Rep. Steve Chabot didn't ask President Donald Trump to come to town, but he's glad to have the president here to support him.

"Did I ask Trump to come?" Chabot said during a meeting Monday with the Enquirer's editorial board. "We were told that he was coming, basically. So, no we didn't ask him to come ... We will welcome him when he comes."

Trump will speak Friday at the Warren County Fairgrounds amid a tour of the country to help vulnerable Republicans in the U.S. House.

One such Republican is Chabot, who faces a tough challenge from Democrat Aftab Pureval in Ohio's 1st Congressional District. The heated and often bitter race has become one of the most-watched contests in the country.

Chabot, in an hour-and-a-half conversation Monday morning with The Enquirer, spoke about the president and his re-election bid.

Like many races across the country, Chabot/Pureval could come down to how much the 1st Congressional District loves or hates Trump.

Chabot, 65, described his relationship with Trump as "cordial" but stopped short of fully embracing him.

"He wasn't my first choice, or my second or my third," Chabot said. "I did vote for him in the general election."

He said the president still hasn't learned to pronounce his name and usually says "ch" as in "change" rather than the correct way, "sh" as in "shells."

Trump isn't the first president to get Chabot's name wrong. President George W. Bush also mispronounced it, Chabot said.

Chabot had many good things to say about Trump. Like most Republicans, Chabot credits Trump for the strong economy.

"I wouldn't say things the way he says things, but his policies are working," Chabot said. "I think a lot of Americans are realizing that."

Chabot has met the president "about a half-dozen times," but Friday will be the first Trump rally he's attended. Chabot doesn't know if he'll speak at the rally.

"I'll correct the mispronunciation of my name," Chabot said with a smile.

Chabot has served in Congress for 22 years, representing Cincinnati's west side. After redistricting in 2012, the heavily Republican Warren County has been part of the district.

Chabot rode the Republican revolution of 1994 into the U.S. House. He lost in 2008 to Democrat Steve Driehaus but won his seat back in 2010 and has remained ever since.

Is this the nastiest race?

Of his dozen congressional races, this is the nastiest, Chabot said.

The ads are more misleading than they ever have been in the past, Chabot said.

"They're really distorted," Chabot said. "They're doing a disservice to the public."

He focused on attack ads against him as doing the most disservice, such as those accusing him of being against requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. Ads run by Pureval have lambasted Chabot on his votes against the Affordable Care Act. PolitiFact has rated the ads as "mostly true."

Chabot said he's for requiring insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions but wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Chabot didn't seem to have as much of a problem with one of the most controversial ads of this cycle that attacked Pureval. Run by the Paul Ryan-backed Congressional Leadership Fund, the misleading tried to link Pureval with Qaddafi.

Chabot pointed out his campaign didn't run the ad but he didn't completely disavow it. Chabot stood by the ad's criticisms of Pureval and his former law firm representing the Libyan government under Qaddafi.

"It's not something I would have run," Chabot said. "It would have been more effective if they didn't put Qaddafi in there."

Will Kavanaugh help the Republicans?

Chabot said many Republicans angry about how Democrats handled the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh might be more motivated to vote.

He said he thinks both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford believed what they were saying.

"I do think she was the target of sexual abuse," Chabot said. "I'm very sympathetic to her or any person that happens to them."

"It played out about as bad for the country as it possibly could to divide us even further than we already were," Chabot said.

Aftab Pureval will be visiting the Enquirer editorial board Tuesday