A firestorm, of sorts, erupted last week when the Mahoning County Chairperson for the Donald Trump campaign for President of the United States, Kathy Miller, of Boardman, uttered racially-charged remarks, and resigned her position. Taking over the campaign was Tracey Winbush, a member of the Mahoning County Board of Elections and current vice-chairman of the Mahoning County Republican chairman. Ms. Winbush was a strong supporter of Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s bid for the GOP nomination for president, and in that light, during the primaries, she spoke for Kasich, and against Trump. When named to take over for the incapable Miller, social media again buzzed at remarks Winbush made against Trump. Since that time, her position has changed, and she now stands solidly behind the Trump campaign. Winbush authored the following, lengthy story on her journey to support Trump.
      Donald Trump had been flirting with running for President of the United States for years. He would throw his name out there, play with the media, then go back to business as usual. ‘Back then,’ many of us were encouraging Ohio Governor John Kasich to run for President, and there were chants “Run John Run” at several GOP events throughout the state.
      I even mentioned it to Matt Stone in 2012 on election night after Mitt Romney’s defeat. Kasich had proven himself to be a great leader in tough times and had a stubbornness that I happened to admire---When he makes a decision he usually sticks with it and stands by his decisions right or wrong. To me, that is good leadership, especially in government.
      I was confident that Gov. Kasich was going to run, so as others declared their candidacy, I had already chosen my candidate. I’m quoted as saying “Kasich is my horse and I was going to stick with him until he wins or leaves the race,” so as the other 16 people entered the race my goal was to encourage the governor to run and to do whatever was necessary to make sure he won the nomination.
      In July of 2015 when Gov. Kasich decided to throw his hat into the ring, I was right there standing behind him, cheering him on and ready to go to work. I even put together a chartered bus trip to Ohio State University for the announcement. I was all in.
      There is a lot that goes into preparing for a presidential race, getting delegates and alternate delegates, organizing, knowing the laws of each state of how to get on the ballot because each state is different and, there is raising money. Wow, the money that is spent on elections is insane!
      As the State Central Committeewoman for our district I wanted to have the election moved from the first Tuesday after the first Monday to the following Tuesday, May 15 so that we could amend the rules from proportional to ‘winner take all’ delegates. Then it was to win the bid to have the Republican Convention in Cleveland. The work that was put into making that happen was substantial.
      I thought, “Just think we can have the presidential nominee Gov. John Kasich and the 2016 RNC Convention right here in Cleveland. It doesn’t get better than that.”
      Not only did John Kasich join the race last, but he made the cut to be on the main stage for the first debate in Cleveland, Ohio and I was front and center. In my mind, if he declared in July and maybe was able to join the top eight on the main stage in less than four weeks---this is going to be a great campaign, and we are going to kick butt and take names.
      “We’ve Got This,” I thought at the time (when Trump was leading in the GOP polls and he was gathering crowds like a rock star.
      I still believed his campaign was not going anywhere. He could be so insulting and there was at all the drama at his rallies.
      “Big Deal,” I thought, “he may have the crowds but there is no way he will make it to the convention.” He’s not even a moderate conservative, he’s a bully. Low energy Jeb, who does that? He talked about McCain being a POW and not a hero. What presidential candidate who is Republican runs a campaign that way and wins? No way will Trump be in Cleveland.
      In January, 2016 the Iowa Caucuses were held. Gov. Kasich was behind in the polls and I believed that was just because the country had not yet met the leader I know---“Give it some time and let some of these novice candidates out of the race and I know that Gov. Kasich will thrust ahead.
      We (Gov. Kasich’s campaign) lost the Iowa Caucus, big deal, our focus was the New Hampshire primaries, making a great showing there could launch the Kasich campaign to the top three.
      I thought, “Donald Trump is holding in the 30’s percentage and when we toss some of this loose baggage (Santorum, Huckabee, Paul, Fiorina, Jindal, Pataki, Gilmore, and Perry) then we can get down to business, and Trump will fizzle out and go back his life, then it will be Kasich. Bush, Cruz and Rubio. The ticket is Kasich/Rubio now that is the winning GOP ticket.”
      I went to New Hampshire five days before the primary to volunteer---knocking on doors, and making phone calls. Yes, I am on the winning team with the most qualified candidate, and he is working hard making voter contact. A good old- fashion campaign, Kasich went to over 100 town hall meetings is a state whose population is a little larger than Franklin County, Ohio. I personally walked 10 miles a day knocking on doors, and one of those days a snowstorm was so bad, strangers would ask if I wanted to come in and have a cup of tea or coffee, warm up and dry off.
