Editor’s note: We invited the chairperson of each Mahoning County major political party to share with our readers their arguments supporting their party’s presidential nominee.

Born in Youngstown and raised in the Valley. Boardman High and YSU educated, and involved in politics for close to 30 years. Some of my earliest memories are of the Steel mills and all the industry that made this area thrive and prosper.

Unfortunately those memories soon turned to shuttered plants, vacant buildings and some of the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the nation for the past 40 years.

The list of closings because of bad trade deals and lack of vision of our political elite is endless. Starting with Sheet and Tube and continuing to the current day of GM-Lordstown. The list of businesses and industries in between is infinite.

We have witnessed every politician come to our area and give us assurances that they would be our protector and made promises that would never be kept. From Bill Clinton promising a DFAS center for the Valley to Joe Biden on Campaign stops in 2008 and 2012 saying he would bring “good-paying jobs” to this area. Too many times these politicians have promised us everything but after the election forgot about us once they got to Washington, including our current Congressman Tim Ryan. They have continued to promote policies that ship jobs overseas and import cheap labor into this country. The Mahoning Valley has paid a high price for these failed policies.

Donald Trump has delivered on his America First agenda. Promises made and promises kept. Trump brought to the table our partners in NAFTA and renegotiated a flawed trade deal that had been in place since 1992. He pulled us out of bad agreements of the Paris Climate Accords that would have further damaged our ability to compete and the TPP that would have continued our decline in manufacturing.

Trump has promoted energy independence for the country and over the past four years, we have become a net exporter of energy. The oil and gas boom brought on by his policies has brought billions into this area from Lordstown to Beaver, Pennsylvania, and down into Appalachia. And there is more to come in regards to investment in this Valley with the re-election of President Trump.

Trump’s economy prior to COVID saw record unemployment and a startup of new businesses. Unemployment rates among minorities were at record lows, and the stock market was at record highs. When Obama said there was “no magic wand” to bring back manufacturing, Trump proved him wrong, and we saw industry and manufacturing rates increasing across the country. We had one of the biggest reforms in our tax codes that provided more money in the pockets of middle-class Americans and small businesses have more capital to re- invest in their companies and hire more workers. Currently, we are awaiting word from the Trump administration on an $8 billion contract at Lordstown Motors for the USPS contract. Are we willing to risk electing Joe Biden and the empty promises of the Democrats once again?

President Trump pushed and got the “First-step act,” which was one of the biggest reforms ever to the criminal justice system while also standing up for law enforcement, which is under siege by national media and the left right now. He defeated ISIS, while keeping us out of foreign entanglements, and is bringing our troops home and not shipping them overseas. We stood up to our NATO allies and made them pay their fair share.

President Donald Trump deserves four more years to finish on the promises that he has made and delivered on, unlike so many politicians this Valley has voted for in the past. Promises made and promises being kept.

Tom McCabe is the Mahoning County Republican Party chairman.