About Ohio

Ohio is the state where the American experiment has been tested most repeatedly, in the most consequential ways, at the most important moments. It was the first state carved from the Northwest Territory, the first application of the Northwest Ordinance's ban on slavery that drew the line between free and slave America. It produced eight presidents, more than any state except Virginia. Its sons made the first powered flight, orbited Earth first, and walked on the Moon first. Its industrial cities built the Arsenal of Democracy in two world wars and then became the face of deindustrialization.

Ohio sits at the geographic and demographic center of the country in ways that go beyond location. Its eleven million people are more racially, economically, and culturally diverse than any simple narrative can capture: the cosmopolitan growth of Columbus, the industrial heritage and genuine cultural sophistication of Cleveland and Cincinnati, the proud and battered working-class communities of the Mahoning Valley, the Amish farms of Holmes County, and the Appalachian poverty of the southeastern hills all exist within the same state borders.

The opioid epidemic hit Ohio harder than almost anywhere else. The political realignment of the working class has reshuffled Ohio's electoral map more dramatically than almost any other state. And yet Columbus keeps growing, Cleveland keeps producing world-class medicine and music, and Ohio keeps finding itself at the center of whatever America is arguing about. It earns its reputation as the bellwether state not by being average, but by containing multitudes.