GEOFF BENNETT: In recent presidential elections, Ohio has become reliably Republican.

But, this year, the state is once again a major battleground.

The Cook Political Report rates both the governor's race and the U.S.

Senate contest as toss-ups.

Several congressional races are also competitive.

And with just two weeks until Election Day, Liz Landers reports on how national issues, especially concerns about affordability, are shaping voters' decisions in Ohio.

LIZ LANDERS: Youngstown, Ohio, was built on steel.

Today, abandoned factories still line stretches of the Mahoning River, a reminder of jobs that left decades ago and never fully came back.

RON GAY, Communications Workers of America: I was born right before the steel mill started to close, which was the late '70s.

And it's been rough to see the neighborhoods go down, to see the income of people go down, to see the overall quality of the city go down.

LIZ LANDERS: And the losses keep coming.

The summer, Youngstown bakery Schwebel shut down after 120 years.

In nearby B Boardman, AT&T is closing a call center that once employed hundreds of union workers.

A decade ago, Donald Trump won over working-class voters in Ohio by promising to bring jobs like these back.

This year, with Republicans in charge in Washington and in Columbus, they're the ones being asked to answer for it.

Chris Anderson, leads the Mahoning County Democratic Party.

CHRIS ANDERSON, Chair, Mahoning County Democratic Party: They promised that, on day one, they were going to tackle inflation and affordability, they were going to make everyone's lives better.

And I think you would be hard-pressed to find a single person who thinks that their life is better today than it was in 2024.

LIZ LANDERS: That argument now runs through two toss-up races.

One could decide control of the U.S.

Senate.

The other could give Ohio its first Democratic governor in 15 years.

FMR.

SEN.

SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): Ohioans don't have anyone in the Senate fighting for you until November.

LIZ LANDERS: In a region still waiting for its comeback, Sherrod Brown is attempting one of his own.

He won three Senate races here before losing two years ago.

His pitch?

Republicans made life more expensive.

FMR.

SEN.

SHERROD BROWN: Jon Husted stands with corporations, not with us, not with Ohioans, not with you.

And we all pay for it.

SEN.

JON HUSTED (R-OH): My team and I are here to serve you.

LIZ LANDERS: Republican Jon Husted, appointed to the seat last year, has his own story of the decline.

He says his father was laid off when the Ohio factory where he worked closed.

SEN.

JON HUSTED: And after 25 years of clocking in every day, he got laid off.

Husted says the answer is the tax cuts he voted for and that Brown had three decades to fix things.

NARRATOR: Thirty-two years in D.C.

is enough for Senator Brown.

LIZ LANDERS: But the war with Iran and the gas prices that came with it have tested even Trump's allies.

Last month, Husted broke with the president, saying the war needs to end so prices can come down.

At Trump's recent rally here, some supporters said they're willing to wait.

GERALD CARPENTER, Republican Voter: Gas prices affect me a bunch.

I own a pizza shop.

So, I have got delivery boys.

Everything that we -- cheese, flour, boxes, you name it, it can go up.

But I have been doing it for 31 years.

So it's not like there haven't been ripples in the past.

And I believe Trump's a man of his word that, if we get these gas prices under control, we get Iran under control, and I think gas prices will come down.

LIZ LANDERS: It's a similar fight in the governor's race.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate: Why is it that life feels so unaffordable?

LIZ LANDERS: Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, promises to roll back property taxes and eventually scrap the state income tax.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY: So this question on property taxes, this is probably the number one issue in the state that a governor can fix relatively immediately.

AMY ACTON (D), Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate: As governor, I will take on the corruption that's raising our costs, cut taxes for the middle class.

LIZ LANDERS: Democrat Amy Acton, who led the state Health Department early in the COVID pandemic, is proposing tax credits for working families.

She says Ramaswamy's tax cuts would come at the expense of schools and public safety.

AMY ACTON: My opponent says people are struggling because they're not working hard enough, because they're lazy and mediocre, which is not the Ohioans I know and that I have grown up with.

LIZ LANDERS: Early voting is already under way.

With control of the Senate up for grabs, many voters see a choice that reaches well beyond Ohio.

RHONDA LUETJE, Columbus, Ohio, Resident: I feel like, Trump's first term, he had some people surrounding him that acted as kind of bumpers for him that kept him in the lane, but this time he is completely unchecked, and the House and the Senate are also not checking him and, to some degree, the Supreme Court.

BOB THOMPSON, Mansfield, Ohio, Resident: I think that if we can keep everything red, after the midterms, he will do what he needs to do for the second half of his term.

LIZ LANDERS: Back in Youngstown, the stakes feel closer to home.

Just ask the region's AFL-CIO Labor Council.

LARRY FAUVRE, President, Mahoning and Trumbull AFL-CIO Labor Council: I have lived here all my life.

I have watched the good times.

I have watched the bad times.

And my family grew up here, and some of my family have moved away because there was no jobs here that they could do.

So hopefully we can bring it back.

LIZ LANDERS: Voters here have heard that promise before.

On Election Day, they will decide who to believe this time.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Liz Landers.