Ukraine” tour. This is a year-long campaign to rally support for Kyiv.
McCaffery is unsure of how he will vote on Nov. 5, whether to maintain the status quo of U.S. support for Ukraine with Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for the Democratic Party, or Republican nominee Donald Trump. Trump has publicly questioned the future of allyships with Kyiv, and has shown a fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
McCaffery told The Kyiv Independent that he was “extremely uncertain”.
He added that it would have been easier for him to vote Biden than Harris, whom he believes is too progressive in domestic issues. The veteran of the U.S. and Ukrainian armed forces said that his vote would be made at the last minute.
The Ohio stop revealed how difficult it is for the German Marshall Fund to increase support for Ukraine. With the U.S. Presidential election just days away, and 40% of Trump supporters stating that Washington should “reconsider its level of support for Ukraine”, the Ohio stop demonstrated the challenges of the German Marshall Fund’s mission.
Tour ‘Whistlestops For Ukraine’
Since November last year, the German Marshall Fund (a Washington-based research organization that promotes democracy) has visited eight “heartland states” in the United States as part of a public diplomacy campaign dubbed “Whistlestops for Ukraine.”
The tour has focused primarily on Democratic city centers, surrounded by conservative rural regions and ideologically diverse suburban areas like Denver, Colorado and Erie, Pennsylvania.
Heather Conley is a senior advisor for the German Marshall Fund board and led the tour. She described each stop as “a unique set of conversations and meeting” that involved outreach to local business leaders and farming community.
Oksana Marcarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. was also part of the tour. She was not present at the Ohio stop because the topic of Ukraine’s aid has become more politicized over the past few months.
Mike Johnson, Republican Mike Johnson and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a close Trump ally in the fall of 2017, publicly called on Volodymyr Zelensky to fire Markarova following the Ukrainian president’s visit to a Pennsylvania ammunition factory that produces weapons for his armed services. Josh Shapiro was the state’s Democratic Governor, but no Republican Party representatives were present.
Conley said Markarova was not part of the Ohio stop because the topic of Ukraine is sensitive so close to the U.S. elections.
Conley said that the Ukrainian Embassy was, understandably, more cautious after Zelensky visited the U.S.
Expanding Republican support
The German Marshall Fund’s second last stop and last stop of the year was a day-long engagement in northeast Ohio.
Ohio, once a swing-state, has consistently voted Republican ever since 2016. Ohio is also home to JD Vance, the Republican party’s Ukraine skeptic vice presidential nominee. With nearly 12 million registered voters, it offers a fertile electorate for conservatives to expand their support for Ukraine.
Global Cleveland reports that 60,000 Ukrainians reside in the state. Nearly 10,000 of them have relocated after the full-scale Russian invasion.
The German Marshall Fund visited Ohio in September and included a visit to a Ukrainian daycare center, a roundtable discussion with local religious and Ukrainian leaders, and a conversation between local U.S. Veterans.
The whistlestop found no difficulty in finding passionate defenders for Ukraine’s sovereignty, as the northeast Ohio region has the largest concentration. Some attendees, however, said that many voters in Parma were hesitant to support Ukraine.
One Parma resident who is well-known in the area as an outspoken Republican supporting Ukraine, said that he would “grudgingly” vote for Trump because of the economy despite believing that “Ukraine will be screwed under a Trump administration.”
The Republican voter, like others who spoke to the Kyiv Independent under the condition of anonymity due to privacy concerns, said that his support for Ukraine’s independence was a conflicting issue in his vote. He wished a pro Ukraine Republican, like Nikki Haley (the former ambassador of Trump to the United Nations), was on the ballot.
Trump has repeatedly said he will end Russia’s conflict in 24 hours without providing any details on how he plans to do so. Many fear that Trump’s plan could involve forcing Ukraine into making territorial concessions or agreeing to a peace agreement on unfair terms due to his constant criticism of U.S. assistance to Ukraine and friendly relations with the Kremlin.
Even some Ukrainians from Parma seem to have bought Trump’s promise that he would end the war immediately if he were elected in November. This earned the 78-year old their vote.
“I talk with a lot Ukrainians who support Trump, and it almost feels as if there is a little bit of cognitive dissonance, because they support Ukraine, but they also support Trump,” Andriy Bechko, who lives in Parma, moved from Lviv in western Ukraine, during the 1990s.
The 37-year old registered independent says that he will vote for Harris because he believes that Ukraine would be better off if Harris were in office rather than Trump.
Boechko said, “I’m open-minded, but I don’t support Trump, not at all, especially when it comes to Ukraine. I’m worried about what will happen if he is elected.” “Foreign policy is the most important issue, and I believe Democrats have a better understanding of that.”
The American boon
Ohio is not different from other states in the U.S. where the Biden Administration has benefited from the aid to Ukraine. However, the link between the foreign policy of the Biden administration and local economic growth as well as new jobs does not seem obvious.
According to one analysis, of the $175 billion Congress allocated for Kyiv between 2022 and 2022, almost $70 billion went into American manufacturing in more than 70 U.S. Cities.
Over $700 Million of that amount was spent in the manufacturing industry of Ohio.
The Army has sent dozens of Stryker combat vehicle and M1 Abrams tank to Kyiv. Ukraine has also received Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, produced by General Dynamics at Springboro, Ohio.
Jim Jordan, the Republican representative from Lima, is opposed to aid for Ukraine, just like Trump’s running-mate Vance.
According to Boechko the Biden Administration can increase voter support for Ukraine if it better communicates that not all the money spent by the U.S. on aiding Ukraine is sent directly to Ukraine.
Tim DeGeeter argued that during election season, the middle of the nation doesn’t trust Washington. DeGeeter asked Conley, of the German Marshall Fund, to help spread the message to Ohioans about the benefits of supporting Ukraine.
DeGeeter stated that “even though this war is over 5,000 miles away, we are very close to it here in Parma.”
During a previous stop in Erie, Pennsylvania, the German Marshall Fund also observed a similar lack understanding of how aid to Ukraine benefits American communities.
Vorex LLC and Logistics Plus are located in Erie, and they have expanded the local manufacturing industry by supplying Ukraine with bulletproof vests (and generators, respectively). Conley says that Erie’s businesses “are critical players in America‘s assistance for Ukraine.”
According to Ashley Lawson, a U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigration field director who has helped settle hundreds Ukrainians in northwest Pennsylvania, the fund’s Erie events in May drew mainly voters who already supported Ukraine.
Conley said: “Erie is an example of a place that is vital to U.S. security and foreign policy every day. They just may not realize it.”
DeGeeter is still hopeful that the large Ukrainian community in Ohio will vote against the Republican Party, which has dominated Ohio counties except those with major metropolitan areas.
DeGeeter stated that “the alternative (to a Harris White House), is candidate Trump saying ‘given up land and territories, that’s the way we can end this conflict’.” “Well, this is kind of Putin’s goal, it’s not something we share.”
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