Feeling forgotten by Obama, people in this Ohio town look to Trump

WILMINGTON, Ohio – Guy Ashmore knew this election was different because the signs were still up. Usually the only ones that remained after the votes were counted and the winner was announced were those wedged into the ground along the state roads or the forgotten billboards on the interstate.

But after Donald Trump had won the presidency, and days turned into weeks, Ashmore, a lifelong farmer with a graying beard and a mutt named Bode, kept seeing the signs. They weren't just along the medians; they were still in people's yards.

"Some still have two or three up," said Ashmore, 58. "I don't know if it's because they elected a winner or they think Trump is going to come in and do something incredible."

Here in Wilmington, the phrase "Make America Great Again" is not just a slogan. It's an expectation. Trump came here twice during the campaign, promising to be the voice of "the forgotten men and women of America." Wilmington and surrounding Clinton County responded by casting more votes for Trump than any president since Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984.

Now, as Trump takes office, many residents are cautiously hopeful that the new president will deliver. For Wilmington, his presidency could mean the return of a bustling Main Street. A time when Mac D's pub was packed as the afternoon shifts ended and the the fast food joints in town only took an hour to clean in the middle of the night before workers started streaming back in.

"I don't really know what it is, or if I have the pulse on it," Ashmore said of Trump's effect on the town. "But it's optimism."

Wilmington is a predominantly white town of more than 12,000 people, surrounded by rolling farmland, it has well-trafficked strip malls, four dollar stores, two grain elevators and a sprawling twin runway airpark. Long considered a portrait of small-town America, Wilmington was listed in Norman Crampton's 1995 book "The 100 Best Small Towns in America," and in a 1997 Time magazine featured the town in an eight-page spread.

Then, in 2008, more than 7,000 jobs disappeared almost overnight when the German freight company DHL decided to move one of its main shipping hubs from the town's airpark back to Cincinnati. Wilmington's status as a thriving corner of America took a major blow. In the months that followed, "60 Minutes" visited twice to feature the community as a microcosm of the Great Recession. Conservative TV personality Glenn Beck came, too, donating to the local soup kitchen and the historic Murphy Theatre.

Wilmington residents recall DHL's departure as "the crash," or "the pull out." Michael O'Machearley, an 11-year employee at the airpark before he was laid off, just calls it "ground zero."

In the years afterward, the town turned inward, combating a growing heroin problem while looking for ways to revive its economy by encouraging local businesses to stay on its mural-lined main street. The county leased some of the airpark's warehouses to smaller companies; houses abandoned in 2008 slowly began to be reoccupied.

Enter Trump. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama had all made stops in Wilmington during their political campaigns, taking advantage of the airpark's jetliner-sized runways and its proximity to Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati. But Trump came twice in as many months, and his son Eric showed up unannounced at a local gun show in September. The visits, and Trump's pledge to restore the nation to greatness, resonated.

"Years ago, you used to see every color and creed working side by side. Maybe you didn't invite everyone to supper, but you were in it together," O'Machearley said.

O'Machearley doesn't expect Trump do anything directly for Wilmington. But he see's Trump's priorities, his determination to put American businesses and workers first, as promising.

"When companies prosper, the economy prospers," O'Machearley said. "And when the economy prospers, we all do."

Obama left a more bitter impression. Joe Hete, the CEO and President of Air Transport Services Group and its subsidiary cargo airline ABX Air, tells a story of meeting Obama in Dayton right after DHL left. Obama looked him in the eye and pledged not to forget Wilmington and Clinton County, Hete said; Obama said Wilmington's problem would be his problem when he won the presidency.

"Well, as fate would have it, he got elected. We have not seen or heard from him since," Hete said. "He never lifted a finger to do anything."

Hete's company is a holdover from the DHL era. Formerly known as Airborne Express, ABX Air was spun off after DHL bought Airborne in 2003, because the German company was not allowed to own an American airline. From the 100-plus planes operating out of the park during DHL's heyday, Hete is down to 10.

But that number that could change in the coming months: The park could be the site of a significant Amazon.com shipping and distribution hub. The prospect has raised hopes of a major revival, Hete said, particularly given the inauguration of a new president with an appreciation for business. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon's founder and chief executive, owns The Washington Post.)

