Cleveland voters are worried about gas and food prices. Will it get them to the polls?

In a strip mall in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood earlier this month, about two dozen residents had just wrapped up a discussion on how stress can pile up and tie into chronic illnesses. 

Then, Morgan “Mo” Lewis stepped to the front of the room, flanked on her right by people holding glossy magazines with the words “November 3 Election Guide” printed on the front in bold, all-capital letters. 

Lewis asked how the group was feeling about the impending midterm election. 

Not a second passed before someone responded: “I already voted.”

Concern and cautious optimism 

Lewis is the lead coordinator of the Vote Squad, a group of civic engagement advocates with the nonpartisan nonprofit Cleveland VOTES. 

The meeting, a weekly workshop hosted by Men and Women of Central, is one of many she has attended this election cycle. She and the Vote Squad have spent the months leading up to this election wearing out their shoes canvassing and talking with residents at events in Central, encouraging them to channel their concerns into the ballot box.

“There is still rhetoric being told in our communities that our vote does not matter, and that nothing is really getting better, no matter what, so we have to make those connections,” Lewis said. “We have to meet people where they are.”

On the ground, Vote Squad members and voting advocates with other organizations working across the city are battling political misinformation. At the same time, they’re seeing people connect issues they’re facing in their daily lives to voting in this election. 

Affordability comes up again and again in conversations with voters. Sometimes, it’s more of a general frustration. But often, it’s tied specifically to gas prices, federal cuts to food assistance, and stricter work requirements for Medicaid set to take effect next year. 

Cleveland residents have already cast 8,765 early in-person ballots as of October 26. That’s about 2,500 more than the final count for early in-person votes in the most recent midterm election in 2022, and there are still six days of early voting left before election day.

That same trend ripples out beyond Cleveland, too. Voters in Cuyahoga County have already cast 32,095 early in-person ballots, up from the final count of 19,918 early in-person ballots in 2022. 

Whether that enthusiasm will hold for other turnout, including ballots cast by mail and on Election Day, remains to be seen. 

‘Leading with the issues’

Greater Cleveland Congregations has also deployed volunteers to knock on doors across several Cleveland neighborhoods and some inner-ring suburbs in the leadup to the election.

Volunteers have been reporting, far more than in the last midterm, that registered voters are urgently proclaiming that they intend to vote, said Khalilah Worley Billy, a senior organizer with Greater Cleveland Congregations. 

In past election cycles, even those with presidential elections on the ballot, canvassers were more often met with uncertainty, she said.  

“Going out this time, people are leading with the issues like gas prices and food, and they’re connecting that issue to voting,” Billy said. “Beforehand, it seemed separate.”

Voters have also been increasingly telling canvassers that they want to spend more time with family, but financial pressure has been pushing people to work more. Billy herself talked with a new mother who, despite having a job with good benefits, still felt pressure to get back to work as soon as possible. She wanted to spend more time with her baby, Billy said, but she felt she couldn’t afford to. 

“It used to feel as simplistic as: apply yourself or get education,” Billy said. “Now people are like, wait, I know people who have an education. I know people who are working jobs, and they’re still struggling. Something’s not right here.”

Canvassing Cleveland Heights

As Tucker White pulled into his garage on a Sunday afternoon, two canvassers from Greater Cleveland Congregations, Diana Woodbridge and Joel Genuth, walked up his driveway. He was in high spirits after listening to the tail end of the Cleveland Browns victory over the Baltimore Ravens on his way home. 

“I always vote,” White said when Genuth asked about his voting plan this year. Going into this election, his top concern is “greed.” 

“I’m able to afford gas, to afford groceries, but I do worry about what’s taking place,” White said. “There’ll be cuts to Medicaid. I’m older now, and I have, you know, great health insurance, but there’s many who may not have that.”

Over about an hour and a half, Woodbridge and Genuth knocked on nearly two dozen doors in White’s Cleveland Heights neighborhood. Greater Cleveland Congregations had scanned past voting records and noted that many residents hadn’t voted consistently in the past several elections. 

