Ohio may no longer be the swing state it once was, but experts say it will still be the target of both in-state hate groups and outside agitators as the 2024 presidential election approaches.

Neo-Nazis already appeared about 48 miles west of Columbus to protest in Springfield in August. Given Columbus’ liberal politics in a right-leaning state, central Ohioans should expect to see demonstrations by hate groups locally this fall, said Jeff Tischauser, senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

“Ohio is more or less red, but they still see it as a battleground state,” Tischauser said. “Columbus is a blue city surrounded by red, and it’s an election year.”

Read More: Neo-Nazi group that protested Columbus drag brunch claims to have started an Ohio chapter

The SPLC tracks hate and anti-government groups across the country. Ohio is home to at least 50 such organizations, which the SPLC defines as a group that has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people.

Investigations into violent extremism nationwide have been on the rise in recent years, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress in September 2021. Between 2010 and 2021, the number of domestic terrorism cases the FBI handled grew by 357%, from 1,981 to 9,049, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

While the coming weeks will show just how active some of Ohio’s hate groups may be in the run-up to the election, there is at least one new local organization hoping to push back on hatred and fear this election cycle.

Ohioans Against Extremism was born in part out of the fact that hate groups and neo-Nazis started showing up more at events around the state, said Maria Bruno, the nonprofit’s executive director. Bruno, who previously worked for Equality Ohio, said she and others began to notice there was a need to connect people who may be dealing with extremism more frequently in their communities.

“I’ve seen what was once fringe internet trolling become things that people say on the House floor,” Bruno said. “We’ve seen this normalization of this rhetoric in the political atmosphere, but then simultaneously, we’re just dealing with more day-to-day safety threats that arise.”

Is Ohio still a top state for hate?

The nation’s heartland has long been a hotbed for hate groups, Tischauser told The Dispatch.

At the end of 2023, Ohio was home to 50 such groups with varying ideologies scattered across the state.

They include the Nazi Blood Tribe, which launched an Ohio chapter last year, as well as several white nationalist groups, five chapters of the Proud Boys, a few anti-LGBTQ+ groups, and 21 militias or antigovernment organizations.

Multiple factors may attract members of such groups to Columbus this fall, Tischauser said, including having the Ohio Statehouse as a backdrop. Following the 2020 election, statehouses across the country became the focus of protests as some voters questioned the results of the presidential race, Tischauser said.

Along with that, Columbus’ left-leaning leaders and residents offer members of extremist groups the chance to face their enemies, Tischauser said.

“Even though Ohio will probably vote red, Columbus is a blue city, there’s a huge university there and it allows them the opportunity to confront their perceived opponents during a huge crisis,” he said.

Another reason Ohio has become a home to hate groups is due in part to the state’s location, Tischauser said.

Ohio is centrally located, and Tischauser said that means members of hate groups in other states don’t have to drive too far to attend demonstrations in the Buckeye state. Groups such as Patriot Front and Nazi Blood Tribe are both able to get between 20 and 40 members to protests in Ohio, in part because it’s easy to get to and the election will be an additional motivating factor for them to gather, Tischauser said.

Members of the Nazi Blood Tribe protested outside a drag brunch at Land-Grant Brewing Co. in Columbus’ Franklinton neighborhood in the spring of 2023.

“It’s going to provide an opportunity for these types of groups to get attention,” Tischauser said.

What can Ohioans do to combat extremism?

While the nonprofit Bruno leads will continue to raise awareness about extremism as the election approaches, she said it will also try to turn down the temperature on the politics of the moment.

This presidential election cycle has already been upended multiple times, including after an assassination attempt on the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, earlier this summer in Butler County, Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden also dropped his reelection bid in late July, propelling Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic ticket as the first woman of color to lead a major political party.

“We really want to kind of mobilize voters, and we want to incentivize politicians to keep the decency alive,” Bruno said.

Read More: What is a ‘boogaloo?’ Some protested at the Ohio Statehouse

Bruno hopes the nonprofit she’s leading will help to reconcile a “split between the will of the voters and the conversations we’re having on the ground and … within the Statehouse walls.” If successful, Bruno said such a movement could help voters and their elected leaders see more eye to eye and could also dissuade extremist groups from thinking they have a say in Ohio’s politics.

But Bruno said the organization’s work won’t be done after the election.

Part of its mission, she said, will be to help Ohioans navigate through the “mud fight” that could erupt again if some leaders question the security and results of the presidential election. The difficulty in that will be figuring out how to separate reality from fantasy in what Bruno described as a “really, really saturated political environment.”

“We want to help voters be able to separate what is a rumor from a fake story, or opinion from an actual thing that happened,” Bruno said. “I know that sounds scary and dystopian, but that’s also really just where our political information environment is at the moment.”

mfilby@dispatch.com

@MaxFilby