"We've made significant investments in 2016 and will in 2017 in buying new airplanes," he said. "There's a renewed sense of optimism because here's a guy who understands business and pays attention to the flyover country and people are encouraged by that."

The idea that Amazon is the answer to Wilmington's problems is a dangerous one for Taylor Stuckert and Mark Rembert. The two have spent the last eight years trying to find ways to ensure Wilmington's success isn't tied to a single company headquartered somewhere else.

"The decision for companies like DHL and Amazon to stay in Wilmington? Those aren't made here," Rembert said. "They're made hundreds and thousands of miles away."

Around town, the pair are well-known characters, two local guys who instead of going to college and never coming back, saw a future in their home town. Randy Riley, a former mayor of Wilmington from 2012 to 2016, calls them the "anti-brain drain."

Stuckert went to Butler University in Indiana and Rembert went to Haverford, a small liberal arts school on Philadelphia's Main Line. They came back just as DHL began its withdrawal. As they watched for-sale signs pop up in yards all over town, they founded a nonprofit that aimed to fill the vacuum left by DHL. They tried to improve the local economy by encouraging people to open farmers markets and relocate to a revitalized downtown. Catchphrases such as "buy local" — usually reserved for hipster enclaves — entered the Wilmington vernacular.

"We're trying to do the hard work at the local level. We're scraping and crawling for anything to make the community a better place," Rembert said. "It's so hard to get people excited about that stuff. But with the 'Make America Great Again' slogan, it's not clear how that connects with the community and Wilmington at all but it's a very powerful message for people."

Rembert and Stuckert are skeptical of Trump, but both agree it would be silly to be oppose new outside business. The influx of jobs and commuters would be a boon to local businesses. But they insist the town should also keep investing in itself and focusing on "making the community great again," as Stuckert puts it.

"These commercial cities grew because people got to working, building them. The government didn't do it for them," Rembert said. "We're are the ones that built this place. It's us. Let's figure out how to do that."

Stuckert and Rembert are unusual here. Just over 15 percent of Wilmington's resident's have four-year degrees, according to the 2016 census — roughly 10 and 15 percent below the state and national averages respectively.

Norm Allen is a more typical Wilmington resident. When he was a kid, the men in his family worked at the Wilmington Airpark. It was a Strategic Air Command Base then, a hub for Cold War bombers, Vietnam-era gunships and mid-air refuelers. His father worked in the base's motorpool while his uncle and future father-in-law helped maintain a fleet of KC-97 Stratofreighters, hulking quad-engine cargo planes.

In 1972, the base shut down. Hundreds lost their jobs, including Allen's father and uncle. At the time, local real estate agents collectively decided they wouldn't put for-sale signs in front yards because they thought it would be too depressing.

Now, Allen runs Custom Molded Parts, a plastic parts manufacturing factory on the east side of town that's been in business almost 20 years. Above his desk is a model of one of the planes his uncle used to service, bearing a tail number from that time: 22630. With 115 employees and machines that are growing more complicated, Custom Molded Products will likely need skilled workers who can troubleshoot new equipment to keep "quality up and costs down," as Allen puts it.

But though skilled labor is in growing demand, Allen isn't completely sold on the benefits of higher education. "Some people are happy not going to college, just getting up, coming in and working," said Allen. "The world needs ditch diggers, too."

Seventy-five percent of his business is automotive, making small parts like seat clasps and door components primarily for Honda's Civic, Accord and CRV sport-utility lines. The rest is mostly dental and medical supplies. Allen sees Trump's warnings to companies like Ford and Carrier, two businesses that threatened to take jobs to Mexico, as an existential insurance policy that their business is going to stay in Wilmington.

"I mean he's not even president and look what he's doing," Allen said, a refrain echoed by others in town who see Trump's browbeating of corporations as a victory for those "forgotten" between the coasts.

"I don't know if we'll ever be a big manufacturing town again, but what Trump brought is his confidence," Allen said. "And that might be enough."

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Video: The small town of Wilmington, Ohio, was devastated in 2008 when DHL left and took more than 7,000 jobs with it. As the town tries to claw its way back, the Post explains why Donald Trump's election victory has brought it new life. (McKenna Ewen/The Washington Post)