      Gov. Kasich came in fourth behind Trump, Cruz and Rubio, but ahead of Bush. I thought just because the polls showed us behind in other states we still had a lot of time, we just needed to get to the midwest, there we would make up for lost time.
      I traveled to five states volunteering for the Kasich campaign, including New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and the great state of Ohio. The experience was great. I would not have traded the long drives, even longer days and nights for the world.
      As the host of Tracey and Friends talk radio show I am always trolling the news and the internet for topics of concern and controversy. I am a social media hack, always reading and re-posting articles on Facebook and Twitter, but very seldom adding my own personal commentary, so reading my feeds can be highly controversial. Postings may be an article I found interesting or something to spark conversation. You never know, but they are always informative and thought-provoking. As I traveled and followed the primary I was throwing articles out there from ‘soup to nuts,’ some I thought were more accurate than others, but the one thing I did know, I did not like Donald J. Trump. He was a bully, he was rude, and he was willing to play the racism card with David Duke to win. (That was what I was told by the media.)
      I’m a talk radio host, I’ve been in the media business for over 20 plus years with 16 years in radio, and I was caught up in the media hype. I read, listened to CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and I read all the news articles.
      I was told that Donald J. Trump was a misogynist, racist, elite, that was using the campaign to “Make America White Again.” He was uninformed and would not be a president that would keep America safe and secure, he would be a tyrant in foreign policy, and would continue to divide us any way he could, gender, race, age---you name it he was going to divide it.
      As an African-American who has felt the bite of racism and prejudice, I can only describe it as a heart-chilling experience that stops your heart and takes your breath away and can and does leave an open wound if not treated. It is feeling that you never want anyone else to experience and when you conceive that it in leadership or someone in authority, you do whatever is necessary to halt its agenda.
      Which brings me to my concerns in the primary about Donald J. Trump. I knew of John Kasich’s approach to racism, discrimination and the bringing people together---encouraging others to have a respect for different cultures and lifestyles even when we don’t agree or understand them. Have respect for all mankind. You know, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The Golden Rule.
      But then there was ‘The Donald.’ The media was making this candidate for the GOP. The media coverage for Mr. Trump was unbelievable and he knows how to manipulate the media. We received $2 billion in earned media, while other candidates were spending hundreds of millions of dollars on attack ads. But, there was no stopping the ‘Trump Train.’ He had received more votes in a Republican primary than any other candidate in recorded history, and other candidates were falling like dominos, yet Kasich and Cruz and Rubio were still holding on, and now deals were cut---Rubio you take Florida and Kasich you take Ohio, Cruz you target Indiana. The belief was if we could just keep Trump from getting the magic number and hold him at 1000 delegates, we could have an open convention and prevent Trump from being nominated.
      So, at this point, I was really not a Trump supporter. I was bashing Trump on my radio program every chance I got. My social media pages were ablaze and when the David Duke issue came up, my mind was ready “Dump Trump” by any means necessary---to the point I went on record with statewide newspapers saying I would never support him. My colleagues and friends who were not as incensed as I was would tell me “Tracey he is not as bad as you think he is” and if you know me, or ever listened to my radio show, that was not working.
      I could not understand why Trump did not take more of a stand against David Duke. I saw a CNN interview when he said “he could not understand what was being said.” Disavow was not what I wanted to hear from him and I and the other media outlets ran with it.
      I had absolutely no use for Donald Trump, none. It really didn’t look like Kasich or Cruz was going to make it. Cruz then bowed out and Trump was headed to clinching the 1237 delegates needed for the nomination. Now what?
      Let’s step back for a moment.
      It’s April and I’m in an Ohio State Central Committee meeting with the other 65 representatives, the majority of them Kasich delegates and committed supporters, and no-one can see a path for Kasich to get the presidential nomination. He had only won Ohio and there is no real path to 1237 unless we were willing to completely destroy the party and its future. The tension was extremely high I had just been elected as treasurer of the ORP and I made a speech about coming together to “vote” for Trump. The word was “Vote” not “Support.”
      In that speech, I told the committee that no matter how anyone felt about Trump, if he became the nominee we had to vote for him, even if we had ‘to close our eyes, and hold our noses,’ we could not allow Hillary to win in November. I let them know that I was going to have to eat crow because for months I had been bashing Trump, but if we allow Hillary to win, she would move this country to a place we could not recognize.
