The 2020 election is 500 days away, but it looked a lot sooner on Saturday in Sharonville.

Campaign signs for President Donald Trump and local Republicans lined the entrance of the Sharonville Convention Center for the GOP 500 rally.

The Hamilton County Republican Party staged the rally to muster enthusiasm in a county the Democrats have taken over in recent years.

It was clear at the rally that even though she represents New York City, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents the enemy for Republicans in Ohio.

Speakers invoked Ocasio-Cortez, socialism and the issue of illegal immigration to fuel the ire of the approximately 200 Republicans’ in attendance. A sign outside the rally read “Socialism sucks!”

“We cannot underestimate the fight that we have ahead,” said Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s 2020 campaign national press secretary and keynote speaker for the GOP 500 Rally. “And the name I’m about to say immediately provokes laughter, but she should also strike a little fear in our hearts, and that’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”

Since she won election last year, Ocasio-Cortez has risen rapidly from obscurity to garner a large following of fans and detractors.

McEnany singled out Ocasio-Cortez’s comments about a system that allows billionaires to exist alongside extreme poverty is immoral. She then railed against socialism as having more extreme income disparities, using Venezuela and Angola as examples.

McEnany wasn’t the only speaker to take aim at Ocasio-Cortez. U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Westwood, decried Ocasio-Cortez’s comparison of the detention camps at the borders to concentration camps.

“It’s the same old blame America-first crowd, and that’s what these people are all about,” said Chabot said. “They’re socialist.”

He didn’t explain the connection between Ocasio-Cortez’s concentration camp comment and socialism.

Why do so many Republicans in Ohio fear a freshman member of Congress from New York?

“AOC literally frightens me,” Maineville resident Don Ludlow as he walked out of the Sharonville Convention Center Saturday, “starting off with the New Green Deal. That is an ill-conceived project that those folks are taking advantage of people’s emotions without looking at the exact cost and implications of those programs.”

What makes Ocasio-Cortez particularly disturbing for Ludlow is her influence on millennials.

“They’re listening to her because they have an ignorance to what socialism really is,” Ludlow said.

The rally on Saturday was a preview of what voters can expect next year.

Republicans acknowledged on Saturday Hamilton County will be tough for them to win. Like other urban areas of the country, it’s turned a dark blue.

“We have a great fight on our hands in Hamilton County” said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters at the rally. He’s one of four Republican office holders left in a countywide administrative office in Hamilton County. That would have been unthinkable 20 years ago when all but one countywide office was held by a Republican.

“The only thing that makes a difference is the volunteers that bring out our voters. Because the Democrats are doing the same thing, and it’s going to be a bloodbath if we don’t do it.”

Hamilton County GOP chairman Alex Triantafilou told The Enquirer before the rally he wants a more diverse ticket in 2020 with more African-Americans and more women.

Hamilton County Democratic Chairwoman Gwen McFarlin said it’ll take more than a rally to beat the Democrats in Hamilton County.

“They can have the biggest rally that they want, but they don’t know Hamilton County” McFarlin told The Enquirer. “So they can bring all of the Trump people, but they don’t respect diversity as a whole from my perspective, because there’s little respect for women. They disrespect all people.”