Donald Trump stumps in Youngstown

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters at a rally, March 14, 2016, at Winner Aviation in Vienna, Ohio.

(John Kuntz, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will speak at Youngstown State University on Monday, according to his campaign and a university official.

A Trump campaign official said Trump will give a "major policy speech," but didn't share additional details. But Dave Johnson, chairman of the Columbiana County Republican Party and an enthusiastic Trump supporter, said Trump is expected to give an address that will focus on foreign affairs.

The speech is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Monday, and will be held at YSU's Kilcawley Center student union, university spokeswoman Shannon Tirone said.

Johnson said the event is invitation-only -- about 350 tickets will be available, many of which are being allocated to local Republican Party chairs for distribution.

Trump's Monday speech will be his second appearance in the blue-collar Mahoning Valley in the past six months. He held a campaign rally at the Warren-Youngstown Regional Airport on March 14, the day before Ohio's primary election.

While he lost the March primary to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Trump won every county in eastern Ohio, including Youngstown's Mahoning County, where elections officials reported more than 21,800 unaffiliated voters pulled Republican ballots, and more than 6,000 Democrats switched affiliations to vote Republican.

"I think he's looking at battleground states like Ohio and he's picking an academic institution that's a Democratic stronghold in a county that's very supportive of Donald Trump," Johnson said. "...I think it's very smart politically."

David Betras, the chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, said many of the Republicans who materialized in his county for the March primary pulled ballots to vote against Trump. And those who supported Trump, he said, weren't aware of Trump's history of licensing products that were made overseas.

"Trump will not do well here in the fall. The people didn't know about the true Donald Trump, and we're going to make sure that they do," he said.

Tirone said Trump campaign officials first reached out on Thursday to express interest in holding a speech at YSU. The university has been a site for presidential campaign rallies in the past -- in 2008, Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic Party presidential nominee, appeared at YSU to campaign for Barack Obama, who at the time was running for president.

And in 2012, Paul Ryan, now the U.S. Speaker of the house, held an event at YSU to campaign for his running mate, then-GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

"As much as we're happy to have Mr. Trump with us," Tirone said, the university would welcome an opportunity to host the Clinton campaign too.

Polls in recent weeks consistently have shown a close race in Ohio, although Clinton has pulled out a narrow lead in the aftermath of last month's Republican and Democratic national conventions.

Trump's upcoming speech also will be his second August policy address in a Rust Belt state. Last Monday, Trump gave a speech focusing on economic issues in Detroit.