NEWARK, Ohio — At the exact moment Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts convened President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, Michael Willard was picking up his frankfurter lunch.
“Don’t ask me about impeachment. I don’t know anything about it,” he said at the counter of Frank and Sammies, just around the corner from the picturesque Courthouse Square in Newark, Ohio.
He pointed to his workmate Joey Craft, dressed in his landscaping gear of a thick, plaid shirt, work boots, and jeans: “He knows about politics.”
But Craft just shrugged. “I don’t really even know what he was impeached for,” he said. “It’s just what happens now before an election — the president gets accused of something bad.”
Newark is 375 miles from Washington, D.C., but it may as well be on another continent. For all the headlines about “historic rebukes” and “tainted” presidencies, Tuesday was just another day in the rural county of Licking.
If the Democrats’ strategy is to use impeachment to parade Trump’s failings in public and flip voters in key battleground states such as Ohio, then they might need a new plan.
[Read more: Majority oppose convicting and removing Trump as impeachment trial set to start: Poll]
In an area where about 62% of voters backed Trump in 2016, there was more conversation about the Super Bowl, and the two former Ohio State players appearing on opposing teams, than about the Senate’s tussles over impeachment rules.
With Google, Amazon, and Facebook all building data centers in the county, and six years of investment totaling about $130 million to renovate Newark, according to the mayor, the travails of Washington seem a long way off.
“They should be worried about real stuff,” said Craft. “Things are going good, no one is concerned — and we can always tell.”
Winter might be their off-season, when they repair their equipment, but the landscapers know there are busy times coming. Business is best when families have spare cash to spend on their gardens, and business has been booming for the past few years.
Newark is showing the signs of recent prosperity. As well as the data centers out of town, locals say the city center has changed beyond recognition in the past three years. New restaurants and a deli have opened. There is a modern, coworking space called “Nework” on the square. And an established bistro and bakery this year overhauled its menu to go keto-friendly and gluten-free.
It is not what you might expect in the Rust Belt — any mention of which provokes weary protests from business leaders who say it is an unfair slur.
Jeff Hall, Newark’s Republican mayor, said the recent progress was the result of public-private partnerships that set aside partisan politicking in favor of getting the job done. Trump’s role, he said, had been to create a positive environment for that investment. “There’s a confidence,” he said.
That’s what people want to talk about, he added, not impeachment.
“We are tired of hearing about it,” he said. “There is other business to do.”
Impeachment fatigue had clearly set in at the Back Street Hair Cutters. The lone TV set was tuned to Fox News in the morning before Lisa Baker, 50, snapped.
“I’m not going to watch it all day,” she said as she clipped and snipped her customer’s hair. “It’s just blah, blah, blah.”
Instead, the TV was showing football highlights on ESPN.
At the peak of the House impeachment hearings, when witnesses held out the prospect of revealing new snippets of evidence, peak audiences hit around 13 million people. Impressive for daytime viewing — but that’s still only about 4% of the U.S. population.
After all, the Senate impeachment hearings offer none of the highs and lows of a TV courtroom drama. There is little incentive to watch if there will be no plot twists, no cliffhangers, no surprise endings, as David Kloetzer, 68, a retired miner pointed out.
“What are they going to do? They aren’t going to find him guilty,” he said.
