He acknowledges that Kerry voted for NAFTA. "Do I like that he voted for NAFTA? No, but at least he saw the error of his ways," Leasure said.
In Youngstown, where numerous public statues pay homage to the sweat and labor of steelworkers, Dennis Church supports Edwards, who he believes can stop the mass exporting of blue-collar labor.
Church likes that Edwards is a Washington outsider who wants to make it easier for workers to organize unions. And he's drawn to Edwards' proposals for college tax credits and a $1.50-per-hour increase in the $5.75 minimum wage.
"They play us for fools in Washington just because our hands get dirty at work," said Church. "This country needs a president like John Edwards who knows what's it's like to be a working stiff like me and my wife."
Nobody can blame Edwards for NAFTA, he said, because he has always been opposed to the agreement. Besides, Edwards didn't join the U.S. Senate until 1998.
Driving home from the mill's midnight shift, Church sometimes listens to a Bruce Springsteen song, "Youngstown," which laments how the country has cast aside blue-collar laborers like so much scrap metal.
"Once I made you rich enough," the song says, "Rich enough to forget my name."
Hands on the wheel, his eyes focused on the shuttered factories around him, the steelworker sings along.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Ohio profile
Ohio, with 140 delegates at stake, may be the key Super Tuesday battleground. The state has been hit hard by manufacturing job losses, which should make voters receptive to John Edwards' criticisms of U.S. trade policies. But with polls giving John F. Kerry huge leads in California and New York, a win by him in Ohio as well could force Edwards from the race.
Snapshot
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Population
Statewide: 11.4 million
Urban residents: 77.3%
Residents 65 and older: 13.3%
Median household income: $40,956
Families below poverty line: 7.8%
Families with preschool children below poverty line: 16.1%
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Ethnicity
White: 84%
Asian: 1.2%
Latino: 1.9%
Black: 11.5%
Native American: 0.2%
Other: 1.2%
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Politics
Registered Republicans: 19.3%
Registered Democrats: 14.3%
Independents/minor parties: 66.4%
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Occupation
Management/professional: 31%
Sales/office: 26.4%
Production/transportation of goods: 19%
Service: 14.6%
Construction: 8.7%
Farming, fishing and forestry: 0.3%
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Top exports
Automobiles and parts, engines, jets and parts
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau and Almanac of American Politics
Graphics reporting by Times staff researcher Susannah Rosenblatt
