trump pence cleveland.jpg

Donald Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence during an appearance in Cleveland on Oct. 22, 2016.

(John Kuntz, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If it seems unusual that Donald Trump is visiting Ashtabula County this week, that's because it is.

When he arrives in Geneva on Thursday for a planned 7 p.m. rally, Trump will be the first presidential candidate to visit Ashtabula County since 1960, when John F. Kennedy stopped in Ashtabula city during a train tour, according to Charlie Frye, the county's Republican Party chairman.

Frye said he and leaders at the Spire Institute, the site of the Trump rally, had pitched presidential campaigns on the facility as a possible rally site during the primary season.

"It's something that we've been pining for from the county party standpoint to try and get Mr. Trump here," Frye said. "And we got a phone call, and it took a couple days of working out the logistics, and we finally got it done. "We're ecstatic about it.

The Trump campaign didn't respond to a message asking why it chose Geneva as the location for a rally. But the city, population 6,100, is within the media markets of Cleveland and Youngstown, as well as western Pennsylvania.

"Our pitch on this was quite simple," Frye said. "We are a really easy location to get to."

Democratic President Barack Obama beat Republican Mitt Romney in Ashtabula County by 13 percentage points in 2012. Frye said that year, the county party struggled to offload 1,000 Romney signs.

But Frye said he senses enthusiasm in Ashtabula County for Trump that he hasn't seen since Ronald Reagan, the last Republican to win the county. He said he thinks Trump's appeal to renegotiate free-trade deals resonates in the area, which he said is full of blue-collar "Reagan Democrats."

"This election cycle we've had four different drops of yard signs. We just got a fifth drop yesterday," Frye said. "We are at a little over 5,000 yard signs that we've given out."

Trump has two other rallies at more traditional Ohio campaign locations planned Thursday: the first at 1 p.m. in Springfield, and the second at 4 p.m. in Toledo, according to his campaign schedule.

Trump's previous trip to Ohio was last Saturday, when he visited the I-X Center in Cleveland.

Duane Fehrer, the Ashtabula County Democratic Party chairman, acknowledged enthusiasm in Ashtabula County over Trump during the Republican primary. But he said he expects that voters will sour on Trump as they learn more about his business dealings.

He cited an Associated Press article that reported an Ashtabula County manufacturer, Molded Fiber Glass Co., sued Trump in the 1990s, alleging Trump stiffed the company for $3 million in work on the now-closed Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City.

He also cited reports of Trump using Chinese steel and using subcontractors that hire foreign workers at his construction projects.

"We have an old Midwest saying -- buyer beware, or don't buy a pig in a poke," Fehrer said. "And I think people need to take a look at Trump's track record, and I think people are."