That’s not what Woodbridge and Genuth found. Nearly everyone answered their doors. They only met one resident who said they definitely wouldn’t vote. Everyone else either already voted or said they’d be in line on Election Day. 

In all, Greater Cleveland Congregations canvassers hit over 300 doors in Cleveland Heights that day, with 71 residents answering and 57 of them committing to vote. 

‘I also see people waking up’

While Greater Cleveland Congregations sticks to canvassing registered voters across the city, the Vote Squad focuses on reaching disengaged residents in Central, where voter turnout tends to lag behind the citywide count. 

For the last midterm election in 2022, about 15% of registered voters in the Central area cast ballots. Citywide, turnout was about 31%. 

In this election, the Vote Squad has honed in on misinformation both online and in political ads as a key barrier for Central residents. They’re concerned that accusations flying in the race for Ohio’s next governor, for example, are pulling attention away from issues that are more materially impacting residents and from local judicial races. 

“I don’t think people realize what’s up for grabs right now, or what’s up to be cut, or the issues at hand,” said Ariana Menefee, a Vote Squad member. “And honestly, with everything that’s being pushed in our faces, we aren’t getting that. We’re getting a mudslinging fight.”

At the same time, Lewis, the Vote Squad coordinator, has also seen residents, especially younger people, turn common claims from the ads for governor candidates into jokes and memes, both in-person and online.

“I think that propaganda for this one has been a lot more and a lot more harmful than I’ve seen in a lot of different years, especially for a local race, but I also see people waking up,” she said. “They’re starting to be a little bit more aware of their backgrounds and things like that, that I haven’t heard before.”

The boundaries of Cleveland’s Ward 5, the political district that includes Central, have shifted since the 2022 election after Cleveland City Council recently downsized. Ward 5 now contains parts of Kinsman and Slavic Village in addition to Central and part of downtown that had previously been within the ward. 

Need to find your polling location in Cuyahoga County? Use this form on the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website.

Ward 5’s turnout for early in-person voting has been surging — doubling in the span of a 10 days to reach 527 ballots cast so far. That’s 3.75% of the ward’s total registered voters with six days to go until Election Day. 

In the 2022 midterm, the final early in-person vote count for Ward 5 was 255, or 2.03% of its registered voters. 

Students and seniors

Back on the ground at the Men and Women of Central meeting, the energy seemed to match the climbing early vote count. As the Vote Squad handed out election guides, attendees started chiming in with their plans to vote, and to make sure friends and family do, too. 

For Tomeka Ewing, a meeting attendee who grew up in the nearby Kinsman neighborhood, conversations about voting are part of daily life. In the freshman-level class she teaches at Cuyahoga Community College, she had her young students interview their parents and grandparents about voting. At first, most of the students hadn’t really thought much about casting ballots.

“It wasn’t a big deal to them,” she said. 

After the assignment, many came back with questions about the stricter Medicaid work requirements. Some asked about the tax increases to fund Cuyahoga County’s Board of Disabilities and Health and Human Services, on the ballot as Issues 10 and 11, respectively.

Outside the classroom, Ewing frequently works with seniors on Cleveland’s South and East Sides as a social worker. Anxiety has been high among her clients who’ve seen their food assistance reduced or cut by the federal government, she said. Many are confused and worried about the Medicaid changes, too. 

In one recent conversation, an older woman told Ewing she’d been feeling disheartened by the onslaught of political ads this year. She asked if politicians were running so many ads to confuse and overwhelm voters into sitting out the election. 

“I can’t answer that for her,” Ewing said, but she sat with the woman, answering questions about candidates and policies as best she could. 

“What comes from the heart reaches the heart,” Ewing said. “I want to look at you and tell you this, and I want to be able to provide you with the correct information because I done did my research, and I can provide you the evidence of what I’ve seen.”