TOLEDO, Ohio — Ohio was historically a swing state for years but is now considered red, only furthered by the general election.
President-elect Donald Trump won the state for the third time. Republican Bernie Moreno beat longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. State Rep. Derek Merrin has posed a formidable threat to Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur in the still too-close-to-call race for Ohio's 9th Congressional District.
In a lecture at the University of Toledo on Thursday, former Ohio Gov. Dick Celeste, who held the office as a Democrat from 1983 to 1991, urged the electorate to be engaged in democracy and also spoke on the state's conservative shift.
"The truth of the matter is people wanted change," Celeste said. "In many respects, it was an election about change."
Other than Ted Strickland about 15 years ago, he was the last Democrat to hold that position.
Despite Ohio turning red. Celeste said he doesn't believe the voters in the state, or the country, can easily be defined by party.
"I think we make a mistake when we color the nation red or blue," Celeste said. "The reality is most people want to think for themselves. Fastest growing party is the independent party."
"The point of our system is we all have to be engaged," he added.
The message in his lecture, titled "Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport," spoke to three freshman political science students who plan to go into politics and said the division can be worrying.
"It can definitely be scary how polarizing how both sides have become," said student Tulia Pfeffinger. "But I guess that is what being in political science is all about is we really want to study those trends and just see what we can do to make our government and our country as good as it can be."
Celeste said he's seen families struggle to converse due to political division.
But he said it doesn't have to be that way.
"Family comes first," Celeste said. "Understand that we care about each other. Then let's listen to each other."
Celeste's lecture, which was free and open to the public, was a part of UToledo's College of Law's Way Series. While this was the last lecture of this year, the college plans to bring more speakers in next semester.