The Randolph Fair Board blocked a proposed Trump rally, county commissioner says

Natalie Wolford/The Portager

The Portage County Randolph Fair Board has reportedly rejected a request from the Donald Trump campaign to hold a rally April 24 at the fairgrounds.

“They have a policy that they don’t want politics. They allow political parties to rent a booth at the fair, but they do not allow rallies or political fundraisers,” County Commissioner Sabrina Christian-Bennett said.

Christian-Bennett said she had communicated with a Trump representative over the weekend, and they were still adamant that they wanted to hold a campaign event at the fairgrounds. 

She said the Trump campaign had also been rejected from Geauga and Canfield, other possible sites for a rally.

Representatives from the Portage County Fair Board could not be reached for comment.

On the Randolph Fair website, a notice says that an April 2 “special fair board meeting” had been canceled. “The topic will be covered in our regularly scheduled board meeting on Wednesday. April 6th @ 8PM,” the notice reads. 

There is no indication what “the topic” is or whether it is related to the proposed Trump rally.

The Trump campaign and the Portage County Republican Party did not respond to requests for comment.

With the fairgrounds off limits, the Trump campaign targeted the Columbiana County fairgrounds but determined the venue would be too small, Christian-Bennett said.

“I found two other sites that would be possibly good sites for it, but it sounds like if they didn’t get the fairgrounds, they might consider some other sites out of Portage,” she said.

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Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.

  1. Thank God, the Randolph Fair Board said “NO’ to a Donald Trump Rally at the Fairgrounds. With all his selfish deeds to stay in power, even to inciting a failed insurrection to keep himself in power, how does he have the right to keep inflicting himself on law abiding people?

  2. I’m disappointed that the Randolph Fair Board decided to not let former President Trump speak at the Fairgrounds. This man led an economy that produced record low unemployment among all Americans, replaced NAFTA with a trade agreement (the USMCA) that helps preserve jobs in America, produced a booming stock market, low inflation, energy independence, helped to normalize relations between Israel and four of its former foes, and restructured the immigration system to drastically reduce illegal entry, human trafficking and drug smuggling into our country. In addition, he led Project Warp Speed, which resulted in the development of not one but three vaccines in under a year, something that would normally take 10 – 15 years to accomplish. In fact, the fastest vaccine prior to these to ever have been developed was the mumps vaccine in 1967, and that took 4 years. How many lives were saved because of the Peace that broke out between Israel and its foes? How many lives were saved because of the vaccines? How many lives were saved because of the drastically reduced number of illegal drugs entering our country as a result of his immigration policies? Yet many of our friends and neighbors hold a strong disdain for the former President. Yes, he isn’t always a gentleman and often times brash, but he was very effective at producing a more prosperous and safer America.

    Those who currently don’t like former President Trump typically point to the January 6th protest, which is often branded as a riot, attack or insurrection. It’s interesting that those involved with this violent attack on our Capital forgot to bring their guns. In fact, the only gun mentioned in any news story concerning the January 6th event was the one used by a presumably nervous Secret Service Officer to fatally shoot an unarmed Ashli Babbitt in the neck. The violent protestors didn’t even set anything on fire and walked orderly through the velvet ropes as they passed through the Capital. Many were met by seemingly welcoming police officers as they entered the building. The people who attended the violent January 6th insurrection were obviously there not because they were looking for a revolution. Instead, most of them were there because they just wanted to voice their fears of what might happen if Joe Bidden were to become President.

    The months leading up to the election were filled with misinformation and nasty campaign ads as has become the norm. The biggest crime, though, was the active suppression of the details concerning the Hunter Biden laptop as reported in the New York Post and the subsequent testimony provided by Tony Bobulinski that corroborated some of what was on the laptop while implicating Joe Biden’s involvement. This information should have been made available to voters. The voter – not big media companies – should have been allowed to determine the information’s value. The details of this story were actively suppressed not only by the media but also by Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and many more. Only recently has the New York times and a few other news outlets even begun to speak to the existence of the laptop. Following the January 6th incident former President Trump was essentially cancelled. I’d like to hear what he has to say, and I’d like to hear it unfiltered in person. While I respect the Fair Board’s decision, I would suggest that the former President be allowed to speak at the Fairgrounds (assuming that he pays for all security and the subsequent clean up). I understand that the Fair Board has a policy that they don’t want politics except of course during the actual Fair where both parties for some reason are invited to set up a tent. We do live in perilous times; perhaps we should suspend this ‘no politics’ rule during those weeks when the Fair is not underway as well and allow a little Presidential political discourse on the Fairgrounds.

    1. Auditoriums built for the purpose of public speaking sit empty or underused across our area. Shouldn’t your preferred candidate rent one of them rather than a place we’ve set aside for judging livestock and farm equipment?

      1. The fairgrounds is used to having B.S. on the grounds, Trump and the foul odor he always leaves around would fit right in.

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