      I am a common sense conservative but I’m a realist, and I think I have compassion and a broad understanding of people, their culture, and behaviors. I am a fighter, and I do my best to stand for what is right at all times. I believe, if you are wrong you are wrong, and I will not call it right to make you feel better.
      I didn’t have a problem with Donald Trump talking about building a wall to keep illegal persons out of our country or with him saying that the Mexican government was sending their worst to America. the nick-naming of the other candidates, you know, Low-energy Jeb, Little Marco, and don’t forget Lying Ted plus whatever else came out unfiltered.
      But the David Duke incident and the banning of all Muslims went too far. I did not like him. He was rude, brash, and never showed us that he was anything else but a bully, and his supporters were fighting at his rallies.
      I thought I’ll vote for him but I will not support him---“He’s nuts and he race baits.” Now I really had a problem.
      I had studied Donald Trump, the businessman, for years but never the politician or really delved into his personal life. That was not my area of interest. I knew him as a shrewd businessman and years later the featured character on The Apprentice. I knew he had several people of color who worked for him, he was always hosting celebrities and sports figures of color, and from what I could tell was a neutral, all-inclusive guy. I never saw him as politically correct, or a man who minced his words. What I was being shown by the media throughout this campaign was this insensitive, uncaring, belligerent, opportunist wants to be my president. Oh, and I forgot, RACIST.
      As a delegate in Cleveland I was interviewed several times and I was pretty candid, I was a Kasich supporter, but I would vote for Trump, even if I did not like him. I said that he would have to earn my respect before I would support him openly.
      As Vice-Chairman of the Mahoning County Republican Party and Treasurer of the Ohio Republican Party, I would support the down ticket candidates and vote for Trump so that Hillary did not win.
      My theory was I could deal with Trump for four years but I could not live a lifetime with the decisions that Hillary would make. I remain confident that she will cement in place the socialist agenda of President Obama and take us even further left, and the American I know and love will be no more.
      I was a part of the Republican Platform Committee and was able to help draft language that I believe will make America Stronger. I attended the sessions in the evening and was there for the vote that made Donald J. Trump the nominee for the Republican Party.
      “Wow, he really did it,” I thought.
      I talked with others there at the convention from all over the country and there were several people that had the same concerns that I did about Mr. Trump.
      Then I ran into Don King, and he talked about the man he knew personally. He spoke for about 40 minutes in the concourse of the Q about how Trump wanted to break the system so that the people can have their country back, how the system was squeezing the middle class out and how the opportunities that were awarded to him (Mr. Trump) and his father are no longer available in the United States
      Mr. King talked about how people are working from paycheck to paycheck and not getting ahead and the people we are electing are voting for raises and specialized healthcare for themselves, their friends, and their family and not for the people they are supposed to represent. He said Trump was not a racist, nor did he have an elitist attitude and that all he wanted was to have the American people be represented and to ‘Make America First’ in the hearts and minds of our elected officials.
      That Thursday evening when Donald J. Trump accepted the nomination I listened to his speech attentively and said to myself, “God, keep him safe, he really wants to break the system that is holding the average Americans back” Wow!
      I returned home and began to research the personal Trump and I found out that he is not the person that the media has so frequently painted. He is very compassionate and caring, and all he really wants is to make America strong again.
      I had dinner with his son and daughter-in- law where I had the opportunity to sit next to them and have a conversation about Mr. Trump. I asked several questions and without hesitation, they answered each one. I was so impressed with Eric and Laura by their humbleness, and selflessness it was really remarkable.
      Now for the icing on the cake, last Wednesday before I was asked to be the Chairperson for the Trump/Pence campaign I had the opportunity to be around ‘The Donald’ and all I can say is “What an impressive man.”
      I found him to be humble, charismatic, warm, quiet, and very appreciative---nothing likewhat I was told by the media or how I portrayed him.
      I can actually say it is my honor to represent the Trump/Pence campaign and I stand proudly with great confidence and tell you that the Republican nominee Donald J. Trump is the best man for the country and for our country’s future. Together we will “Make America Great Again.” And when you see the establishment attack him, know they are the ones that created this system, and they want to keep it as it is because they have a personal agenda and we the Americans are only pawns for their use.
      “I found him to be humble, charismatic, warm, quiet, and very appreciative...I can
      actually say it is my honor to represent the Trump/Pence campaign and I stand proudly with great confidence and tell you that the Republican
      nominee Donald J. Trump is
      the best man for the country and for our country’s future.” .... Tracey Winbush