COLUMBUS, Ohio — If national Democrats were to write off Ohio in 2020, they would do so at their own peril, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in Columbus on Friday night at an Ohio Democratic Party event.

“It’s a great American state. It’s a state everyone wants to win. And to win, you have to fight. You have to fight to turn Ohio blue,” she said.

Pelosi was the keynote speaker at the Ohio Democratic Party’s Legacy Dinner, the state party’s major annual fundraising event. Over 1,000 people attended, a state party official said, filling a ballroom in the Columbus convention center.

The integrity of Ohio’s historical swing-state status was a major topic of conversation at the event, which was in part a two-hour call to action, and in part a two-hour pep talk. “Don’t Stop Believing,” by Journey aptly played over the loudspeakers multiple times over the course of the night.

There was some optimism from Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper and others that Ohio may get new congressional maps for 2020 — giving them a better chance to compete— thanks to a ruling from a federal court in Cincinnati that declared Ohio’s maps unconstitutionally gerrymandered. Ohio’s current congressional delegation is split 12-4 in favor of Republicans, even though the state’s popular vote tends to be closer to half and half.

A three-judge panel ordered state lawmakers to draw new maps before June 14. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for at least a delay as the high court considered gerrymandering cases in other states.

On Friday night, Pepper and others also insisted that despite the results of the November election, in which Ohio Democrats failed to flip any congressional seats and were shut out of the state government’s five executive offices, the state remains in play in future presidential elections.

In his remarks throughout the night, Pepper, who came under mostly private, intra-party criticism over the results of the November election, repeatedly referenced public deliberations by national Democrats over whether they’d be better off focusing on other states in 2020.

“The 2020 election is right around the corner, and Ohio is in play,” Pepper said. “Every presidential candidate should be laser focused on Ohio for one reason. If Trump doesn’t win here, it’s over. A blue Ohio means it’s over for a Trump presidency.”

In her remarks, Pelosi praised Pepper’s leadership of the party, and she also praised other elected Ohio Democrats, including the late Sen. John Glenn, whose funeral she attended in 2016.

She shouted out Ohio’s constitutional amendment approved by voters last year that aims to make Ohio’s congressional districts fairer, starting in 2022. But she didn’t directly reference the ACLU lawsuit.

She also didn’t directly reference talk from some in her party, including Democratic presidential contenders like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who have called for impeaching President Donald Trump over his conduct during the recently completed Mueller investigation.

But about 25 minutes into her speech, Pelosi, who has resisted calls to begin impeachment proceedings, alluded to House Democrats’ ongoing, myriad investigations into Trump.

“We will all start to make progress in the lives of the people. that’s our responsibility. but we also will investigate to defend our democracy and hold this president accountable. This will be all about the presentation of the facts. We owe that to the American people.”

In a statement issued before Pelosi’s speech, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Mandi Merritt said: “From refusing to address the crisis at our Southern Border, to propping up her party’s most extreme policy proposals, Nancy Pelosi is a symbol of how out-of-touch the Democratic Party really is. While Ohioans are thriving in President Trump’s economy where they can count on more jobs, better wages and more money in their pockets, Pelosi and her California values are nothing but a reminder of the past.”

Before the event, Sen. Sherrod Brown, another Friday night speaker, made the case that Ohio is in play, even though he said the November election “wasn’t a particularly good year” for his fellow Buckeye State Democrats.

Brown, who was comfortably re-elected in November due in large part to a weak challenger, referenced the fact that Ohio has voted for the winner of every presidential election since 1960.

“You don’t write off a state that’s gone with the winner every single time,” he said.

Before the event, Pepper told reporters he thinks redrawn maps would result in as many as four of Ohio’s 16 congressional districts becoming newly competitive.

The prospect of picking up seats in Ohio would attract outside political money and energize his party’s voters, he said.

“I think it lifts Democratic turnout higher than it normally would be, because for the most part, people in most of these districts have honestly felt like their vote didn’t matter,” he said.

Pepper also unflinchingly praised Pelosi, who is polarizing among some Ohio Democrats. Youngstown-area U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, who’s now running a long-shot campaign for the presidency, briefly challenged Pelosi for her congressional leadership post in 2016, arguing the California congresswoman didn’t represent the interior of the country.

In an interview, Pepper called Pelosi “the adult in the room” in Washington, D.C., saying she has stood up to Trump and oversaw the passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

“I think she ultimately goes down as one of the historic figures in politics in America, and so for that reason we’re honored to have her here,” Pepper said.

Other speakers at Friday’s event included U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio House Democratic Leader Emilia Sykes, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly — one of two Democrats elected to the state Supreme Court last November — and Chillicothe Mayor Luke Feeney.

The event’s penultimate speakers were Gary Hilton, a 25-year employee of the recently shuttered General Motors plant in Lordstown, and his wife, Danielle Hilton.